I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I wanted to be pointed in the right direction. I'm really interested in swapping my Volare from it's 3 speed automatic to a 4 speed A833. My question is, are there any write ups for doing the swap?

I figured I will have to replace the rear differential, but I'm not sure if I can swap a different diff into the carrier or replace the entire housing.

I'd really like to just find a junkyard with a 4spd 225 volare and pull off the neccessary parts, but can't seem to find any good places. Do you guys have any good resources for parts?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

You might be a little hard pressed to find this stuff in a junk yard these days. You will need the tranny, the bell housing, the clutch pedal assembly, the Z bar, clutch fork, and the two mounting ball studs for the Z bar. You will need the throw rod from the pedal to the A bar. Year one sells some of this stuff, and sells rebuild kits for the various Z bar and pedal links.

YOu will also need the hump that goes over the tranny in the floor. Year one sells a repro of this. You can cut out the stock floor, and pop rivit the new hump into place. The hump for a manual three speed is the same, and you might find one of those in the yards. You will need a shifter as well. There is an economy shifer availabel from Hurst for about $150 that works fine. It comes with new rods and link ends.

On the drive shaft, there is some stock shaft that will fit this. Maybe the tail shaft on the A833 is the same as on the 904. In either event, I have always had new shafts made and balanced. A good truck supply place will have this service, and can make a new one for you for $100-$150.

The late model bell housings were universal, in that they would take a three speed as well as a four speed. There will be more than 4 bolt holes on these. The bolt pattern on the A833 tranny is not square. Beware of people selling models of truck bell housings which may not be compatible. These are enormous, are cast iron, and and have a completely different bolt pattern. You will need the truck tranny for these, which has about a 5:1 granny gear for low gear. You will not like it. Another spotting feature of these is the low mounted starter motor. Now, that being said, the 833 was put in plenty of pick up trucks, and it will work fine. Good luck.

I have an old Factory 4 speed shifter I will sell cheap if you want it. It works fine, but will need Year One's link rebuild kit.

Beyond all that you will need a clutch kit for a Volare, which will include the pressure plate and disk. Then you will need a throwout bearing.

If you go on line and look, there are guys out there selling the entire conversion package.

Sam

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I just finished my 4-speed swap tonight ('77 Aspen w /6), so I will post something when I get some time.

The 4-speed floor hump in an F-body is unique to F- and M-bodies, and differs from A-body humps. That said, you can use an A-body hump, but there wll be some work required to get a nice fit. Here's some info on my trans hump work: http://aspenvolare.proboards52.com/inde ... &thread=44

Any later /6 bellhousing and pans will work (I used the BH out of an '85 van), but the torque shaft (aka z-bar) is unique to F-bodies, and differs from the V-8 F-body torque shaft, too. One sold on eBay a month or so ago for $70.

Also hard to find are the bracket which welds to the framerail and supports the torque shaft ball stud and the BH side torque shaft bracket (again unique to the F-body /6 application).

Shift rods are F-body unique, too.

Whew. Hopefully I haven't discouraged you.

You can get away with welding a 1/4" plate with a hole in it to the frame rail if doing it on the cheap. Everything else needs to come from a F-body car... tranny can be from an A or F body car, try to find a pre1980 bellhousing, the 80's trucks used a ball stud and spring clip to retain the clutch fork and is not swappable with earlier models (the clutch fork for a truck is also a few inches longer...)

good luck on the swap.

-D.Idiot

The O.D. clutch forks are all the same length I believe. The clutch forks from both and '82 and '85 vans I have are the exact same length as the O.D. V-8 fork I have, and I'm using an '85 van BH and fork in my '77 Aspen and it all works fine with no alignment issues.

The complete /6 BH I sold was out of a '78 Aspen and did have the flat clutch fork pivot (rather than the ball stud), though, so you need to make sure you have a matched BH and clutch fork, regardless of what vehicle it was removed from.

Be sure to get the clutch safety start switch, too when you find some pedals.l

The clutch forks for the A/F body 3 or 4 speeds w/slant six are all the same... I have a full setup out of an '81 D-100 with the high mount starter bell and was a 10" clutch mated to the A-833OD and the fork is a bit longer... you will know since the 1981+ high starter bells used a very specific ballstud style clutch fork...

I'll have to go out to the shed to give you some visuals...

-D.Idiot

Back to the subject as I've had time to pull some 'examples' out of the storage shed...



This is a stock example of the 1975-1980 bellhousing for cars and some trucks with A-833OD and the 9.25" or 10" clutch... the fork uses a bracket with a retangular hole to keep the fork (equipped with a spring tab) in place)



In 1980-81 the trucks then switched to a ball dentent retainer for the fork (until the end run in the 1987 model year), the bell still has the spots to mount the other bracket... so in essence if the 'ball' style of fork broke, wasn't available, it's still possible to put the other style of fork in from a junkyard scavenge..





for some comparision this 1973 3-speed only bellhousing uses the same fork as the 4 speed/OD bellhousings, but the tab is in a different place and the bell is a bit restrictive on space.







here are the backs of the two different forks, note the 75-80 uses a single pointed spring steel retainer, and the truck one has a punchout to straddle the ballstud..







Looking at the side, you can see they are similar lengths but the truck fork has no curve to it and the 'fork' for the throwout bearing has no curve to assist in leverage like the car fork (which has little room for the clutch linkage)




On their faces the A/F body fork is a bit shorter (like 1/2-3/4") and has more curve than the truck fork... the one sceanario that can happen with this truck fork installation in an A/F body is the lever can come in contact with the T-bar/Frame rail, during it's sweep, and since it's path is a bit different when actuated it may also put stress on the linkage if the fork rod went out of alignment (i.e. angled path not straight) while actuating the clutch... (been there, mocked that up...didn't like it..)

One thing to also consider when doing this swap is looking at the sides of the clutch fork, they can be over stressed due to mis-adjustments of the clutch rod, lack of maintenance/lubrication of the linkage... which can cause the fork sides to crack, bend or buckle...

FYI,


-D.Idiot

Yeah, no worries about frame rail nor torsion bar contact in an F-body with the transverse torsion bars.

I'll post some pics of my setup when I get a chance.