First post here, i'm active on Forwardlook, jalopy journal and few other off topic sites so not new to the forum game.

My current project is a 1957 desoto and I'm building up a 58 392 for it. .030 over bore w/ 10:1 hypereutetic pistons, a howards cams .470/221/110 cam, some mild porting (mostly exhaust side), a hot heads aluminum dual plane intake and a holley 750 vac secondary carb. So with that out of the way heres my questions. Looking at 450ft/lbs from 2000rpm and 400hp@ 5000rpm

I picked up a 46RH out of a 1995 Ram van 5.2L 2wd yesterday, it had 134k on the clock and the fluid was a little dark but not burnt, no metal in it. I'm thinking I can get away with not going through the entire thing but i'm going to do some upgrades to help it live. The converter will be the stock lockup for now, since it came off the 318 its the correct balance for my motor already. Ill jump to a hughes 2000 stall down the road. Heres my list

From Cope racing:
4.2 ratio band lever
HD Band strut and band foot
TF-2 shift kit.
5600rpm shift governor

From A&A
Push button shifter cable (lets me use the 50's push button shifter)
http://www.aandatrans.com/Products/Push-...le__AACCPE.aspx

From HGM
Compushift mini for the 518 w/ a TPS to control lockup and OD.
https://www.hgmelectronics.com/products-compushift-controllers/csm-chrysler

What else should i be looking at in the front case? i'm trying to avoid touching the OD unit unless i absolutely have to.

Take the overdrive apart and just look it over. At that mileage you may catch things getting ready to fail. Just behind the OD clutch you will find a wavy snap ring setting against the flat snap ring. Replace that wavy snap ring - very high failure rate. The OD clutch is the first clutch you see when you pull the OD unit off the trans. All the needle bearings - check them all real good especiallly the one on top of the unit when you pull the OD from the trans. Make sure you do not drop that bearing - you will fracture the race and it will fail later. There also is a thick shim under that bearing that sets on the OD piston. Make sure you don't lose that. Keep everything in order as you take it apart and you should have no problems putting it back together. The only other item that takes a hit is the small and large bushings in the output shaft. Check those out reall good too.

Save your money - you don't need anything more than a 3.8 lever and the standard strut and anchor are more than adequate for even a race trans. The 318 converter will probably stall in the high 2's low 3's with that torque.

After looking again at the model year of the trans I would replace the converter if you plan on using lockup. 2001 was the first year for the good lockup piston - the one you have is the old style and It will fail the lockup disc with the power you are making or if it was towing a lot in the prior vehicle. If you decide to stay with the lockup buy a Mopar Reman converter - they all have the latest design lockup piston, 100% new lockup discs, and balanced to factory specs. Probably the best lockup unit out there without going billet parts.

Should i just be looking at doing the clutches then if i'm going in? or does that require dealing with that 800lb spring? If its not a big deal, i can swing doing the clutches in the entire thing. I'm probably better off doing that... thanks for the suggestion on the Torque converter, ill look into the reman mopar converter.

To take the whole OD unit apart you have to compress the spring. A regular shop press is more than adequate. You can make a tool if you don't have the correct unit. A piece of pipe is fine and it doesn't have to be too tall. Pilot on that bearing/shim seat of the direct clutch sleeve. There is a safety ring inside that once compressed you remove then remove the snap ring and clutches for the direct clutch then slowly release the direct sleeve/hub. If you hit a brick wall PM me and I can walk you through it. Just keep things in order. Even better is have someone video you as you take it apart 😀 The direct clutch usually does not need replacing as it is always on until 4th and it is not affected but any fluid issues. The OD on the other hand sees a lot of use and is controlled by fluid pressure.

I can set the gopro up and film when i get there Thank you for the info, ill follow up more when i'm getting into the trans.

Where should i order a rebuild kit for this trans in your opinion? I think i'm just going to go through it and not worry about it once its in.

Check the price of a Mopar Banner or Master kit against a local trans supplier that handles Transtar parts. Both quality kits, the Mopar kit is likely higher in price but it has the good stuff and ALL the stuff you need.

There are three Mopar kits, one with seals and gaskets only, 2nd kit has the seals and gaskets and frictions, the last has all plus the steels. Front band included. usually the rear band does not need replacement.

Maybe you have a Chrysler retiree or friend - if so they can get a 25% discount off list price -

Nice project, I'm looking at doing something similar with my 58 Plymouth. I have a 440 and am undecided between a 4l60e or 518.

Do you have a way to park it? You will either need to figure out a way to shift into park, or update your rear axle to have a parking brake.

