A500 style automatic OD for AMC

I'm posting this from the other AMC Forum. The original post is at:
http://amccars.net/cgi/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1358534711/0



Re: A500 style automatic OD for AMC
Reply #17 - 09/17/14 at 02:18:03

 

Just came back from my first highway drive with the OD - it's fantastic!!!!!
 
It drops the rpm from 3400 in third to 2300 in OD - and most of the noise and vibration goes away. And the LU converter is the plan with a high stall. The shakedown car has a stone stock 360, so the 9 1/2" converter is clearly mismatched. It stalls about 3000 rpm with the smaller engine, so it should be a little higher with the 401 in the car it's intended for. But lock the converter and presto - no slippage at all to make it a decent driver.
 
I'm pumped! This is the plan for a dual purpose car.
 
The short answer for combo is it is a 95 Dodge Dakota 2wd 42RH, with the front case from a 95 or newer 4.0 litre six cylinder Grand Cherokee 42RE, and a converter from a 95 or older Grand Cherokee, same 4.0. The only thing you need to make is a small sleeve to adapt the smaller 3 pin RH connector to the bigger hole in the RE case - they had a nine pin plug. The rest is a total bolt together and bolt on to the engine and flexplate. In this car even the shift linkage and throttle pressure linkage bolted on.I did need to make a new crossmember, and the drive shaft gets shortened 2 1/4".
 
For upgrades I used an input shaft and 5 clutch front drum from a 44RE, an OD drum from a 46RH/E, and I used a SMR rebuild/ upgrade kit that gave me more OD clutches. I also used a SMR shift kit and aluminum pan, and made sure I had the later high flow pump with the drive flats instead of slots and all the matching high flow oil passages. It was a bit of a pain mixing and matching all of this stuff, and it took some research and help from SMR to get the right parts. As posted before finding a decent technology converter was a big problem, but Martin Saine at Saine performance built me one and so far it is exactly as planned.
 
I hope it's strong enough Arizona - cause that's my plan, I want to run 11's with it in a 3600 lb car. The engine it's going behind currently runs 11's in my 3300 lb Rambler, but unfortunately the car this stuff will eventually be in will be a long time before it's together. I'm a little worried about the input shaft, but I'm going for it.

Ken Parkman

 

No, the 999 case cannot be used with the OD setup. The rear of the case is hugely different to accomodate the OD system.

 

But you can use the 42RE front case to make an AMC OD with reasonable ease. If you want a non-computer controled OD for your AMC use that case with the rest from a 42RH 2wd from say a Dakota. Closer to 95 is best as that was the last year for hydraulic control, and they made running improvements on those trannys. Newer is better.