I currently am running a TH350 in a 1971 Cutlass with a 350 engine. What mods would I need to install a 200-4R transmission.
Driveshaft?
Others?

Thanks

 

Hi,

To my knowledge you need to move the crossmember back to the th400 position and add a bracket for the detent cable and get new parking brake cables, driveshaft should work, also wiring for convertor lock up.

Look in the transmission section as common swap.

Regards,
Jim

 

Physically it's like installing a TH400 - crossmember goes further back which affects the parking brake cables.
You have to hook up the TV cable appropriately. It's not the same as hooking up a kickdown - don't use an existing kickdown point unless it's specifically meant for a 200r4 or 7004r TV cable.
Cooling lines are located differently and swapped - the top is the hot output and the lower is the cool return on the 200r4.
The driveshaft yoke is the same between the 350 and the 200r4. I was able to use the same driveshaft between both trans, just check to make sure engagement is correct and not bottomed out.

Also make sure the 200r4 is built to handle your engine, depending on how much power the 350 makes.

 

Thanks for that info. I guess I need to understand more on how to hook up the TV cable and what it does. I have heard something about a torque converter electric lock I believe?
As far as horsepower, my car is not a hot rod and probably has about 300HP.

 

What carb are you using? If it’s a Q-Jet, it’s easy to swap throttle brackets from a later model CCC style Q-Jet. Check out CK performance info page, he outlines the procedure far better than I could here.

if the 2004R is in good working condition, install either CK Performance valve body kit, govenor and servo package. Or the TransGo kit. The CK stuff is much better quality. In either case, carefully inspect the stator support tube in the pump. The factory part has a lousy heat treat, and most likely will have done serious wear. Aftermarket heat treated parts are common and fairly easy to change if your careful and pay attention to what your doing.

if it’s being rebuilt, install a wide 2nd gear band, and upgrade the factory 7 vane pump to the later 10 vane 4L60/700 parts and dual priming spring. If it’s something you’re going to beat on, either install a deeper pan and 700 style filter, Orrin the trans about a quart over full. The factory filter leaves much to be desired, the filter can become uncovered due to fluid sloshing around. The deeper pan or slightly overfilled helps.

 

errrr..... I would not call the QJet throttle bracket swap ""easy"". The later carbs primary shaft is a different length than earlier carbs. So you have to drill out the rivet on both, pull the new bracket and get it affixed - in the right orientation - to the old shaft. I had Sparky do that conversion on mine. I don't have the tool holding to do it without destroying stuff.
There's the guys making the little bracket for the Olds style carb. I keep forgetting their name, but that's definitely the way to go if one has the right style of carb for it.

CK's book is really useful, but getting parts delivered by them has been getting harder and harder. I wouldn't recommend buying from them unless you're extremely patient and/or persistent. Has CK actually had governors for sale in the past few years?

There's lots of info on TV hookups, just do a general search.

The 200-4r supports lockup torque converters. You can have the transmission built either with or without this feature, and the torque converter needs to be built to match. If I recall correctly, installing a non-lockup converter on a lockup transmission leads to a major fluid routing problem which will kill the trans.
You don't have to use the lockup, but if you do, most of the trans use an electrical signal to engage a solenoid, which engages the lockup. Lots of ways to control that with various pros and cons, you'll have to do some research to get familiar with it.

 

Don’t swap the entire shaft. The throttle/TV cable bracket slips over the shaft, then the end of the shaft is pressed and flattened to hold it in place.

Grind off the flattened part of the throttle shaft on the original carb, and the donor carb. Transfer the TV cable bracket, a couple of tack welds will hold it in place. Bingo! You just duplicated the factory TV cable setup.

 

As said, I am using a 307 TV bracket and 78 403 Qjet which has the same TV geometry. I actually used small U bolt cable clamps to shorten the emergency cables, or order the TH400 cables, since it sits in that position. I used the TH350 driveshaft, no issues. I have used the big Transgo shift kit, it works OK. I have found just adding the big boost valves to a stock pump only gives 190ish psi in the foward gears. Going up to around 225 psi significantly firmed up the shifts. I just added a CK pump, servo, shift kit, deep pan with the early 4L60E filter. It was a hassle to get my CK parts, had put in a claim through PayPal. I grind the small weight quite thin and stake the spring for 5000ish rpm shifts. Good luck.

 

regarding the brackets on the carb for the TV cable to attach to, I'm looking at an 80's Q-jet base plate plate and an early 70's carb and (I gotta be missing something) but I'm not seeing why the later baseplate couldn't be used on the earlier carb. They join at the same points, the bores and linkages look the same, and it looks like it would seal with the earlier gasket. There are ports in the rear that would have to be blocked. What am I missing?