People have been doing transmission swaps and upgrades for decades, and it wasn’t unusual to see someone swap a manual transmission into their automatic-equipped classic car, even back in the 1960s and 1970s. But now that we have better transmissions with overdrive, the desire to upgrade from the factory four-speed with its 1:1 final drive is even stronger.
However, a transmission swap is a much bigger deal these days when you’re upgrading to a transmission that was never offered in your car from the factory. Getting all the right parts to complete the swap is a chore, with phone call after phone call, and then fabricating the crossmember – you better have a good friend that can weld, if you can’t do it yourself.
Or you can go with a complete transmission kit that has everything you need, including a hydraulic clutch system and the correct crossmember, from Silver Sport Transmissions. Its PerfectFit Powertrain Solutions will provide all the hardware and components needed to swap a modern transmission, like the Tremec T-56 Magnum, into a classic car.
The 1967 Chevelle in the video above shows us one other touch that makes the PerfectFit kit one you should check out: the shifter location. Often times when a transmission is swapped out, the new shifter and factory console becomes an area of conflict; with so many different vehicles and one transmission, it’s not easy to make a “one size fits all” application.
SST puts all its collective experience to task with the PerfectFit kit and not only provides all the parts, but takes the shifter location into consideration as well. By modifying the transmission with its own billet aluminum shifter, the factory console can be retained – without modification. And that shift pattern emblem for the four speed? It’s been replaced with SST’s own six-speed shift pattern emblem, mimicking the factory piece. The SST hydraulic clutch reduces pedal effort over the factory clutch, without sacrificing real estate under the hood.
It’s those attention to details that Silver Sport Transmissions puts into the PerfectFit kit to make your transition from old to new as painless as possible. Check out the PerfectFit applications on the Silver Sport website to see what’s available for your classic car. And if you’re in the market for a complete rearend or crate motor, you can find then on SST’s website, too.