How hard would it be to install a 700R4 transmission in a '79 Z28? I've got a club member who's selling the one out of his '86 Z28, and I'm interested. Currently I've got a TH350 in my car

Anyways, will there be any problems installing it? Any small annoyances I should know about? any special parts? etc..etc..

 

Not hard at all. You can probably find pre-made tranny crossmembers for your car. If not, it's not hard to modify a stock TH-400 crossmember to get yours to fit. That would probably be the most difficult thing.

Of course you'll have to have your driveshaft shortened. And I'm not sure when GM changed its speedo sending units from mechanical to electric, so you might have to figure out what that 700-r4 comes with. If it's electric, you'll have to get an electric speedo. I know they make conversions for mechanical to electric, but I don't know about vice-versa.

Other than that, everything should bolt right up. You'll have to get a shifter to go with it also, so see if the guy you're buying it from will give you that with it, that is if you don't already have one that will work with it. That's about all I can think of. Guys, am I missing anything else?

 

He listed all the big hurdles, but don't forget a TV cable [which should come with the trans]. It will need to be mounted to the carb linkage and it controls fluid pressure inside the trans.

About the electronic speedo signals, you won't have to worry about it. All 700R4 [aka 4L60] transmissions had cables until '94.

In '94 the name was changed to 4L60E and it had a VSS [vehicle speed sensor] instead of a cable.

Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but I'd say I have 95% confidence in all this info.

 

Looks good to me. Yeah, I didn't even think about the TV cable. It's not hard to set up though. Hook it up to your carb linkage, have someone push the throttle to the floor, make sure the cable doesn't bottom out, tighten it down, and you're good to go. Just make sure there's not more than 1 1/8" of travel in the cable. Any more than that and you can do serious damage to your tranny.

Crap... I think that's the right travel. Ok, don't quote me on that... but I know that's close. Just forget I said that at all. Does anyone else know?

 

Don't forget about the torque converter lockup conversion kit. It's really easy to install but you have to have it since you don't have a computer

 

With a 200R4 you won't have to shorten your drive shaft or move the crossmember since it is the same length as the th350. Just another option, if you're looking at a stock 700R4.

 

It's not a stock 700R4 It's been.. slightly beefed up to modify 500 HP and TQ easily

Thanks for all the input everybody I'm a complete moron when it comes to certain parts of mechanical works, such as transmission or carberation. Anybody know if I'd have to upgrade my carb to get the T.V. to work with the stock Rochester Quadrajet?

 

JUST look for a carbed camaro in the salvage yard as the 84-86 were equiped with a Q jet and will have the correct bracket for the TV cable .. Also be aware a 700 weighs ALOT more than a TH 350 and may cause the car to sit lower and / or cause alignment problems (depends on how warn your springs are ) I had an 80 with a 700 in it and it sat too low after the swap had to put new springs in and align it ..

 

Here you can find all you need to install the 700R4 transmission.

http://www.700r4.com/sitemap.html