[Terriblehondo]

I am finally doing it this week. I have a couple of questions. Is the location of the automatic hole and the manual hole in the same spot? I know I had to cut the floor some in the 68 Camaro I did.

When I am installing the Muncie. Can I just leave the body of the shifter and the linkage on and take the handle off? In the past I have taken the whole thing off but looking at it on the bench I was thinking that might not be necessary and was wondering if anyone had any experience doing it.

 

[tjs]

If your were installing the engine in the car with the trans attached I would leave the linkage on and remove the handle.If the engine is in the car I would not have any shifter linkage on it.I dont think I had a issue with the hole with the muncie but it has been years since I did it.I know when I pulled the muncie and put in the TKO the hole had to be inlarged a touch and use a gen 2 boot and ring.Tom

 

[Terriblehondo]

OK thanks. I have always had the shifter off but as I was looking at it today. I had the thought I might have been doing it wrong before. I use to bench press the trany up before also. Now I am trying to do things smarter because there is no way I am capable of bench pressing it into place anymore.

 

[fourthirteen]

If the crossmember is removed then you should be able to install the trans with the shifter on it. I removed the shifter handle but may not be necessary.

 

[Terriblehondo]

fourthirteen, I have always pulled the crossmember in the past. So you have installed the trany with the shifter body and linkage on and with the engine in the car? If so do you feel it was worth doing it this way or is it better to just do the trany and add the shifter later?

 

[tjs]

If the auto hole is not big enough or in the wrong location I think it might make the trans install harder,that is why I said to remove it.If you know 100% everything will fit up in the hole than by all means have it on.Tom

 

[TOMR67]

I did this swap a long time ago, you use the same shifter hole, from my memory you need the muncie shifter that was only used 67-68 it mounts different to the trans to use that hole and use the console, then just buy the manual shifter plate for the console

You must be sure the shifter is rebuilt and lubed and tight or it will hit console and can't use shift plate

 

[TOMR67]

You also need to hook the park neutral wires together from the auto shifter

 

[fourthirteen]

fourthirteen, I have always pulled the crossmember in the past. So you have installed the trany with the shifter body and linkage on and with the engine in the car? If so do you feel it was worth doing it this way or is it better to just do the trany and add the shifter later?

Yes, I've removed and installed my Muncie 4-spd with the shifter body and linkage installed.
If the transmission is already out of the car then I'd definitely install the shifter on it before putting the tranny in the car...much easier then than laying on your back under the car.

Just for reference, the hole in my factory 4-spd transmission tunnel is a square-cornered rectangle measuring 4-1/2" long (front-to-back) x 3" wide...just to give you an idea of the amount of room you may need.

 

[TOMR67]

I bought a new shifter boot and used the metal ring from the auto shifter to secure it

 

[Brown Bird]

It appears your shifter hole is in the right location and from the cut out it looks like it was at one time

a manual tranny in there .

Here is a picture of mine that came from the factory with a manual trans and a templet I found for the cut out

this matched the hole for my shifter .

 

[Terriblehondo]

Brown Bird it was an automatic from the factory. It looks like it was a factory set up there was a seal around the automatic cable. When I lay the 4 speed ring on the floor it is larger than the hole so I will need to enlarge it at least. I dropped the tranny I am waiting on the pilot bearing now. The clutch kit I got had a bushing and I always used a bearing before so I will use it now.

 

[Terriblehondo]

If the auto hole is not big enough or in the wrong location I think it might make the trans install harder,that is why I said to remove it.If you know 100% everything will fit up in the hole than by all means have it on.Tom

OK thanks I will play it by ear then. I know from the shifter plate the hole is not big enough.

 

[Terriblehondo]

You also need to hook the park neutral wires together from the auto shifter

Yes I know I had to do that when I did this 35 years ago but. But I think this car has been rigged at some point in time. I had the shifter out and was still able to bump it to get the torque converter bolts out. I will have to double check how they did it on this one. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Terriblehondo]

Does anyone near South Florida need or want a Turbo 350, converter and lines? I believe it is original but I am not sure. It works but needs to be resealed.

 

[KeyKeeper]

pilot bearings suck! I always put a bronze oil-lite bushing in all the clutch jobs I could get. They self lube and dont destroy the input shaft when they wear out. Cant say the same for needle bearings....

 

[TOMR67]

X2 on bronze pilot

I will snap a few pics of my console and shifter

 

[TOMR67]

Here are pics of mine, I need to address the wiring since it looks bad, and the shifter needs rebuilkd or adjusting as it hits the console in 2 and 4 so I can't use the plate for now, this is an original 67/68 muncie shifter not a repop

I did this conversion 15+ years ago that shifter was stupid expensive, now repops are under $400 new

 

[Terriblehondo]

pilot bearings suck! I always put a bronze oil-lite bushing in all the clutch jobs I could get. They self lube and dont destroy the input shaft when they wear out. Cant say the same for needle bearings....

X2 on bronze pilot

I will snap a few pics of my console and shifter

Well I wish I had known that before. I had always used the bearing in the past. I will check out the bushing in the clutch kit tomorrow.

 

[Terriblehondo]

Here are pics of mine, I need to address the wiring since it looks bad, and the shifter needs rebuilkd or adjusting as it hits the console in 2 and 4 so I can't use the plate for now, this is an original 67/68 muncie shifter not a repop

I did this conversion 15+ years ago that shifter was stupid expensive, now repops are under $400 new

The muncie shifter was the 1st thing I trashed on my 10 year old 69 firebird. It was worn out and I went with the hurst shifter. I wish I had kept a lot of the stuff I just trashed. Who knew it was going to be worth what they are now. But back then they were a dime a dozen. The repop parts really make it nice to work on these cars now. I have to decide about going with a console or not. I was thinking about trying to retrofit the Automatic console. But I don't know if that is worth the effort.