[Keith Seymore]

Thanks, guys, my "SlimJim-to-TH400" swap is complete...

I appreciate you taking the time to answer all my questions.

There's about 3 inches of snow on the ground here in Southeast Michigan (and more coming), but I fired the car up today in the garage, set the fluid level and ran it up on jackstands. Seems to shift firm and everything works (speedo, forward and reverse, etc).


It's going to be a long wait until April...:rolleyes:

[stevep]

You are welcome!
You will feel the difference the 1st time you pull away from a stop.

[PITTSBURGH 64]

I enjoy looking forward to spring. With this warming cycle we seem to be in you may catch a nice day after a rain at anytime. I put my car up for the winter for inspection and work. I enjoy that as well...

What rear end do you have? Cliff sells Continental converters for any set up even the 2.56..So if it doesn't perform to your satisfaction (but I think it will) that can be you ace in the hole... http://www.cliffshighperformance.com/

You've also opened the door to using a Hurst Dual Gate from a GTO in your console..

You'll love the tire chirp when hitting second...

[Keith Seymore]

It's a 3.23 Saf-T-Track (assuming it hasn't been changed).

I took the TH400 to my trans guy and had him dyno test it before I put it in. While I was there I had him build me the biggest, tightest torque converter he could muster. I think that the change from Slim Jim to TH400 is going to make such a huge difference that the converter will not be that critical (especially since my Slim Jim was in such bad shape).

Besides, this one is my "low & slow" cruiser....for toolin' around with the FM radio blaring and the A/C on...:D

[Keith Seymore]

We did get quite a bit more snow over the weekend, btw...

:(

[Keith Seymore]

I did take a couple pics of some of the areas I thought turned out kinda' nice:

a) Had to fabricate the linkage on the trans shaft. In order to do so, I had to calulate the amount of fore/aft travel from the shifter, and then make sure the length of the linkage was correct to get the desired amount of angular rotation. I made some graphs and then mocked it up with wood/cardboard before breaking out the welder...



b) Because the car is a Grand Prix (and therefore has a console mounted shifter) I suspect the shift linkage fabrication was a little more straightforward than a column shift car.

The idea for this came from my old go cart: the rod end is similar to the steering tie rod (the part I purchased is actually for a John Deere/MTD lawn mower!). The production linkage, as well as the thread on the rod end, both had fine threads, so I took a piece of 1/4 aluminum round stock and threaded both ends. I also took a standard tube nut, drilled it out and converted it to fine thread with helicoils. The result should be pretty robust and is kind of sanitary, IMHO. It also did not destroy or modify any of the original components should I decide to put the Slim Jim back in.



c) Here is the extension for the trans mount, fabricated from a piece of 1/4 flatstock and bolted to the original trans crossmember:



d) This was a tight spot: the linkage from the shifter dropped through the floor and interfered with a reinforcing rib on the trans tailshaft. I had to remove the rib to provide clearance.



The adapter plate (for the starter mount) was pretty straightforward. I even started the car (with no trans in place) after I got the flexplate mounted just to make sure the starter wouldn't drag and to check the flexplate for runout/wobble.

As I say, everything seems to work and I'm looking forward to trying it out!

K