Shift kit for a '88 A904

[rb77413]

Well as usual this project has snow balled. A simple replace a rusted out freeze plug turned into debating over headers or magnum exh manis, a thermoquad to replace the quadrajet, ditching the lean burn burn for a orange or chrome box, and drawing the line at opening the engine. (no magnum head swap or cam swap, yet) and now since I'm there (That phrase has been coming up a lot recently) I am going to put or try to put a shift kit in the tranny. Before when it was running the tranny shifts great, nice red fluid too. Well after some research it appears that roughly 78 and later are all lockups. Which some shifts kits cover and others dont. I have seen the same shift kit mentioned that it does cover a lock up and on another site it says it does not. So do I have a lockup? How do I check with pulling the tranny right now. (I wanted to order it and have it here instead of waiting till the tranny comes out) and if I do, anyone here ever done a kit on a lockup and have a recomendation? Looking like B&M has one to work with lock up. The car has a 1st gear lockout already so full manual control (being able to downshift into any gear at any speed) is not a concern for me. Some of you M- body guys gotta know.

[dodger1]

www.smrtrans.com likes 904's and lockup trannys and have the e.t's to back that up. dwc likes Transgo but I don't know if they have lock-up kits. Meanwhile, I had my 1982 998/999 (lockup) redone (after tearing out the sprag) with an unnamed kit, HD bands and clutches, and a bolt-in sprag years ago by a shop in Vancouver BC that had the R.C.M.P.'s transmission business and kinda knew what I needed behind the 360. Works fine to this day. Converter was replaced by a reman 360 lock-up unit when the swap was done - no issues there either. My only complaint with lock-up 904s is there's no option to control the lockup point - it's built into the tranny and will lock at a predetermined output shaft speed. So find a kit, drop the pan, bolt it in, and away you go!! (BTW how does the leaky core plug program progress?)

[dwc43]

Thanks, but I only use TCI products. And I stay very far away from the b&m junk if you want the thing to work for a while. And I prefer the A727 over the A904 since they don't tend to hold up to a lot of abuse.

[rb77413]

Thanks guys. I havent had much luck with B&M either. I thought it was just me.

Dodger1, I cant get the exhaust off. No room with those precats in the way. Started cutting the y pipe and decided to pull the K-member and engine at once. I dont want to destroy the stock exhaust since the wife and I are discussing on moving and the destination has emissions testing (Az). Since it will be out I did decide to replace all the plugs, thus splitting the tranny and engine, which led to the shift kit idea. I havent decided on exh manis yet. Gonna hit the yards and pull a set of magnums. If they dont fit gonna go back to the stockers for now until a magnum headed 408 goes in. I got part of a plug stuck in the block. Well actually just the rim is stuck in the block. No swinging room with a hammer to get it to twist and pull it out. Doing these plugs turned into a way bigger job then I was ready for. At least its a 318 4bbl already. One less thing to have to swap, well except for the feedback Qjet on there.

[dodger1]

Can you take measurements from your Magnum truck and estimate the fit on the Fury? Does AZ do a visual equipment pass/fail test? Reason I ask is, I got my 360/headers/no cat Mirada through Vancouver's AirCAre program because the tech knew that there were 318/4barrel no-cat cop engines available (in Canada) and tested me accordingly. Even though it was a 360, it passed. No visual equipment pass/fail rules. But that was then (99) and there. If AZ is strict, I don't see any way around going to good aftermarket cats and the stock or Magnum manifolds. Don't know what you can do with the feedback QJ - no exp. there. Starting to think that if you find a Magnum truck motor - maybe grab the entire induction/EFI/computer as well and swap it in. Gotta be better than the carb you have and should pass smog. BTW, does your 88 have the good '302 heads? If so, worth keeping according to lots of guys here.

[John Kunkel]

Originally Posted by dwc43

Thanks, but I only use TCI products. And I stay very far away from the b&m junk if you want the thing to work for a while.

Once again it's time to point out that the B&M and TCI kits are identical, they even use the same pic to advertise their kit. I would recommend staying away from "shift improver" kits regardless of brand, they can cause more problems than they fix.

The TransGo TF-2 kit is the best bang for the buck, and Makco usually has the best price http://www.bulkpart.com