From those who ran either one, would you do it again and are you satisfied with the results? I am debating on which one to put into my 69 RR so I'd like to hear about both. My RR has a 512 and a 3:54 Dana if that matters. The thing I didn't like about the Keisler kit is that it isn't centered in the fact 4spd hump (i.e. my carpet kit has to be changed now).
Basically do you gain much of an advantage by using the Keisler kit vs the Passon trans for occaisional daily & highway driving?

Passon or Keisler single choice
	Passon
	Keisler
Votes accepted starting: 11/02/08 11:11 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

A friend had his 883 converted by Passon and he said the work and service was excellent. He was not too happy with the results of the overdrive though as it was not as high a gear as he expected i guess. The Keisler 5-speed would probably be a better choice for long traveling.

I vote Passon because of three reasons:
1 Customer service before,during,and after the sale.
2 You only have to change a few things for the swap,driveshaft,shifter,bellhousing,speedo cable,etc are all re-used for the Passon conversion.
3 If you ever need a repair part or any type of service work done the Moparts Community is ready to help and your factory service manual is still good.
Gus

Both have their ups/downs IMO.

Pros to the Passon unit is he's got a great reputation for being one of the good guys in the hobby and he stands behind his products. Plus like mentioned already, it's a stock replacement trans, so you can reuse everything else. Cons to his piece are the o/d gear is only a .80. Now I think he did that to keep the gear spreads reasonable for performance driving, but it does hurt his o/d's usefulness on the highway. However, if you've only got a 3.54 rear, you probably don't need as much of an overdrive ratio as say someone with a 4.10.

Pros to the keisler is their available .64 o/d. That really knocks down the RPMs on the highway, and the extra gear of a 5sp makes it so you don't have to worry about far gear spreads, because the race will be over by the time you are at the end of 4th anyway. Also their trans will have a more modern shift feel to it. Cons is you have to change a lot of components to make their trans work. That trans doesn't shift well if you rev your engine much over 6k rpm from what I've heard. If you do a search you'll see some members who've had problems with this trans, though I think most of them have been since resolved by keisler.

There are already plenty of opinions to be found here. 25 thousand + on my Keisler TKO 5-Speed. Overall very good. One back-order part, and a weeping speedo cable both of which were taken care of by Keisler. I would buy it again. Now I can jump in the R/T and loaf along on the freewy the 500 miles to Vegas or Reno no problem. 354's.

Having driven several Kielser equipped cars and a couple Passon trans cars, here's my .02.

1. For a true "no hack" install the nod CLEARLY goes to Passon
2. If you drag race you'll like the Passon, the Kielser is not a fast shifting trans, a bit too sluggish and notchy, especially at higher RPMs
3. If you want the strongest trans, Passons will take more HP than a Kielser by a fair margin
4. For cost and ease of install, Passon wins
5. For the best highway crusing O/D situation, Keisler wins due to it's better high gear ratio
6. Fuel milage Kielser also wins, same reason
7. Service - Passon hands down
8. With a 3:54 geared car that you do not want to modify beyond clean/simple easily reversable bolt ons and is mainly street driven and occasionally drag raced - Passon
9. For a modified car that is mainly used for local car shows, street cruising, taken on a good many long highway runs and not much else - Kielser
10. If considering these two companies you should also look into Gear Vendors and Classic 5 Speed before buying, may as well see what everyone is selling before you pull the trigger. I have also driven Gear vendor equipped cars, they should be a consideration for sure, they make a good product.

Being an ex-Passon customer.. I cant give a strong enough recommendation, he is a GREAT guy to work with.. Without going into details, I bought an 18 spline Hemi 833-OD, screwed it up and Jamie bailed me out. Keissler would have never done that..

The only advantage I see to Keissler is the extra gear.. Since I race the Duster, it would have been nice to have four true gears and then the 5th as an OD.. With the 833, you have a 3 speed transmission and a OD..

BTW.. the only reason I am an EX-Passon customer is because I swapped to a full race auto 727.

I recently installed the Keisler TKO-600 in my 69 Coronet R/T convertible, which was an automatic.

