hey guys, I have an 85 caballero and i just replaced my 305 engine to a 350 and after about 10 miles, it blew the old 200c tranny. so i need a new one and my neighbor said he has a 350 tranny for me but its a manual. the car was made as an automatic. i really enjoy driving manuals and was wondering what kind of work i would need to do in order to make the car a manual?

im going to have the transmission be replaced by a professional because im done working on this car in the winter time without a heated garage on the cold, cold cement... anyways

I figure I would need to cut a hole in the floor of the car for the shifter and replace the 60-40 bench seat with two bucket seats and a center console (a trip to the local junk yard should provide that, hopefully) and install a clutch pedal. im sure theres something im missing can anybody help me out here?

what do you mean a 350 manual? A th350? that's an auto

if you mean it's a manual that will fit the 350 engine, then details would help. Is it a T5? T56? NV3500? Siginaw? what did it come out of?

if you go to Maliburacing.com there are a couple of instructional guides for the swap in the tech section. one uses mechanical clutch, one uses hydraulic.

yea, sorry about that, i did mean a transmission that would fit a 350 engine. not a th350, im not sure on a transmission model yet, i was going to figure that out after i had the information on how hard it would be to convert. and since i dont know the model he has i guess some good transmission suggestions would be nice too

Here is a couple of links that should keep you busy while you wait for it to warm up.

http://www.shiftn6.com/6gearg.html

http://www.garage-scene.com/t5-into-ag-body/

http://www.crossmembers.com/products.htm

If you go with mechanical linkage get the pedal linkage with the joints on it! Makes pedal effort less and doesn't wear out.



good luck with it.

I'm a newbie here also, and just purchased 2 El Camino's to play around with a Father/Son project. One is a 79 El Camino SS and the other is an 82 El Camino.

I was also interested in swapping an automatic for a manual.

The question I have is what series is the 78-81 GM A Body? What cars should I be looking for to get parts from?

Thanks
Kev

I don't understand the A body part of your question.

If you are going manual clutch pedal there are repops of the the 78 to 81 G body pedal and linkage. If you are going hydraulic the F body (Camero) clutch master cylinder is what most people use. In a couple of the links I put in the above post there are links to where to get some of the stuff and what slave cylinders and bell housings to look for.

I don't understand the A body part of your question.


What is an A-Body? F-Body is a Firebird and Camaro, and I really don't know what models the A-Body are.

Your 79 and 82 are both G bodies. 78 to 87 Malibu, Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Regal and El Camino are all G bodies and share most of the mechanical parts. 78 to 81 offered standard shift factory.

Here is another link for either a complete pedal/linkage kit (he is too high on it) or the individual parts. here (http://www.elcaminomanufacturing.com/monteparts.html)

I don't want to confuse you, but the 78-81 are A-body and 82-87 is g-body.

all 78-87 parts are interchangable though, and they are all 5th generation. GM just changed the platform designation in 82.

78-87 is generally referred to as g-body though 90% of the time.

Ah, gotcha! I appreciate the info!