1of1442

I owned a 1970 442 post car with a 3 speed floor shift. I parted it out (dumb) because it had a hole in the top for a sunroof. I always thougt the ford logo cast into the trans was weird and it had a Sparkomatic shifter. Wouldn't all 442's have the 442 hurst shifter or was that just the 4 speed? For what it's worth the car was originally silver and the only option it had was a/c. I read somewhere once that a lot of silver cars were dealer stock so that makes sense. Car was 1 of 96 right?

joe_padavano

Yes, in 1970 all 442s with the Dearborn trans got the Hurst shifter. Some brain surgeon apparently swapped it out for a cheap-@$$ Sprarkomatic.

Don't confuse rare with desirable or valuable. The three speed was the bottom of the line loss leader version of the 442. They are rare because no one wanted them. That doesn't make them more valuable now.

Hairy Olds

Well Joe I have to disagree with you my 70 442 had a saginaw cast iron 3 speed and it was factory. It did come with a Hurst shifter. if you would like pics for referance please pm me your email address.

joe_padavano

The Muncie three speed was also iron. Note the difference in the position of the bolts on the side cover. The Saginaw has one bolt at the top center of the side cover, the Muncie has two bolts on the top edge. Note also the longer main case on the Muncie in the second photo, and the correspondingly shorter tail housing. Ignore the ratio markings - those are from a truck.

tva442

My 69 442 convertible is silver and believe it was a dealer stock car per original owner, so maybe some truth!

It is 1 of 87, and though not as valuable, I enjoy it ! It is also a console and bucket seat car.

1of1442

"Don't confuse rare with desirable or valuable. The three speed was the bottom of the line loss leader version of the 442. They are rare because no one wanted them. That doesn't make them more valuable now."


I apologize if I sounded like the value of the car was important.
I was trying to point out that killing a 442 was something I wasn't proud of, especially because of the low production figure it could have represented.


I personally did not have the opportunity to have any firsthand experiences with any true muscle car until long after most people considered them to be junk. All generations other than 1, have to rely on stories of these cars in their "heyday" and anything unique is interesting from an educational standpoint.

But I am still unclear with, whether or not the 3 speed hurst shifters still had the 442 stick? Was the stick itself the same as the 4 speed stick and just the shifter was different for the 3 speed?

Also, isn't Sparkomatic a phord company? What are the odds someone coincidently replaced the shifter with a phord built shifter as opposed to it being original equipment to the car ,before GM approved, or Hurst built or designed a shifter for a phord trans in a GM car? Coming from one of the generations to follow I have never heard of or seen, an aftermarket, commercially available Sparkomatic Manual trans shifter? Anyone?

66-3X2 442

A 70 with a Dearborn? Is that right? I thought 69 was the last year for the Dearborn/Phord in GM cars.

davebw31

Was talking to a service rep (do not remember the zone office) and told me about a really pissed customer who had bought a Cutlass S w/350 and a three speed. He had some kind of clutch problem and was at a dealership to get it repaired under warranty. Apparently the mechanic told him he had a FoMoCO made trans and the guy went ballistic. In the end GM bought the car back and sold him a Cutlass S with a four speed Muncie (N/C for the 4 spd.) at dealer cost. I heard he made them put the car on a lift and had the service rep prove that the Muncie was a GM product before he would pay for it! We had a lot, and I mean a lot of loyal customers like that.

joe_padavano

Thanks for the catch. You are correct, Dearborn for 65-69, Muncie for 70-up. In either case, the Hurst Competition Plus was the factory shifter in the 442. Note that this was NOT the case in 1972, where the 442 was not a unique model. You had to order RPO W39 to get the HD three speed with Hurst shifter.

joe_padavano

Silver may be the most popular color for cars today, but that was definitely not the case in the 1960s and early 70s. I certainly don't recall seeing the sea of silver cars in the dealer lots then the way you do now. In 1970 lime green was the most popular car color.

Here's an interesting chart, though it only goes back to 1985 and only covers car colors in traffic violations in Montgomery Co, MD, but you get an idea of the color trends over time. Note that silver was a small percentage even as recently as 30 years ago.

Brandon Chatz

I have a 69 Olds 442 and it has a console and bucket seats with a 3 speed manual transmission very rear.

joe_padavano

Kind of an old thread back from the dead, but once again, from mid-1965 through the 1971 model year, the base equipment transmission with the 442 was the HD three speed manual trans with floor shifter and NO console. This base interior in those years in the 442 was bucket seats. There is no fuzz on this whatsoever - it's completely documented in the selling literature. For model years 1965-69, that three speed was the Dearborn top loader. For 1970-up, it was the new-for-70 Muncie three speed.

344670M3-speed

Old but interesting (to me at least) thread. I very much enjoy my Lansing built paint code 75 3-speed (with buckets and console). All the previous comments, research and discussions were fun to read. Thanks all!

WTHIRTY1

Few photos of the 1970 Muncie 3-spd code ‘RM’ out of my W-31.