Roto-5 Tranny ……… Your Out of There!!!!!

[62 Cutlass Convert]

If you’re asking about the TH200C 3 speed it worked out good. No major clearance issues. There was some clearancing necessary with a hammer and or porta-power in the tunnel as I think I talk about earlier in this thread but no cutting. Not extreme. Floor console goes back in. Also clearanced/grinding the case of the trans here and there. Actually using the stock linkage in the car. It locks out Park, hits the gears properly, and locks out first (since that is where reverse was) which is pretty nice. It does not lock out reverse. You shift from Drive to Neutral to Reverse without a lockout. Had to fab up a simple below floor linkage from the stock arm to the new trans.

If you’re talking about the 200R4 someone else can answer.

[911pilot]

My tranny is smooth as butter!! I started this project in the spring and its running great. After lengthy convers’s with Mark at D&D, I went with the 1990 700R4 – I found it to be a better choice because with the 60 degree offset matched perfectly-ish with D&D’s bell housing adapter.

Fabrication and sheet metal modification resulted in having the factory floor console positioned approximately 3/4″ higher and about a 1″ aft (closer to the driver). The reason, in part, was d2 the tunnel radius which needed to match perfectly with the floor console. So in order for the tunnel radius and the console radius to match perfectly, the tunnel gained some height (about an 1″)……not noticeable Consequently, that 1″-1.5″ height caused the firewall to be impacted (where the tunnel meets the firewall) Because we removed a bit of the firewall is came awfully close to the heater box core – this was something we didn’t even think about but realized once we modified the firewall that it really could have caused additional work. Fortunately we only removed the area where the tunnel meets the firewall be only 1″ and therefore didn’t effect the heater core box……we also had an extra 700R4 empty tranny case which we used to install and measure the gaps for the tunnel modifications. Essentially we would place the dummy tranny into and out of the engine compartment in order to make this a perfect fit and minimize required sheet metal modification to the floor/tunnel and firewall…….I strongly recommend this if you want to be precise. Addition floor to tunnel modification was required to accomodate the mechanical governor. We had a custom driveshaft (2 piece) built for us….a beauty. A final aesthetic issue was with regard to the P-R-N-D-L pattern on the shifter gear indicator. Because the tranny gear shift pattern is different from the Roto-5, I had to make shift a new gear indicator .

In addition to the tranny work, I opted to pull out the generator and replace it with a 90 amp alternator by POWER MASTERS. this alternator looks like a generator and it uses the factory mounts with minimal tweaking – this was something I wanted to do because Ill be adding a custom audio system to it next spring. We kept the voltage regulator and used it as junction box after we gut it out. Their alternator also comes with the necessary wiring to keep the “GEN” dash liite to work.

The 3rd phase was to get rid of the 4 barrel Rochester carb that was always problematic for me, fuel in the carb chamber would boil-over after the car warmed up, resulting in rough starting when the car is warmed up…..even with the carb spacers from D&D. I decided to go with the MSD fuel injected carburetor – works great now. Hid the processor in the dash and placed the silent electric fuel pump externally, next to the tank. The only modification was to the bottom half of the air filter element canister to fit the MSD carb. I also gained fuel efficiency. The car starts up great ALL THE TIME. I can forward you pics if needed.

Now this car runs better -faster-smoother and more efficient

[jensenracing77]

Great information! Did you hook up the lock up converter?

[62 Cutlass Convert]

Pilot, didn’t you post pics or the fabrication work somewhere? Or is that on the 6163Skylark forum where someone posted on this topic?

[scott]

D&D recommended the 700r4 from a v-60 degree bh…minimum if any fab…..

[62 Cutlass Convert]

I may be wrong but think Plot talks about cutting out the firewall and tunnel with subsequent fab and welding in his post above. Any pics on Skylark site?

[scott]

Reading his post is making me rethink….Go with th200c

[joe_padavano]

TH200 is a lot smaller than the 700R4.

[911pilot]

I opted not to go with the TH200 as per Marks recommendation and history of reliability when it comes to the TH200. The 700R4 (1990 or older) worked great and again the amount of firewall fab work was minimal. Ill forward photos when I get the car back from the stereo shop. If your wavering to the TH200, I would recommend to speak with Mark at D&D and get his thoughts. At least you’ll have all the pro/cons before delving in this project……..take the time to look and gather all information when choosing the right tranny for you. You maybe winning with size by going with the TH200 but losing out on performance and reliability by not going with the 700R4….the choice is your 🙂

[scott]

so what TC did you use on the TH200C?

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