I think you are in good shape Dan. Mutts crossmember has actual frame rails to bolt solidly to, and that offset only looks to be 3-4 inches?
If I took the same approach with the Cadistang I'd be looking at over 8" of difference from the actual crossmember to the mounting pad. And not bolted to frame rails, but to flimsy sheetmetal spot-welded brackets. Heck for that matter the FOX crossmember is flimsy sheetmetal as well.
So I'm moving the crossmember/frame attachment point backwards so I can at least take leverage out of the equation.
Some work to the junkyard TH400.
Remove the valve body. If you are very carefull, you may be able to reuse the gaskets if they are undamaged. There are 2 gaskets with a thin plate in between them, we will be drilling 3 holes larger in this plate. The gaskets are labeled with a "C" and a "VB" to tell them apart. The "C" goes next to the case, and the "VB" goes next to the valve body. The detent solenoid will have to be unbolted as well to remove the gasket.
Now you can see the check balls, there will be up to 6 of them. Don't panic if yours has less, some had less, and someone may have been in there before you.
Note where the 3 arrows point. These holes will be opened up to a maximum of 3/16", any larger serves no purpose as this is the limit of flow anyways. (The hole size can be smaller, but I'm after a firm shift so I went to the maximum.)
These 3 balls can be removed, as their purpose has been deleted by the drilling of the plate. You may have more or less balls, but make sure to leave the frontmost ball & the rearmost ball.
This mod is to allow us to hold 1st gear manually without the factory upshift at a specified level. Remove the pin with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
With a magnet, remove the piston. Keep things in order & CLEAN.
See the black mark on the ringland on the right? Grind a "flat" area on this to allow holding 1st gear manually.
"Flat" ground.
If I took the same approach with the Cadistang I'd be looking at over 8" of difference from the actual crossmember to the mounting pad. And not bolted to frame rails, but to flimsy sheetmetal spot-welded brackets. Heck for that matter the FOX crossmember is flimsy sheetmetal as well.
So I'm moving the crossmember/frame attachment point backwards so I can at least take leverage out of the equation.
Some work to the junkyard TH400.
Remove the valve body. If you are very carefull, you may be able to reuse the gaskets if they are undamaged. There are 2 gaskets with a thin plate in between them, we will be drilling 3 holes larger in this plate. The gaskets are labeled with a "C" and a "VB" to tell them apart. The "C" goes next to the case, and the "VB" goes next to the valve body. The detent solenoid will have to be unbolted as well to remove the gasket.
Now you can see the check balls, there will be up to 6 of them. Don't panic if yours has less, some had less, and someone may have been in there before you.
Note where the 3 arrows point. These holes will be opened up to a maximum of 3/16", any larger serves no purpose as this is the limit of flow anyways. (The hole size can be smaller, but I'm after a firm shift so I went to the maximum.)
These 3 balls can be removed, as their purpose has been deleted by the drilling of the plate. You may have more or less balls, but make sure to leave the frontmost ball & the rearmost ball.
This mod is to allow us to hold 1st gear manually without the factory upshift at a specified level. Remove the pin with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
With a magnet, remove the piston. Keep things in order & CLEAN.
See the black mark on the ringland on the right? Grind a "flat" area on this to allow holding 1st gear manually.
"Flat" ground.
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