Greetings Slanters,

of course as time goes on, this highly sought after part is increasingly harder to find. I have one for my narrow body Valiant, but quickly discovered that once installed, there was no room left for an exhaust pipe between the frame rail and transmission cooler lines.

So one day at Pick'n Pull I grabbed a couple of random bars off V-8 vans. Just to compare the shape... They are nothing like the S-6. Except they are made of the same material. I thought I could build my own. My goal was to mimic the shape of the S-6, but narrow it enough to slip two 2" pipes (for a Dutra Dual) into this narrow space. I'll pick up that subject on another post...

Anyway, I got sidetracked into creating a S-6 bar out of the V-8 bar. Here it is...

Since I have the original, and since I am creating a modified bar for my narrow body, I gave the completed bar to Reed. He can weigh in on the back yard creation.

I did have to grind a flat surface for the transmission arm's pinch bolt to snuggle up to, and the arm that I found at PnP was only 2 inches (center to center) instead of the S-6 arm at 2 3/8". Reed will have to extend the arm if he cannot come up with the original.

I got to eyeball the original and the home-made kick down rods side-by-side, and they are almost a perfect match! VERY nice work!

I plan on swapping the homemade rod onto my 76 D100 and I will report back how it fits once I get the swap done.

Here is the bar I made to hug close to the engine block, transmission cooler lines, and tranny. It has the same pick up points, length, and throw as the super 6 bar. It is approximately 1 1/2" narrower, so I flipped the upper mount before welding it together. I'll get a pic of the finished install with Dual pipes and add it to this post.

Nice post!! I've got a manual, so don't need it - but it was clear and informative. Thanks!

_________________
Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

You can see top of the bar has been welded on and mounted backwards from stock to move the bar 1" closer to the engine.







One piece missing in all of this is the PB shift cable. The housing's plastic jacket was already melted at the bottom. I resealed it with Hi-temp sealer and shrink tube. I also plan to find some sort of aluminum heat reflector to wrap it with.