I’ve had it with my Roto 5! Spent thousands $$ only to have it still not shift smoothly. After talking to the folks at D&D Fabricators, I’ve been just about convinced to purchase their bell housing adapter which mates well with a Chevy 5 speed tranny. This will be a winter project. My 62 F85 convert deserves a better tranny. D&D does require a slight modification to the floor and I will have a different PRNDL and I’ll also use a new “cable” system linkage. Does any one have any recommendations/suggestions or experience doing this. I know it sounds dramatic and I think you Jetfire guys don’t have this problem.
I don’t believe slight mod does explains all the changes you will have to do. Certainly doable and desirable but a lot of work and fabrication, the bell housing adapter is only the beginning. We are doing a smaller conversion to a TH-200C, 3 spd with lock up converter, and it has been a lot of work and we are not done yet. I think there are a few people out there who have converted to a variety of trans. I’ll be sharing more of the TH 200 experience in the next couple of months, once it’s on the road.
I’ll do the same….hope others will benefit from our successes and failures. I won’t start the project until the winter and D&D seems to have all the knowledge of who will provide the new tranny and linkages
Hi everyone. I have bought the adapter for the conversion to the 200R4 Metric Oldsmobile trans. I talked with D&D about the conversion and he recommend that trans because you don’t have to do a lot of mod work. He also said to use a different carb because of the shift cable. I am going to use a floor shifter instead of the column shifter I think.
Are you using the overdrive 200R4 or the 3 spd 200C Metric? The 200R4 is quite a bit larger than the 200C Metric. There is a lot more tunnel clearancing with the R4. I think someone here has done that conversion.
Custom Classics (Island Lake Illinois) who’s undertaking the project has spoken to Mark and as you mentioned it is doable. Im however hoping to use my original 4-barrel Rochester; I know mark pushes the Eddlbrock for simplicity sake and maybe he’s right after doing the conversion. I realize there will be an ample amount of fabrication/frustration required, but the Roto-5, in my opinion, was the worst design ever conceived for a tranny.
Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with the roto-5. Have you considered trying to find a manual transmission parts car? I know they are not easy to find but it would have almost everything you would need. Even if it is a column shift it would still have everything else needed.
I did spend ample time searching for parts and concluded that even if I was fortunate to find “that required part” I would be in this same predicament for the next repair. Getting a 200 C tranny provides me with some “piece of mind”
I am using the 200r4 overdrive. I would like to use my carb but I don’t think the throw is correct for the cable to work properly. D&D said he had done one and will let me know where to modify the tunnel.He said to use a BOP transmission because it doesn’t have the top on the bell housing like a Chevy does.
