Pictures of a Unique Tailhousing for Old School Apps!
11-09-2007, 10:39 PM
#1
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Pictures of a Unique Tailhousing for Old School Apps! One of our coolest customers recently asked us to freshen up his unit after a hard year of pounding on it, he also wanted to take it full manual. We are also going to install a B&M Pro Ratchet shifter and Trans temp Gauge while we are at it.
The customer bought his car when it was 8 months old and has owned it ever since... ready for this? He is 69 years young! The car is a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, he has owned it since it was 8 months old! It is equipped with an LS2 built by Xtreme H/P and he runs one of our Stage 2 4L60E's with our 4,000 RPM converter. He takes it to the track every chance he gets to hot lap the snot out of it. This year alone he has well over 100 1/8 mile track passes. He takes his sons and grandsons out averaging nearly 12 passes a trip, how cool is that right?
He recently ran a personal best of 7.56 @ 87.97 with a 1.65 60'. (Edited Correction, he ran the .56 in qualifying and ran a 7.51 in the last race against a Stingray Vette, the Vette broke out by .3 or so.) He did that while winning the Trophy in his class going 7 rounds in a Muscle Car challenge at Texas Speedway in Kennedale, Tx. a few weeks ago. His 1st ever Trophy and a nice Jacket to go with it. I like those stories!
Because he wanted to retain his original gauge cluster, he had a custom tailhousing installed several years back when he had it converted to the LS style powertrain. I thought it would be good to show you guys what we can do with Old School combinations when late model powertrains are utilized!
This is the tailhousing and related attaching hardware just prior to installation onto the billet adapter plate. Note the speed sensor, speedometer driven gear housing and poly mount.
Opposite side of tailhousing showing old school speedometer housing bung.
In this pic notice the output shaft and billet adapter plate that is attached to the case. On the output shaft you will see the original tone wheel for the VSS a spacer and then the speedo drive gear!
Misc pics of the final installation.
We can order these custom tailhousings for several different transmissions. If you like what you see and want to learn more about some of the conversions and swaps we do here at ACE just give me a shout and I'll hook you up!
I'll get some pics of the car up as soon as I can. I'll also get some pics of the Shifter and Gauge installation soon as we'll do those next week.
g
The customer bought his car when it was 8 months old and has owned it ever since... ready for this? He is 69 years young! The car is a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, he has owned it since it was 8 months old! It is equipped with an LS2 built by Xtreme H/P and he runs one of our Stage 2 4L60E's with our 4,000 RPM converter. He takes it to the track every chance he gets to hot lap the snot out of it. This year alone he has well over 100 1/8 mile track passes. He takes his sons and grandsons out averaging nearly 12 passes a trip, how cool is that right?
He recently ran a personal best of 7.56 @ 87.97 with a 1.65 60'. (Edited Correction, he ran the .56 in qualifying and ran a 7.51 in the last race against a Stingray Vette, the Vette broke out by .3 or so.) He did that while winning the Trophy in his class going 7 rounds in a Muscle Car challenge at Texas Speedway in Kennedale, Tx. a few weeks ago. His 1st ever Trophy and a nice Jacket to go with it. I like those stories!
Because he wanted to retain his original gauge cluster, he had a custom tailhousing installed several years back when he had it converted to the LS style powertrain. I thought it would be good to show you guys what we can do with Old School combinations when late model powertrains are utilized!
This is the tailhousing and related attaching hardware just prior to installation onto the billet adapter plate. Note the speed sensor, speedometer driven gear housing and poly mount.
Opposite side of tailhousing showing old school speedometer housing bung.
In this pic notice the output shaft and billet adapter plate that is attached to the case. On the output shaft you will see the original tone wheel for the VSS a spacer and then the speedo drive gear!
Misc pics of the final installation.
We can order these custom tailhousings for several different transmissions. If you like what you see and want to learn more about some of the conversions and swaps we do here at ACE just give me a shout and I'll hook you up!
I'll get some pics of the car up as soon as I can. I'll also get some pics of the Shifter and Gauge installation soon as we'll do those next week.
g
Last edited by Gilbert@Ace Racing; 11-10-2007 at 09:45 AM.
11-10-2007, 09:21 AM
#4
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Good question Vince... it is OE with a bung welded for the VSS. It is out of an early Impala if I am not mistaken. I'll find out for sure next week and get back to you with that. Notice that it is a 4 bolt pattern. I would think that it would take quite and effort to cast those for one off combos... but I 'm sure someone is doing it somewhere!
g
g
11-10-2007, 09:38 AM
#6
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Stay tuned... I'll try to get some pics up of the new Shifter and Gauge later today when I have time. I get such a big kick out of helping guys take their cars to new levels!
g
g
11-10-2007, 09:45 AM
#7
Shiftworks makes most of the adapters like that.
