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Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission

May 10, 2012Buford - 9C1 Caprice, Project Cars11

Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission


By now you know that I blew up my Project Buford T Justice Caprice on the dyno at Performance Auto and Dyno in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Monday. After the car spit the driveshaft at us, broke the transmission housing in multiple places and generally Ike Turnered itself, I figured it was a good time to pull the small block and work on the prep for our upcoming big block swap. Then a funny thing happened. The BangShift forums went nuts for calls to fix the car to continue our torture tests of the 185,000 mile stock 350 currently providing the power. Initially, I was not interested in this, because what type of lunatic would break his nuts yanking a junkyard trans that may or may not work for those kind of slow-mo hi-jinks? I didn’t see it being worth the money or the effort.

Then I was driving along in my soul-less DD, thinking about the car when I had a 100% BangShift approved revelation. I remembered back to the summer of 1998 when me and three of my high school buddies put together a rat-tastic 1984 Pontiac Firebird drag car for about $1200 bucks. We raced the thing all summer with a mild small block, IROC Camaro posi-rear, and a Turbo350 modified with a longer output, spacer, and longer tail housing to bolt in place of the factory 700R4. When the summer was over we parted the car out and one guy got the motor, another got the body and rear end, another kid wanted nothing, and I got the transmission. Wait a second….I got the transmission…the one modified to bolt into the spot of a  700R4! I remember carrying it down into the basement and sticking it behind the heating system of my parent’s house. That being 1998, the thing had to have been sold, scrapped, or used by now, right? Wrong! I called my pop and he confirmed that the transmission was sitting in the same spot we parked it when Bill Clinton was President. WIN!

I plan on draining the fluid, replacing the pan gasket, refilling the thing and bolting it into the Caprice lickety split. That will cost a couple of bucks and I will have to buy a new driveshaft and universal joints, as well as a torque converter but I should be able to have the car up and running again for around $100 which is kind of a miracle. Yes, the Caprice will be getting the big block by the middle of the summer, and yes, this is a stop gap to continue stupid fun, but I really don’t care. It will be an awesome driveway thrash with friends and beer. Plus, the thing may even be quicker with the three speed in it and a BangShifty el cheapo performance converter solution from the old days.

There are definite benefits to the gearhead pack rat mentality. We’ll be doing burnouts again in no time with this awesome trans in the car! Call me and my buds hacks, dirt bags, dirtballs, idiots, or fools and we’ll clink cans to your honor when this transmission brings Buford back to life!

Stay tuned kids, this is going to RULE!

 


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11 thoughts on “Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission”

  1. 75Duster

    Good to hear you found another trans that won’t cost you much other than gaskets, trans fluid and beer. Over come, improvise, and adapt.

  2. ratty

    hahahaha… that’s an awesome pic… makes me wonder where i’ve stuffed all the transmissions i’ve blown up over the years…. i know i have one TCI TH350 up at my parents house too, probably has who knows what kind of critters living in the bellhousing as they live way up in the woods in the mountains since they retired…. and another i left at the loading dock of my previous job (it blew apart on the way to work on a hard down shift at speed), though i would doubt that it’s still there… It’s like, a blown, or just, discarded transmission, is something not big enough that you need to get rid of quickly (like a rear end that takes up too much space in the garage), and small enough that you can fit into just about any corner or under any work bench…. so they’re probably everywhere if you look… it’s like, we should have pictures of our old transmissions on milk cartons… “Have you seen this trans?”, old projects need to be reunited with this families

  3. C1BAD66

    Congratulations on your serendipitous find!

    A stronger trans already modified to directly replace your broken one and located nearby? And it’s already yours? You must be livin’ right.

    ‘Got a GearVendors UD/OD unit stashed somewhere?

    ‘Sure like to see you pull the diff cover for close inspection…

  4. Boots

    The gearhead packrat mantra: “I’ve got one of those around here somewhere…”

  6. Caveman Tony

    Brian, I’ll be in MA this weekend.

    I’ll bring donuts.

    Whole new meaning to the phrase ‘donut derelicts’

  7. David Keenan

    I’m requesting some cockpit time in this experiment. I want to see if my old transmission can still chirp third.

  8. Anonymous

    Is that a five gallon bucket of 303 sitting there on top of the trans? If so, it is about the best fluid money can buy.

    1. hoosier

      Yeah Brian! I kind of did that when the 700 in my 82 Caprice fragged just backing out of a garage. Dad found me a 350 truck trans. can not remember what I got the drive shaft from. You think the higher stall converter is going to be quicker than the lower 1st gear?

  9. UFO

    Long housing (9″ housing) TH350s will work with the stock length caprice/TH700 driveshaft, the only mod needed is the mount plate on the crossmember. This was done to mine when I bought it, presumably because the previous owner made Elwood Blues look like a sensible, thoughtful driver. Worked like a charm, until it melted…

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