which of these is the best bargain and easiest install for an auto overdrive trans.?

it seems most of them require you to butcher up your car to get them in.

You left out Passon , if you truly want a bolt in with pretty much no other than expending the speedo cable then the Passon OD is the way to go , if the car is already a 4 speed you take one out and install the other , driveline angles are not changed .

If you want cheap sell it and buy a fox body mustang .

What are you looking for?....what's the "goal" for your car?...nothings a "bargin" in the aftermarket, price shouldn't be the "influence" in your choices for a performance transmission

I vote Keisler, their fairly straightforward so it wasnt too tough but i havent had experience with gear vendors, [Email]A@A[/Email] trans, or TCI, so i couldnt say if they are an easier install or not.

i'm not worried about the cost,i don't want to start cutting up the car and Ford is a bad word here!

original post says auto overdrive

I'm rebuilding and putting in a borg warner T56 6-speed manual trans. It will require me to cut the trans hump and torsion bar crossmember. However, look at my car. Does it honestly look like the type that anyone would ever care what I did?

If you absolutely want NO body mods, then consider a chevy 700R4 trans or the keisler auto/od which is a gm 4l60-e, basically an electronic version of the 700R4. It's smaller than the mopar overdrives of the same era, closer size wise to a 727. You will still have to mod other things like trans cooler lines, driveshaft, kickdown, shifter, etc but nothing permanent.

I've just reading about several mods needed.....cutting in floor patches,denting floor in,cutting cross members and adding after market ones that need new holes drilled.I don't have a problem cutting the drive shaft since they seem to be easier to find but cutting holes in a perfectly good floor is beyond what I want to do let alone denting it with a ball pean.

I see in the Keisler ad on moparts they are advertising a perfect fit trans coming soon.

thanks, I'm definately leaning toward the Keisler.I'm going to call them and get a quote.

I have a GV in my 69 Bee and love it. I added a manual reverse valve body to my 727 and drive it like a four speed. I didn’t need to cut anything on the car. All I did was put a coupe (two) 3/16 dimples in the trans tunnel to get it in there. You do have to shorten the drive shaft and shim the axel housing to get proper pinion angle. I also bypassed the GV control module and use a foot switch to engage/disengage the GV.

Will a GV from a Volvo swap on to our trannies?

Here is the wikipedia writeup on the overdrive unit that started out as the Laycock de Normanville overdrive and ended as the GearVendors. Funny how it has changed little in design since it was first used in British cars with tiny four and six cylinder engines. And Rug, if you have a machine shop you can adapt one of those from a Volvo onto anything that moves. You just have to want to bad enough, kind of like putting a big block chevy into a VW. It's not just a "swap".

From Wikipedia:
"The vast majority of overdrives in European cars were manufactured by an English company called Laycock de Normanville (later GKN Laycock), at its Little London Road site in Sheffield, which is now demolished and remanufactured in the UK by an ex-Laycock de Normanville employee trading as Overdrive Spares.[2] The system was devised by a Briton, named Captain Edgar J de Normanville (1884–1968),[3] through a chance meeting with a Laycock Products Engineer. De Normanville overdrives were found in vehicles manufactured by Ford, British Leyland, Jaguar, Rootes Group and Volvo to name a few. Another British company, the former aircraft builder Fairey, built a successful all-mechanical unit for the Land Rover, which is still in production in America today.

The first production vehicle to feature the Laycock system was the 1948 Standard Vanguard Saloon. The first unit to be created was the A-type overdrive, this was fitted to many sports cars during the 1950s. Several famous marques used A-type overdrives, including Jaguar, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Austin-Healey, Jensen, Bristol, AC and Armstrong Siddeley. Later the A-type overdrive was to be fitted to the entire range of TR cars.

In 1959, the Laycock Engineering Company introduced the D-type overdrive, which was fitted to a variety of motor cars including Volvo 120 and 1800s, Sunbeam Alpines and Rapiers, Triumph Spitfires, and also 1962-1967 MGBs (those with 3-synchro transmissions).

From 1967 the LH-type overdrive was introduced, and this featured in a variety of models, including 1968-1980 MGBs, the MGC, the Ford Zephyr, early Reliant Scimitars, TVRs, and Gilberns.

The J-type overdrive was introduced in the early 1970s, and was adapted to fit Volvo, Triumph, Vauxhall/Opel, American Motors and Chrysler motorcars, and Ford Transit vans.

The P-type overdrive marked the last updates and included both a Gear Vendors U.S. version and a Volvo version. The Volvo version kept the same package size as the J-type but with the updated 18 element freewheel and stronger splines through the planet carrier. The Gear Vendors U.S. version uses a larger 1.375 outer diameter output shaft for higher capacity and a longer rear case.

Over a period of 40 years, Laycock Engineering manufactured over three and a half million overdrive Units, and over one million of these were fitted to Volvo motorcars.

In 2008 the U.S. company Gear Vendors, Inc.[4] of El Cajon, California purchased all the overdrive assets of GKN to continue production of the U.S. version and all spares for J and P types worldwide.

The system features an oil pressure operated device attached to the back of the standard gearbox operating on the gearbox output shaft. Through a system of oil pressure, solenoids and pistons, the overdrive would drop the revs on whatever gears it was used on by 22%. For instance, the overdrive system applied to a Triumph TR5 operates on 2nd, 3rd and top gear. When engaged, the overdrive would drop the revs by approximately 450 RPM. The advantages this had on fuel consumption was quite marked over long distances."
End quote.

R.