Anyone here drive a powerglide on the street?

I can pick up one for free and was thinking of sticking it in my second camaro for the hell of it, im guessing its about 2% streetable though lol

 

Why wouldn't it be streetable? Cars used to come with them from the factory.

 

glide doesn't work well with a heavy car

 

I've had at least a half-dozen cars with them over the years. In a variety of chassis; trucks, Impalas, etc.

Think of it this way:

What automatic do you think came in just about EVERY small block V8 and 6-cyl GM car from the late 50s through the late 60s? That's how many millions of cars that came built that way?

 

I was just thinking that

3500lb car + powerglide + stop and go traffic = not good

Did they even have traffic lights in the 50s? Their probably wasnt even stop signs every 100 meters lol

 

They worked fine in 4000 lb cars with 6-cyls and 283s and such. I had several 60s Impalas and Caprices like that. Even in small light 3500 lb cars like Novas and Chevy IIs and those. I also had a couple of Impalas with Glides and 327s.

What makes you think that they wouldn't? Where do you think all the Powerglides in junk yards came from anyway? Race cars, or what? EVERY SINGLE ONE THAT EXISTS came out of a street car or truck. And a whole lot of those, were the full-size land barges.

The most common drive train in mid-60s full-size cars was the V8, Glide, and 3.08 gears. I can think of 64, 66, and 68 Impalas I've had like that.

Keep in mind, this was before the speed limit got lowered to 55 nationally, or before there even WERE speed limits in some places.

Yes they had traffic lights. Actually there were alot more stop signs back then, and not so many lights. There was no right turn on red. You ended up spending alot more time sitting at whatever lights there were, than you typically do now.

 

when i said they didn't work well in a heavy car i was thinking drag racing not a street application

 

Right, 2 different things. I kind of started from there.

Drag racing is a whole other deal.

 

Well i guess i might try the powerglide in one of my cars, if i dont like it i guess i can just swap my TH350C into it.

 

It will work fine, but might not be your idea of an enjoyable thing to drive. I replaced the original Powerglide in a 64 Impala SS with a 700R4, it's like a whole new car.

 

2 gears? good ***, get yourself an anchor and some other 14th century technology why don't you.

soggy gutless from take off, no overdrive... geez, you already have a th-350, and those REPLACED those glides didn't they? The ONLY reason any human being would ever want to "upgrade" to a powerglide (in the year 2005 such as it is), would be less time spent shifting, and a stronger tranny..That's for a 1000HP drag only car. It'd be a piece of garbage for your uses IMHO.

 

Exactly what i was thinking...

Except for the "upgrade" part, i just wanted to do it for the fun of it (or lack thereof...)

 

The real early powerglides were made out of cast iron. Ignore all of those. It's only the aluminum glides that are used by racers.

Other than a couple minor differences, there are 2 types of aluminum glides. I6 and V8. The V8 glides are more popular because they use the stronger 1.76 first gears. The I6 first gear is 1.82 but the gears are smaller and weaker.

All glides have a course spline input shaft that only a glide converter will slide onto. It's easy to replace the input shaft for an almost indestructable aftermarket one that has the turbo splines.

Some of the early aluminum glides have a rear pump that allowed them to be push started. When building a performance glide, you normally remove this pump but you need a later rear cover for the modification.

As everyone seems to have mentioned above, there were a lot of glides made in many types of street cars. The downside is the poor first gear and with only 2 gears, the engine rpm doesn't stay in the powerband as much compared to a 3 or 4 speed tranny. Many of the 60's cars that came with a glide were converted to TH350's when they were first offered. It was an easy swap and offered one more gear and a lower first gear.

Tranny gearing is needed for torque multiplication to get a weight moving. An engine does it's best work in high gear anyway. If your engine has lots of torque, it doesn't need a deep first gear.

There are real high hp race cars that have a PG modified for high gear only. They have so much torque that a first gear isn't required. Also when you don't have to shift, the car is more predictable on the track. I've see high gear only glides in cars with as little as 600 hp.

This is your bible to building a powerglide transmission
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...39963?v=glance

 

cool, thanks!

I think ill just be putting my TH350C into the other car and keep the powerglide laying around incase one of the cars trannys goes south on me.