so my transmission is going out and i dont want to spend money on a new one and the local junkyard has a camaro and a firebird if the firebird ends up being the better trans will it fit in my 84 camaro and be fine or will i just need to stick with the camaro

 

The third gen (82-92) camaro and firebird used the same running gears/drivelines. Same engines, same transmissions, same rear ends, same suspension, same doors, same carpet, same gas tanks.

So yes if the junkyard firebird is a V8 engine car, it's trans will fit the camaro 305.

 

You can also use a 700r4 4 speed auto trans from mid 80's full size V8 trucks, suburbans, and pretty much any other 80's GM rear wheel drive car with a v8 engine...

Only differance would be the tail shaft housing. The camaro/firebird tail housing has the mounting bolt holes for the torque arm, so if you got a truck 700r4 trans you would need to remove the 4 bolts holding the tail housing onto trans and swap the tail housings over.

 

ok cool thanks

 

With the one small caveat ;

Yes , with a tailshaft housing swap you can use a Suburban's 700R4 and it will bolt right up and run .

BUT !

Each unique class of vehicle has it's own unique shifting profile of things like the RPMs and speed at which upshifts happen , and the profile for a Suburban will be a bit too tame for a Camaro . Mostly Governor related but I think there may be other shifting considerations as well .

I'd keep at least the governor from the Camaro's 700R4 and make sure it finds it's way into the replacement Transmission ..

 

In case you didn't know,... a V6 and a V8 tranny are not the same and not interchangeable. As OrangeBird pointed out; transmissions were made to fit each car dive-train. In other words,.... the tranny from a V8 caprice WILL FIT - but will NOT shift exactly the same as a tranny from an IROC. ( different accumulator springs, different TC stall speeds, ect. ) You can assume that some things will be "common"; As in a V8 Camaro coupe and a V8 Firebird coupe will have very similar trannies, as will an IROC vs a Trans Am.

The 87 + 700R4s have a number of enhancements over earlier versions. If you need to replace your Tranny it's a good idea to use an 87+ when-ever possible. The tranny in your car now is a 27 spline and requires a 27 spline Torque Converter. The 87-92 trannys have a (stronger) 30 spline input shaft require an 87 + converter.

Depending on the year of the Firebird,.... it might have an electric speedo sending unit (86+). Be sure to pull the cable speedo sending unit & DRIVEN speedo gear from your original transmission and re-use it in your replacement tranny. You will also need to verify the DRIVE speedo gear that is on the original tranny tailshaft is the same as the DRIVE gear inside the replacement tranny so you speedo remains accurate too.

Hope that helps !!