Thread: 250 chevy six bangers and changing sticks to autos

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Heys all, I havent been a regular on this forum in a year. But now i got a problem and i needs the help of other car guys(chevy freaks especially).

Im looking at a pretty cherry '65 Jeep wagoneer, but shes been converted to a chevy 250 six and a 3spd tranny. Well the trannys messed up and i want to convert it to a th350 auto. Which i happen to have a rebuilt one sitting in my garage. My leg is too messed up to ever own a manual tranny again, so id like to convert this beauty so i can drive it.

My only thing is i dunno what i need to do to convert her over to auto. Will the 250 six banger bolt right up to the th350, or do i need an adaptor plate? Is the torque converter different for a v8 than a six pot?

any helps appreciated.

Suede, was this thing also made 2WD only at the time of the swap? The THM350 is a good swap and the converter is smaller then a V-8 unit for a touch higher stall. A 10" will do the job for 292's and a lot of 250's. A lot of earlier converters were 9" and weren't much of an overheating problem because of the smaller cubes. If it is still a 4WD, the tranny is an easy coversion using the right transfer case. If it still 4WD, do you have the old Borg Warner or Dana Transfer case installed still? If it has gone to 2WD, put the unit in and have a driveshaft built for it. You'll enjoy some boppin' around town with it. By the way, no adapter plate required, just keep the starter and flex plate matched. No big deal at all.

P.S. the floor shifter is a cool set up and a lot of salvage yards that specialize in Jeeps carry the whole assembly. If you wish, early Bronco and Mustang floor shifters are plentiful and a good mod to put in.

i thought the wagoneers were available in both 2 and 4wd. This is a 2wd and looks o.e.

thanx for the info.

My assumption with the Wagnoneer that it was a 4wd. Not a lot of the 2wd still around. At least not here AZ where 4 wheeling a popular thing to do. With your situation, I would like to see a floor shift go in with the auto swap. A lot of the Jeepster models had them and when properly placed they worked well with no bind or interference problems. A lot of the Jeepsters had buick v-6's and either a TH350 or TH 400. So this I feel is something to look at. Ford floor shifters still work well as I stated earlier. I like what you're trying to do with this. Keep up the good work. Pedal hangers are something you can work out later if you wish or eliminate the clutch pedal assembly. Lots of ways to do that.