Posted By: 70SAT
4 speed conversion - 70 RR 383 - 06/15/15 06:27 PM
After almost 1 1/2 years of collecting parts, my 70 RR is now officially a 4 speed !!!!! I decided to have Jamie Passon do the actually conversion and I am glad I did. I bought my rebuilt date correct A833 from him so I knew that if there were any issues with the trans, he would take care of them. I bought other parts from members here, some from the other forum, some from Craigslist and some from Classic Industries. I have to say that some of the Classic parts were sub-par and the clutch pedal rod angles were totally off (I will be contacting them) when compared to a stock pedal rod that I bought from Jamie.
The welding of the hump, ball stud frame bracket and buddy seat brackets were very neat and even. Jamie took it upon himself to get a rattle can of FC7 and sprayed all the welded in pieces. They look like they were factory. I never would have been able to do that nice of a job which was one of my biggest reservations. I know that if the ball stud bracket is not located properly and square that the torque rod would give you continuous problems. The clutch goes in nice and smooth, even pressure, no hangups or snags.
I put in a Mcleod diaphram clutch. Grabs really nice. Very different feel than the clutches on the euro and [censored] imports that I drive regularly. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it. What I did notice was that the throttle lag that I used to have with the automatic totally disappeared. I thought it was a carb problem. I will pay attention to see if it returns at all.
The other two things that Jamie did besides the conversion was change my power steering box to a Steer and Gear firm box because both my upper and lower seals were leaking and it was loosy goosy. It's like night and day. Much more responsive and better road feel. I was going to put in a Firm Feel, but the wait time was 2 months. The other thing was he changed my u-joints. Apparently, Jamie thought the rear u-joint was original and never changed because of a wire across the joint that originals had. There was a lot of play in both of them anyhow so needed to be changed out. I would not want to lose the driveshaft while burning through the gears.
I will be listing for sale some of the parts i removed in a separate post. I have my 727, the console (switched to buddy seat), the console shifter, the automatic carpet and a 513 bell(sold) (Jamie had a pristine one that I decided to use). Here's some pics of the new setup and a before pic.
The welding of the hump, ball stud frame bracket and buddy seat brackets were very neat and even. Jamie took it upon himself to get a rattle can of FC7 and sprayed all the welded in pieces. They look like they were factory. I never would have been able to do that nice of a job which was one of my biggest reservations. I know that if the ball stud bracket is not located properly and square that the torque rod would give you continuous problems. The clutch goes in nice and smooth, even pressure, no hangups or snags.
I put in a Mcleod diaphram clutch. Grabs really nice. Very different feel than the clutches on the euro and [censored] imports that I drive regularly. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it. What I did notice was that the throttle lag that I used to have with the automatic totally disappeared. I thought it was a carb problem. I will pay attention to see if it returns at all.
The other two things that Jamie did besides the conversion was change my power steering box to a Steer and Gear firm box because both my upper and lower seals were leaking and it was loosy goosy. It's like night and day. Much more responsive and better road feel. I was going to put in a Firm Feel, but the wait time was 2 months. The other thing was he changed my u-joints. Apparently, Jamie thought the rear u-joint was original and never changed because of a wire across the joint that originals had. There was a lot of play in both of them anyhow so needed to be changed out. I would not want to lose the driveshaft while burning through the gears.
I will be listing for sale some of the parts i removed in a separate post. I have my 727, the console (switched to buddy seat), the console shifter, the automatic carpet and a 513 bell(sold) (Jamie had a pristine one that I decided to use). Here's some pics of the new setup and a before pic.