Jags that Run has been doing them for many years also for custom stuff. I think they were the first ones to mod the T56 tail for a mechanical speedo.
Jags that Run has been doing them for many years also for custom stuff. I think they were the first ones to mod the T56 tail for a mechanical speedo.
Last edited by jakeshoe; 11-10-2007 at 10:06 AM. Reason: T56 instead of T46 typo
Trending Topics
11-10-2007, 09:48 AM
#8
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Yep, there are quite a few companies that provide conversion components for transmissions, there is a little cottage industry for adapters. The one depicted was made by a local company.
g
g
11-10-2007, 09:55 AM
#9
Yeah,
I know the 4L80E adapter that shiftworks sells is made here in Texas. I would have to dig through my folders here and find the company.
I have a 4L80E adapter made in Canada for cheaper though.
http://www.shiftworks.com/tailhousing.htm
I know the 4L80E adapter that shiftworks sells is made here in Texas. I would have to dig through my folders here and find the company.
I have a 4L80E adapter made in Canada for cheaper though.
http://www.shiftworks.com/tailhousing.htm
Last edited by jakeshoe; 11-10-2007 at 09:57 AM. Reason: add link
11-10-2007, 10:20 AM
#11
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Thanks for the info Jake! I think when one gets to digging for the right part on eowuld find that indeed there are several companies doing somthing similar with this hardware.
You are correct, ours was supplied by Southwest Street Works.
www.southweststreetworks.com
g
You are correct, ours was supplied by Southwest Street Works.
www.southweststreetworks.com
g
11-10-2007, 10:41 AM
#12
I think R&D and SW Streetworks is one and the same.
And if you look at theirs and shiftworks, they all look exactly the same.
I use a place in Canada for the 4L80E piece, they take a stock tailhousing and weld a sleeve in it, then machine it. It isn't as pretty as the cast piece sold by the above but has nice tig welds
I paid $325 shipped for the last one. Pretty good price compared to $495 list on the other pieces.
Autotrans Inc in Edmonton is the place...
And if you look at theirs and shiftworks, they all look exactly the same.
I use a place in Canada for the 4L80E piece, they take a stock tailhousing and weld a sleeve in it, then machine it. It isn't as pretty as the cast piece sold by the above but has nice tig welds
I paid $325 shipped for the last one. Pretty good price compared to $495 list on the other pieces.
Autotrans Inc in Edmonton is the place...
11-10-2007, 10:45 AM
#13
I know a guy who is taking 4L80Es cutting the bellhousings off, and adapting them to work in the Corvettes.
I'm trying to convince him to make a tailhousing, crossmember, and output shaft so that it will botl in place of a 60E in the LS1 cars with no driveshaft mods except maybe a yoke change.
he can make the output shaft in either spline, but a yoke swap shouldn't be a big deal and would keep the strength up.
I'm trying to convince him to make a tailhousing, crossmember, and output shaft so that it will botl in place of a 60E in the LS1 cars with no driveshaft mods except maybe a yoke change.
he can make the output shaft in either spline, but a yoke swap shouldn't be a big deal and would keep the strength up.
10-18-2009, 12:57 PM
#17
I just did one from JTR and it worked out pretty good. I have used both mentioned in this thread and JTR was the one of choice. Here are a couple of pictures.
Closer look at the finished product.
Here is a picture of the adapter housing with the vss reluctor. If you look close at the picture you can see where I drilled the factory 4l60e shaft to install the mechanical speedometer drive gear.
This is basically how it works.
The only issue I had with this setup was tightening the sensor in the housing. It is a tight fit and I just used a brass drift punch/hammer to tighten the sensor in the housing. I like this setup better because it works well and there was not any issues with leaks. To me that is the key to this conversion. Contact jagsthatrun.com if you are looking for one of these. Tell them I sent you. Vince Bielanski
Closer look at the finished product.
Here is a picture of the adapter housing with the vss reluctor. If you look close at the picture you can see where I drilled the factory 4l60e shaft to install the mechanical speedometer drive gear.
This is basically how it works.
The only issue I had with this setup was tightening the sensor in the housing. It is a tight fit and I just used a brass drift punch/hammer to tighten the sensor in the housing. I like this setup better because it works well and there was not any issues with leaks. To me that is the key to this conversion. Contact jagsthatrun.com if you are looking for one of these. Tell them I sent you. Vince Bielanski
10-18-2009, 01:24 PM
#18
i run the Abbott box for the speedometer on my Chevelle using the 4l80e,
it was cheaper than the $500 tailhousing-also my Compushift controller has a speedometer built into it, once setup, both read the same-still prob prefer the tailhousing, just too much
it was cheaper than the $500 tailhousing-also my Compushift controller has a speedometer built into it, once setup, both read the same-still prob prefer the tailhousing, just too much
