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Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!

May 25, 2012Buford - 9C1 Caprice, Project Cars7

Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!


If you remember, we put Project Buford T Justice on the dyno a couple weeks ago and fragged the trans and driveshaft in violent fashion. Since then, we recalled a transmission that has been living in a basement since the Clinton administration was in office, bought some el cheapo parts to stick the thing back together, had the driveway at BS eastern world HQ paved and just got to stepping on the trans swap yesterday. We’re going from the factory 700R4 to a Turbo 350 that has been modified with a longer output shaft and a tail housing spacer that allows this three speed to bolt right into the same place the four speed auto was living. Pretty slick, right? (Very cheap, right?)

Here are some photos documenting our progress so far. We’ll have the new trans in and rolling this weekend so expect another update (hopefully with tire smoking burnouts next week….we’ve also received the full boogie suspension for this car and once it runs again, we’ll spend way more time talking about that!)

On to the photos…carnage and all!

Remember Brutus the tow truck? He is still alive and kicking in stock form. The wrecker is awesome for jobs like lifting a fatty ass big car onto the jackstands and ramps!

Sure we could have used a floor jack, but would YOU use a floor jack if you owned a vintage wrecker? Good answer.

 

So when I started pulling all of the ancillary stuff off of the transmission, I was interested in a loose area above the inspection cover. I pulled the inspection cover and than this chunk of the bell housing immediately fell, smashing me in the face.

This is probably 45-50% of the bell housing. Looking at other damage, the trans rotated about 3/4 of an inch when the driveshaft failed and this thing broke. It made it WAY easier to run those bell housing bolts out though!

Because broken stuff and greasy hands rule, here is an egregious third photo...just because.

Here is the replacement unit. This is a modified Turbo 350, circa 1998. Note the spacer block to push the tailhousing back and accommodate the longer output shaft. I cleaned it as best I could with carb cleaner and a screwdriver....you know, precision tools.

Just to prove that was not half a transmission...here's the other side.

When I went shopping for parts, I had one major deciding factor..price. This is the Jegs brand filter and pan gasket kit. I believe the retail on this is 10 bucks or less.

I lucked into a special with this torque converter. Originally I had planned to buy a Daaco P9 converter, which is a stock four cylinder Vega replacement, but they are literally out of production. The next cheapest option is this Jegs 2000-2300 stall unit. I paid $94.00 for it and it should be an upgrade from stock. The interesting thing here will be to see if a taller first gear with more stall is better than a shorter first gear with less. We think that this converter is a pretty good value. It appears to be a re-man unit, but for $94.00 we're not losing any sleep!

In case you have never seen a torque converter before here's our lo-po/high po unit.

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7 thoughts on “Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!”

  1. TheSilverBuick

    You done blown that trans up. I also always wondered if a TH350 had two sides. Thanks!

  3. 75Duster

    Good luck on the tranny swap this weekend, should be a good father-sons weekend project.

  7. -d

    Being able to swing one of Brutus’ 30k winches over to pick up BTJ makes exploding the tranny seem almost worthwhile.

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