Thread: which tranny?

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Hi, I have 54 chevy pickup that I am currently working on. I plan to use a 454 big block but I am kind of stumped on which tranny to use. I know that installing an automatic would be much easier, but I would really love to have a four or five speed manual. I have found a saginaw 4 speed for a good price close to where I live but I was wondering what you guys would recommend. any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Dave

While the Saginaw is a fairly good tranny for light to medium duty use, they do not hold up well to abuse or a lot of torque. If you babied it it would likely be OK........but let's face it your going to rip on it at some time and then have to find a ride home and a tow truck.

A Muncie 4 spd or Richmond 5 speed would be a good choice (but not necessarly cheap ) most used Muncies I've come across tended to need rebuilt in addition to the initial purchase price.

Cheapest and easiest way out for the 454 will likely be a TH400.

yeah, I see a lot of people with the TH400. Do you know what problems I might run into with setting up a manual tranny? Am I going to have to make come kind of linkage if the shifter isn't where I want it to be?

Having just replaced the clutch disc in my 1-ton Flatbed, IF you were to put anything in I would also suggest a MUncie 4.

You get that low granny gear for grindin out torque for towing and hauling. Then your standard 3 speeds as well.

I will say that it IS a beast.

As I stated I just replaced the clutch disc. For a while I had thought that the noise I was hearing under the floor board was the TO bearing. Then one day it decided to go out completely good thing I was already getting the full package since we got it used.

Well I got under there and as my buddy was unbolting the starter on his side he remarked about the starter needing shims.

As I was starting to undo the E-brake cable I was looking up into the tranny to engine portion and low an behold the whole drivers side of the tranny was a full half inch off the engine.

Gee wonder why the starter needed shimming? Hmmmmm...

I figure the previous owner had clutch work done to it and the fools either lost bolts or didn't make sure to put some LocTite on em and they vibrated out.

Anyway got it out and found that I only had to replace the disc. Replaced the TO bearing and Flywheel even though not entirely needed. The flywheel had some dinged up teeth but nothing too bad.

I just thought you might want to know that IF you were to go with the Muncie 4 that it's one hell of a tranny. No leaks in mine whatsoever undid the the inspection/fill bolt and checked it was up to snuff but I drained and refilled that as well.

Just make sure that your bolts have keepers or you use LocTite on em. Vibration is a beast. Mine's on a 350. Yours will definitely rattle out the most stubborn of bolts if they aren't secure being a 454.

thanks for all the input guys. I will definatly take all of this into consideration. As my funds have been running a bit low lately I will probably end up with the TH400 as Mike P suggested. Thanks again.
Dave

Whichever way you go be sure to use a flex plate/flywheel designed for a 454.

Originally posted by Streets
I nevah heard of a Munice with a "granny tranny 1st gear".. and the bell bein' ½" out has nuthin to do with the starter shims either! BTW, My '81 GMC Rollback 1 ton used to have the 7.05:1 "granny tranny 1st" in it with shifter goin' in the top...and it looked like this:
IT now has a 400 TH in it!

Shift pattern looks like this.

L 2
l_l_
l l l
1 3 R

your pic looks close but I can't make out if the tranny to bell flange is a 2 or 4 bolt setup. Mine is a 4.

I went all through my Chiltons and they had a similar diagram that was the 4 bolt flange and they called it a Muncie.

Now I know how crappy Chiltons can be so I'm not going to say that they are 100% right but when I went to the local parts store they had one hell of a time getting me the correct disc and pressure plate until I told em Muncie.

Who knows.

And yes the Engine and Tranny seperation had no affect on "shims". But what I was getting at and might not have been clear on is that when my buddy first looked at it as he was yankin the starter was there was one hell of a gap between the starter and the Tranny bell housing that it looked like it was missing shims.

Not having been there when the starter was put back on the first time I can only speculate.

Thanks for letting me know that it may not be a Muncie though.

Grrrrr. tried to give you a good idea of the shift pattern and the stupid edit feature isn't working correctly.

Anyway it's a standard H pattern with the Reverse dog legging to the right and south.