My tranny rant... God grant me the stregnth...
I went into this thinking that it wouldn't be easy, I guess I just didn't expect it so many things to factor into it. Installing a 700r4 into a 61 Apache is interesting to say the least. Cutting the crossmember out kinda sucked at the time, but now seems to be one of the easier steps. I had a couple of flywheel bolts that I ended up having to cut off and extract. I mounted the flexplate and torque converter without a hitch an then called it a nite last night... So today we get the tranny onto the jack and go to roll it under the truck... The tranny doesn't fit under the truck. I have the truck on ramps since I don't have access to a lift. So I call my brother and drive 20 mins to his house to pick up his floor jack. Get home, jack my truck up and position the tranny under the truck (I know this is dangerous), to discover that I need to remove the torsion bar crossmember, so we did. Now with that out of the way there's plenty of room. So we lowered to truck to just where the tires rest above the ramps. I didn't want to drop the truck all the way because the torsion bars aren't hooked up. Trying to get the tranny to line up with the torque converter is a nightmare. Anybody reading my rant that has a trick or a easy way to get them to line up please let me know. We tried for awhile but then the light bulb burnt out and my 2 brother in laws that are helping me, there 19 & 20, convinced me to call it a night... So I did. It sure has been an experience trying to get this tranny into this truck but the end result should be well worth it.
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61 Apache 327 sb from a 63 vette
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