3-speed to 4-speed swap on a '64

[Hilljack68]

I have my eye on a potential project car - a '64 Dodge 440 with a factory 3-speed floor shift. I'm happy to find a manual tranny car in my price range, but I'm wondering a few things:

- Would an A833 drop in there without having to cut-away or fab anything?
- Will I need a different length drive shaft?
- Do the two trannys have different linkage, forks, Z-bars?
- Is that 3-speed an A903 or an A745?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I’ve not done this swap. The 3-speed manuals are quite rare. I think it’s a bolt in swap (there’s no special cross member that I’m aware of). You definitely need the 4-speed linkage. The shifter, bellhousing, clutch, etc are almost for sure the same. I’m not sure about driveshaft length

 

[topside]

Had a 318 3-speed '64 that I swapped a later (all-synchro) E-body A230 into; That was pretty much a bolt-in once the floor hump & carpet was done. Used a Hurst shifter.
On my '63, it was more involved going from 3-spee to A833, as it was a swap to a BB, and I changed the E-brake setup.
I think the trans bolt patterns are different between 3 & 4 speeds ?

 

[R/T Boy 67]

Three speeds and four speeds have different bolt patterns, as do different three speeds. Some bellhousings have two bolt patterns, so you may be lucky. You need to know exactly what you have and go from there. There could be differences in spline counts and retainer sizes etc.

 

[c.moo]

My plymouth bel had 3 on the tree , 3 speed , . trans . cross member was same as automatic , 4 speed is different , can get 4 speed one from Brewers

 

[matthon]

I made a 4 speed crossmember by cutting the mount off the auto one, cutting out the center of the top, drilling a hole in the bottom for the stud of the new mount. Bought the single bottom stud trans mount, same as the one in my 67 bb a-body, the mounts with the 2 studs are hard to find and ridiculous $.

I have a slant 6, 3 on the tree '64, Z bar looks the same, but the trans mount for it is different from a V8, obviously.

 

[Hilljack68]

Had a 318 3-speed '64 that I swapped a later (all-synchro) E-body A230 into; That was pretty much a bolt-in once the floor hump & carpet was done.

So, you had to modify the shifter opening (floor hump) to accommodate the 230?

 

[Hilljack68]

I have a slant 6, 3 on the tree '64, Z bar looks the same, but the trans mount for it is different from a V8

Yeah, at this point, I don't know what the car was born with... /6, SB or BB. I'm still waiting on the seller to send me a picture of the fender tag.

 

[topside]

It was a column-shift, and I added the floor hump for a floor shifter.
Might have worked with column shifter, don't know.