The kit showed up 100% complete 8 business days from when I called and ordered it, the parts were 100% correct for my application, and both Richard and Gene were really nice to deal with.

I used the hydraulic clutch setup, which requires drilling 3 3/8" holes around the factory hole in the firewall where the stock clutch linkage would go through. I then of course had to cut the hole in the floor for the top of the trans and shifter to come through. I will see if I can get a couple of pics for you.

In the end I don't think the hole was all that drastic, the parts and support were great, and I absolutely love the results. I've got it coming up through my factory AUTO console with just replacement of the top plate to the 4-speed style. The shifting was a little stiff for the first 250 miles, but now is really starting to loosen up and it shifts great.

The complete conversion kit was not cheap, but count me as a very satisfied customer, if you were close to Miami I'd tell you to come and drive my car.

Darren

Thanks for the good replies so far, many good points. I'm leaning towards the Passon just for the simplictity and the ability to use the new parts I already have (clutch, shifter, etc). Theres a lot of open highway between towns here so how the car does at 75mph is important.

I think I've made my choice clear here on this forum many times.....Keisler,.... the versatility of transmission and reliability, I feel out weigh the other choices out there......if a moderate OD and factory look is what your after?....go with Passon.....but if your looking for modern technology to improve your vehicle, Keisler is the only choice!......Gear Vendors is a "cheap" substitute that pales in comparison to either Keisler or Passon

I don't agree on your Gear Vendor comment (and yes, I know when you worked with Pam & Gary you ran a few).
They might cost less than a Kielser but are not "Cheap" (as in low quality) I've driven a few cars with them one of which was 4,000 lb B-body with a blown 900HP Hemi in it running a GV behind a 727, thing ran flawlessly and took ALLOT of abuse with zero reliability issues (dozens of hard lauches on street drag radials) try that with a Kiesler and you'll be picking up the pieces in short order. The GV has it's place, it's not for everyone but they are a quality pieces and should be considered.

How much pain do you like?? If you like a lot of pain get the snake charmers product. If you want your life to be simple and full of smiles as you drive your car down the road get the Passon product.

As far as the mumbo jumbo about the passon gear spread...just more ...
The gear spread on the passon overdrive is Goldilocks...just right!!

And don't forget I haven't a clue what I am doing

I assume you run the Passon trans in your AAR?
Gear vendors is not an options, I don't care for that set up.

I was shifting an 833 when most of you guys were still messing in your diapers so I have been thru a few trannies. I have never had a Passon OD but I have driven an OEM OD and never had a problem with the spread of the gears per say.I drove a Kessler in my buds car and can tell you it shifted about as good as my 93 1 ton with an NV 4500. After all the excuses as to why it won't shift and all the fixes to make it shift, the Kessler cost about $6000 and several months to repair. I have not driven the "fixed" version as of yet but I will let you know how it holds up to a 6500 power shift shortly.

I love this thread. I'm not here to sell Keisler. (I did like the Kessler comment, I like Kessler in my Ginger-Ale). Just remember, opinions are like ###holes. Everyone has one. Just like bias.

Do your research and remember buyer beware.

Put a Passon in & forget about it. I did & I'm 110% happy with it in my 69 Bee with 4:10's. Went from 3200rpm to 2300 SWEET!!! 511 inch & 8 3/4 here. Car looks bone stock with 26" Goodyear PolyGlas tires but boy does it whip the pants off a lot of other Mopar & non Mopar cars!!!LOL
Just ask the guy at Carlisle a few years ago that sells the StageV Hemi conversion heads. smoked him like he was going backwards just east of the Breezewood interchange on the Pa. turnpike. Saw him at the show later & he had the valve covers off of it. I ask what was up & he said he bent some pushrods trying to run a car on the way there. I ask him if it was a Yellow 69 Bee & he said yeah. I laughed & said if he wanted to try on the way home to let me know as I was heading home Sunday at around 4pm. LOL Told him it was a slightly warmed over 383 with a .528 solid lifter cam. He came to the stock 69 B-Body class later & just couldn't get over being beat by a 383. I never did tell him.

Sorry but that's not math that's real world!