I tried searching but came up dry. I am in the middle of helping a friend swap his blown 2.8/200r in his '82 berlinetta to a 305/700R4. All was going well until we had the motor completly in and found our crossmember would not work. We had the stock one, one from my car when it had a turbo350 in it and a sphon 700R4 cross member and none worked (actually I think they were all the same). The member hit the pan and was about an inch or so too forward for the mount. I have heard it would work, but apparently not. Something I noticed under the car is that it only had two holes per side whereas my camaros all have three. Is it some thing with the early cars? Any possible help or solutions would be apreciated.

 

Ummm, yeah... there was no such thing as a 700-R4 in 82, so they hadn't yet thought up the idea of making the cars compatible with it.... no such thing as "features from the future"....

Easiest thing to do, would be to go the junkyard and get a crossmember from 83-up, out of a T-5 or 700 car; and add the hole to the 82 that it will need.

The Spohn 700 one should also work, once you install that rearmost "hole from the future" in the frame, so that it can bolt up in the right spot.

 

fortunately theres lots of 700r4 and other tranny model f bodies out there, very common

its the 200c ones that are low in numbers now

in my 82 that was 200c i put in a 6" tail th350 out of a 77 van,

for your friends car if he wants a 700 then he will need a driveshaft from any f body that was not a 200c


very common

then sell or trade the 200c one off or keep it in the attic til its worth even more $$ they are going to be a rare item in the future,


and simple swap here, it will practically swap itself

other than the TCC lockup wiring


good luck

 

We already have another driveshaft and hes already traded the 200, but is there any other way to put this 700 in? I really don't want to drill two addional holes because then I will have to reinforce the frame. does someone sell a realitivly affordable conversion crossmember? Thanks for the help

 

No you don't have to reinforce the frame. Think about it.... the later cars, with FAR more power than yours, did just fine with 3 holes per side.

No there's not really any other way than to do it right; certainly not a "better" way.

As far as who would sell you one, your local junkyard.

This is not rocket science, don't let it outsmart you.

 

No, it was my understanding that you use the two farther back holes. So you would use one set of factory holes and drill an addional set where the later cars had them factory. To do that right you would need to reinforce around the hole like the factory, right? Am I confused on which set of holes you use?

 

Right, you need to add the 3rd FACTORY hole, which is behind the first 2. It's a factory hole in 83-92 cars, just not yours.

There's no "reinforcement" around the holes. Just a little weenie sheet-metal cage up inside there that holds the nut in place but gives it room to wander around and adjust to wherever the mating holes are. You can put it together easily enough without the cage.

 

this is very simple yes

trust us

happy swapping

 

An alternative that I did with my swap was modify the 82 mount itself to come forward enough to reach the holes. I simply drilled and welded 2 peices of angle iron to the edges of my crossmember and bolted it up to my existing holes in the frame.