[Young Pontiac Guy]

I have a 62. I have a Muncie. I do not havve a long shaft Muncie. I will be having a longer driver shaft sorted for it soon.

Just trying to educate and understand the deal here. I could locate a long shaft and housing if necessary I suppose but dont see a need.

[Stuart]

Long shaft transmissions were used in Bonnevilles and Star Chiefs because they had a longer wheelbase than the Catalina / Ventura / Grand Prix.

[Tim john]

I may have a long shaft tail housing available, pretty sure I still have it up in the loft. If interested PM me and I'll get up there to confirm.

Tim john---

[63gpman]

I have not read through all of this, but know Les has had issues in the past with the conversions. Some info may or may not be accurate, i have not done the conversion, just posting some info.

http://pontiacparadise.com/shoptalk/...-to-a-4-speed/

[61-63]

I once owned a '61 Bonneville 425a car that came with a t85 heavy duty three speed from the factory, but someone had installed a long tail Muncie in the car before I got it. It worked fine and all they did regarding mounting it underneath was move the cross member forward, as I recall, and fab up a different mount. It did not have a 4 speed porch. The shifter did probably come up through the hump a little forward of where it normally would I think. But it worked. This was a bench seat car. I personally once put a super t-10 in a '62 Catalina and the shifter on it came up through the hump right through the center of the porch, This was a short tail trans. This too was a bench seat car.

[Young Pontiac Guy]

The car is already converted. Crossmember is moved forward from the original auto mounting.

Was just trying to understand the necessity of this, history, etc.

I read the link to Pontiac Paradise. Being that people have done this, seems like its a little negative to say dont do it without all the original parts. I get its a disclaimer but simply move the crossmember forward and go from there. Straightforward.

Was the long shaft muncie the one used in 62 Cat?

[61-63]

No, '63 and earlier used a t-10 which is a weaker trans. Cats used a short tail and I don't recall if they had a long t-10 for the Bonneville/Star Chief.

I have no idea why Pontiac had two lengths of Muncie but it may have been because of the driveshafts. The driveshafts had painted bands on them which indicated that they had been balanced and which length they were. They had several lengths to fit the three speed manual, slimjim auto, the super-hydramatic in the longer wheel base Bonne/Star Chief, and then the 4 speed. I just looked in a '63 Chassis book and the driveshafts for 4 speeds on both wheel bases used the same length and color bands, 61.4" and two orange stripes for non-sd and two purple stripes if SD, even though they didn't make any SD Bonnevilles or Star Chiefs. I didn't look in the '61 or '62 books but I bet they say the same thing.

[stevep]

No Long Tail Muncies fron the factory until 1965

[mgarblik]

I have a 62 Catalina that was converted before I purchased it. It has a standard length Muncie, a Hurst factory style round lever competition plus shifter and a bench seat. Looks like they used a FabCraft shifter porch. The automatic cross member had some very minor modifications done to it, mostly for exhaust clearance. Everything works great, shifts excellent, no vibrations to 90 MPH. The only slight issue I ran into was the speedo cable routing to the drivers side where Pontiac puts it. Had some shifter rod, and exhaust down pipe clearance issues. I changed the tailhousing to a Chevy unit with the speedo cable on the passenger side. Problem solved.
I have owned several 65 and 66 full size cars with the long tail Muncie's. I honestly don't see any advantage to running one other than shifter placement within a factory console. There isn't any additional support in the transmission for the longer shaft. I can't think of any reason to use one other than the possible shifter placement I mentioned.

[Young Pontiac Guy]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.