Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train 53 gmc transmission swap

Can someone please give me some suggestions for swapping my column shift for a 4 spd floor shift on my 53 gmc 228. What 4 spd would work best? Least amount of fabrication would be best. Thanks

I believe this has been asked/answered several times.

Please check with the past posts or the 'tech tips' listed in the left margin.

You can also call Patrick's (520) 836-1117 for "one on one" personal assistance.

Good luck.

Assuming an open driveline,
Whether you try to use a Muncie, Borg Warner or Saginaw, you are going to have the same amount of work. The early T10's had the corse tailshaft splines, so if the length of the tranny is correct, then it would be the closest thing to a direct swap you are going to get for your application. You may need to change the clutch disc also, depending on what tranny you end up using. The change to a floor shifter is the same for all of them, basically. Most of these 4 spds had the shifter mounted on the tailshaft, which may present a problem with a bench seat?? I believe Patricks has a shifter that is designed to work with the Saginaw and stock bench seat.

You could use the four speed that was optional for your truck; basically a heavy duty three speed with a "granny gear" below the other three and a direct replacement for the threespeed transmission. These are pretty noisy transmissions. If you want to switch to open drive, you could look at the Ford 1984/1985 four speed (TOD T170FT) with fourth gear overdrive which had the shift lever mounted on the top of the transmission rather than on the tailshaft and would look original as well as the other transmissions noted.