After market transmission Crossmember

[dabeefcake]

looking for some advice on a transmission swap on a 69. i am looking to swap my TH400 to a 700R4 and found out that i will have to do some sugury on the tranny crossmember. On the web i found an aftermarket crossmember that looks like its a simple a bolt in unit. is anyone familiar with this product?? Is it a good idea or is cutting and rewelding the original crossmember a better choice. i want this to be easy but i dont want to sacrifice strength of the car.

http://www.bowtieoverdrives.com/catalog/catalog_inc/viewitem.php?ITEMID=112

Appreciate any advice!

thanks!

 

[Evolution1980]

I'm probably going to give the only dissenting opinion here about BTO, but it took them three tries to get me the correct crossmember. And at that, the 3rd one still wasn't 100% correct. If I could give less than "F" grade for customer service and support, they'd get it...

 

[curtis]

beefcake, let us know if you work with BTO. My conversion starts this winter and any info you get may help me too. Evolution experience kind of scares me.

 

[Evolution1980]

beefcake, let us know if you work with BTO. My conversion starts this winter and any info you get may help me too. Evolution experience kind of scares me.

I'll be honest with you, I really wish I didn't have the experience that I did. I really want to believe that my case was a rare occurence, but SO MANY THINGS went wrong with EVERYTHING from them and there was never any real attempt at resolution (and it's been since May...). Other CAC'ers have had a 100% trouble-free experience with with 'em.
Maybe they are like Hennessy, who tunes Vipers. If ya got a good car back from them, you got one hell of a car. But if you are one that got screwed, you REALLY got screwed...

Oh yeah, it wasn't "me" who was the problem, as I had three different ASE Master Mechanics look at my stuff from BTO and they all were like, "Huh??? What are they thinking?!?!?"

 

[dabeefcake]

Damn! that wasn't what i was hoping to hear!! but thank you much for the input. i will definately consider it when i begin the swap.

The way i see it is how many ways can you screw up a piece of metal with some holes in it.... but like you i've seen it done before. and i need to hear these stories before i run off and do it. i still hope some others out there will share thier experiences.

I'll be glad to let ya'all know about the swap but it'll be a while before i get to it. still havent yanked the motor and with my work i'm lucky to get to spend one weekend a month in the garage. it'll get there eventually
.
Thanks again!!!

 

[Evolution1980]

The way i see it is how many ways can you screw up a piece of metal with some holes in it....

Would you like to start counting the ways???

What makes absolutely no sense is how they figure that the second crossmember even REMOTELY looks like it would fit??? Certainly doesn't help their case when the second one even had a '79 scribed right on it! :eyerole

I could understand if they farmed out their fabrication work to some 3rd party sweat shop, but they assured me everything they do is in house. And I'll tell you, the 3rd crossmember wasn't perfect either, but when you are renting garage space by the day, these F'ups start to get expensive! So my mechanic made the third one work with a moderate amount of die grinding...

Hahahah...and what's even funnier? (not really) is that I got a whole kit from these guys (a Stage 3 kit + all their little addons) and almost none of it was what it was supposed to be.

 

[dabeefcake]

THAT IS FANTASTIC!! i like how you actually tried to mount that second one. looks like its alomst a foot off in that picture! can you post some photos of crossmember that fit?? one more question, did you buy your tranny from BTO or get it from another supplier? got any references on who sells quality 700R4's??

Thanks again!

 

[Evolution1980]

can you post some photos of crossmember that fit?? one more question, did you buy your tranny from BTO or get it from another supplier? got any references on who sells quality 700R4's??

I don't have any of the completed crossmember setup, but as I said, it's still not perfect. The crossmember isn't angled exactly parallel to the ground, so now my trans sits at ever so slight an angle forward. So now I have to compensate when reading my fluid level (and of course, the entire drive train isn't the ideal 100% level front to back).

Anyways, yes, I bought my entire setup from them. The Stage 3 trans, HD torque convertor, guages, filters, "custom bent" trans lines (which of course were not even close), TV-Made-EZ system, blah blah blah...

 

[UKPaul]

I fitted a BTO 200-4r in my '81. All went really smoothly until I found that there was no easy way of modifying the stock x-member. Ordered a BTO one which promptly arrived (shipping was more than the x-member!!). First thing I noticed was that the paint quality was bad, so I got it powder coated. When fitting it I had exactly the same problem as above with the ears not lining up with the holes. A file solved that one but when I fitted it the sides of the x-member started collapsing when the nut/bolt was tightened. Easily solved by making a pair of tubular spacers to fit in the ends of the x-member. It was easy for me as I've got a lathe, if not then it would have used a lot of washers Once that was done the trans was held in exactly the right place (double checked by another '81 owner measuring the stoke yoke position - thanks Justin). The x-member is lighter than the stock one & also allows true duals to be fitted on the late C3's. Apart from the mounting "issues" on the frame (& the naff paint), it's a nice piece of kit.

One big tip for anybody fitting a 200 or 700 OD unit is to fit the filler tube to the trans before installing it in the car. Make sure that the hole in the mounting tab on the tube lines up with the hole in the trans case. Fitting the trans & then fitting the tube afterwards, only to find that the mounting hole doesn't line up can lead to a lot of wasted time, bleeding knuckles & bad language. Trying to bend that tab into place took longer than the entire installation. It would have been a 30sec job with the trans out of the car.
cheers
edit: The trans has performed faultlessly for 2 years now. I recommend getting a trans fluid cooler (a SMALL one) as it can run hot in the lower gears. When in OD it will run to cold if you fit a larger cooler than needed.