Go to a C body axle or just upgrade the brakes 11 inch drums or disc with E brake. The brakes on your 58 are not the best at stopping a stock car now add 400+HP.

Poor lubrication to the O/D unit often causes the dark fluid - a result of not enough fluid volume through the intermediate shaft to the O/D unit. This was the root cause of many A518 failures - not enough coolant flow to the O/D planetary set would over-heat the fluid. I'd look into an up-graded intermediate shaft that has larger coolant holes.

have a 392/518 in my 58 Plymouth. Pat @ A&A did the trans and it works great. The car has 4.10's in it and the o/d unit has been flawless so far in wide open 3-"4" shifts and where I stayed in it in o/d under wide open blasts. The shaft with the oil holes for o'd lube were opened up to 3/16 for increased oiling. Mine is a one wire, I have a push/pull off/on button where the shift quadrant was and a floor shift. The o/d unit fits in the recess for the parking drum like a glove on my car.

The biggest contributing factor to overdrive geartain failures was the crappy fluid we launched the overdrive transmissions with in 1988. When we went to ATF + 4 that was remedied. I believe late 1998/1999. Several of our TSB's also stated that fluid color or smell is NOT to be used to determine the condition of the fluid. Back in the old days it was a good indicator - overheated fluid stunk. Extra fluid to the OD can't hurt but the 48 launched in 2003 1/2 and exceeded the life bogie at max GVWR. Info straight from the Fuels and Lubricants Group at Chrysler.

Yeah, not going to argue that crappy fluid causes a lot of issues - for the most part, most trans fluids are actually hydraulic fluids, and some have friction modifiers, but for the most part are poor lubricants. I've added a qt of 30W non-detergent to most of my builds for about 20 years to help lube the planetaries, bushings, etc. Some may dis-agree with this practice, but it has never caused an issue for us, and inspections of transmissions that we have used the oil in always show perfect wear items. As to the intermediate shaft, I'm pretty sure it was a re-builders tip, but starting about '92 or so we usually drilled out stock shafts (PITA) until the upgraded ones came available. Once we started using the modified intermediate shafts and the qt of oil, we did 100+ units with pretty much nil comebacks.

Kinda funny that it took the factory from '88 to '98 to fix the issue by changing the fluid - sharp re-builders had cured the problem long before.

Let me clarify - I may have misled you. A geartrain failure to us was where the part failed on it's own. Meaning it did not fail due to restricted cooler flow, or some other failure that reduced or shut off the fluid supply. Those "failures" generally came from trucks hauling way past Max GVWR or beyond. And our fleet testing showed that even when overloaded - if the fluid was replaced at certain intervals the OD would live. Most owners were not doing that.

Every vehicle investigation we did where we had the failures came from an overloaded truck and the vast majority of those never were properly maintained. There were a host of other issues that were resolved in the OD transmissions that kept engineering busy - the addition of steel planetaries in the trans, different spline angles for the diesel OD sun gear, steel instead of powder metal for the direct hub spring seat, revised OD piston, larger input shaft. Today the Reman program rarely sees an overdrive failure. Thousands of units sold with very few warranty returns.

I'm still on the fence, i may be brave and just do the push button shift with the 60's axle we have. Thing is the E-brake pull on the FL cars doesn't really have a "safety". It can pop off if bumped and that kinda sucks. I'm leaning towards a floor shifter to get the park function out of the 518, as cool as the buttons are, having the car roll away would suck.

Excellent, i was thinking there would be plenty of room for the OD unit since the OE trans had that parking drum hanging off the trans. You have a picture of the trans crossmember mods that were needed by chance?

With the push button shifter in reverse, there is still some travel left in the cable mechanism. I've wondered if a second cable attached to a lever under the dash could be used pull/push the cable on the shifter/trans into the park position. Something that when released would give the shifter enough slack to operate normally.

i have wondered the same thing, as i plan on using this transmission in my humpback project with a raised box on the driveshaft tunnel. with the stories about imperial services making me somewhat leery of sending in my shifter assembly for modification, i figure if they could come up with a modification that would work, i believe i can too. but i am a way from getting into that part of the build. however, i do keep my eyes and ears alert for ideas to make this happen.

Imp services does not have the greatest rep and they are not currently offering a cable. I had not heard that they had a conversion that added park though, just the cable that adapted the buttons to the newer trans.

A&A sells the cable to just run the Push buttons with the newer trans with stock functionality.

http://www.aandatrans.com/Products/Push-...le__AACCPE.aspx