advice on buying a tko600

[Paul Y]

Good evening Gentlemen,

Looking to buy a tko600 and would appreciate advice on the best place to purchase, not only on price (even though that is important!) But also on service.

Is it worth buying a 'kit' or just piecing it together myself.

Many thanks,

P.

[Baker819]

Your post is a little old, but I will reply in case you are still interested.

The TKO600 is awesome. Very easy to rebuild, which even if you don't do it personally the ease of rebuild should reflex in the price.

Check with Liberty's Gears or Modern Driveline they both seem to be great companies. I sure there are others.

Make sure you index the bell housing and get your drive line angle with tolerance and a hydraulic clutch will cost you a little bit more but it will make your install easier and less of a head ache later.

Here are some things I learned during my install.

I put a TKO600 in my 69 C10 about 10 years ago. The biggest regrets with it were
- I should have choose the 0.82 overdrive instead of the 0.64 ( 3.73 gears and 32" tires ) And to switch 5th gear you have to replace the main shaft (5th gear is permanently connected to the main shaft). Around $400 dollars in parts to swap 5th gear ratios. The 0.64 just wasn't really a useable gear.

- I wished I would have inspected the transmission better. The counter shaft has a "plug" where the shaft would go through the front of the case. Well plug sticks out more than .015" and only noticed when I took the trans off and saw a wear mark in the face of the bell housing.

- Wish I would have got the non perfect fit kit, because I ended up making my own transmission mount and cut a hole in the floor because I had a column shifter previously. In my case it was a waste of money. Having the drive shaft sent was nice, though you measure for it after you install the transmission... so there is some wait time. If you are in a hurry just source a drive shaft locally.

- Wished I wouldn't have used a Lakewood bell housing. The one I got was junk. The transmission mounting holes were off and I had to file my transmission holes to get it to bolt up. The register where the front bearing retainer locates the transmission into the bell housing was to small of a hole (even after sanding the powder coating off). And come to find out it seems a lot of people have had problems with Lakewood bell housings. I will say that I have recently talked to a rep. named Rick from Lake wood and he is being extremely helpful and I might be getting a replacement or refund (from 10 years ago).

- Wish I would have bought one with an UPGRADED-SYNCHRONIZED like Liberty's Gears offer for a small price over a stock TKO600. Mine didn't shift as well as it should have. Might have been from my poor installation too.

[Paul Y]

Baker,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Circumstance dictated that my planned purchase has been delayed, primerily due to the cost of the 'other' components required to instal the transmission behind a LM7.

Not completely shelved however, just saving and looking at options including a T56 and a DNE 4+1.

Interesting on your thought around the gear ratio. Was considering the road race option.

Will update once i find where I planted my money tree...

P.

[TJ's Chevy]

Glad someone replied to this thread...Plan on purchasing a TKO600 to bolt behind my custom 292 I6....Were the bell housing patterns different from the original SBC? Cause my bell housing on my 6 banger is the same as a SBC and BBC...just had the bolt pattern for an SM420.

[HemiChallenger71]

You can buy tko's now that will slip into the old style sm420 housings I think.

[Baker819]

Originally Posted by HemiChallenger71

You can buy tko's now that will slip into the old style sm420 housings I think.

I haven't heard anything about that. Since my TKO600 is apart currently I will take the front bearing retainer off (which is the part at fits into the register of the bell housing) and check and see if will bolt up to the older bell housings. I will try to remember to post what I find out. If the transmission to bell housing bolt pattern was the same I don't see why it would be that hard to adapt the TKO to fit into the older bell housing. You could just have a machine shop turn it down on a lathe as long as they had it centered to .0001 I don't see what it would hurt. I don't see you losing any strength from turning it either because there is a lot of material in that spot.

Indexing the bell housing is still very important. The old school transmissions could handle a much bigger tolerance

[Captainfab]

I thought we got that answered and ironed out for you in the other thread?

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Glad someone replied to this thread...Plan on purchasing a TKO600 to bolt behind my custom 292 I6....Were the bell housing patterns different from the original SBC? Cause my bell housing on my 6 banger is the same as a SBC and BBC...just had the bolt pattern for an SM420.

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

I thought we got that answered and ironed out for you in the other thread?

Just wanted to ask someone with who's had hands on...not that I doubt anyone from the other thread...Just being dead sure is all...Is there a problem I'm not seeing?