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From: Daven Anderson
Email: l96lfury@springmail
Date: January 20, 2001
Yes,you're right Mike about the early Hemi and Poly can both use the Wilcap adapter,I knew that but it slipped my mind (oops!). I still think Chris is better off using the later crank.
On big block swaps like my wagon,you can't use the Wilcap adapter,you would need a one-off piece for original '58-61 big block (crankshaft) V8's. There was a 383 Sonoramic Commando '61 Fury in L.A. that the orig. owner had converted from three speed to four speed this way.
The C-body rearend solves the whole E-brake issue, as you have all figured out. When I first got the '70 Sport Fury rearend,I scrapped the external contracting driveshaft parking brake immediately. So for a while my wagon was 318/3 spd.,but with the service parking brakes already operational. The external contracting (lining) driveshaft parking brake fitted on stickshift 55-61 cars is a basic design from 1928,and does not have nearly the parking brake effectiveness of the internal expanding driveshaft brake used on 54-61 (and '62 Chry./Dodge 880) automatic cars.
The A-833 came in two versions,short tailshaft [used in '64-76 A-bodies,'76-80 F-bodies,and '64-69 B-bodies] and long tailshaft ['70-74 B and E bodies,and all '75-89 trucks] The '76 Volare transmission in my wagon positioned the shifter to my liking without a floor hump needed. However,the long tailshaft '75-89 truck trannies are the cheapest and easiest to get [so if you ground one up,you could just get another used one easily!]
All I had to do to the clutch linkage was shorten the end a bit,as the 4-speed is of course wider than the 3-speed in case size.
You'll love it when it's done,Chris! I've had people think my car was the special NASCAR floorshift setup! (I used a plain black shifter knob with no '4-speed' pattern, so it looks a bit like the shifter in Lee Petty's Plymouth would have looked back then) The overdrive A-833 is great for highway use,the 3:55 ratio in my wagon yields an effective 2:59 ratio,so I get 17-18 mpg highway at 70 mph even with a 440 Magnum (the same as it got with the orig. 318 without overdrive),ya gotta love that....
