Auto to Manual

Howdy

I've been thinking about converting my 3 spd automatic to a manual shift somewhere down the road. Right now, I primarily use my truck for hunting and occasional utility needs. So it might sit for a month or two without being used. When I drive it on the highway for hunting, its about 180 miles one way at speeds of around 70. I don't drive it much faster than that with that old 3spd.

I'm starting to put together a list of parts I'll need to acquire. It appears the pedal box is the biggest PITA. I'll start looking for one of those immediately. The rest of it appears to be preference. I do want a hydraulic clutch. A 5sp would be nice but I'm open to a 4spd to make it more retro.

I've done a little reading here on this forum. It sounds like my popular 2 options are SM465, which would be period correct or NV4500, which would be newer but better for highway speeds. My truck is 2WD so no transfer case mating will be happening.

With this information, what would you guys do?

https://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/nv3500-swap.16360/

That's what I did....

bluex said:

https://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/nv3500-swap.16360/

That's what I did....

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Interesting. This would add a 3rd option to the mix. Thanks for sharing.

Option 4) np833. 4speed over drive trans. Has the advantage of using all factory parts, if you can locate one.

CSFJ said:

Option 4) np833. 4speed over drive trans. Has the advantage of using all factory parts, if you can locate one.

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Interesting... would this have been period correct for a 1985 C10 (just curious)?

By your wording, I'm guessing these are pretty rare.

JWDynamics said:

Interesting... would this have been period correct for a 1985 C10 (just curious)?

By your wording, I'm guessing these are pretty rare.

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There's a couple of threads discussing them in the transmission sub-forum of this site.

I have one in my garage actually

And mine was out of a 85 blazer ...ran it for a year ..gears where to long for me

I swapped in my SM465 and I love it, but for a 2wd on-road truck, you are going to appreciate something with overdrive.

Josh Helm said:

I have one in my garage actually

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You looking to sell it?

Pender1 said:

I swapped in my SM465 and I love it, but for a 2wd on-road truck, you are going to appreciate something with overdrive.

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Good to know and makes sense. Thanks for the input.

if the price is right and they weren't rated very high for input torque.. just as a far warning but dodge used the same design and haven't heard much negative things ..so take that with a grain of salt .. I never had issues with it minus gear ratio is long 1 to 1 in 3rd and OD is .75 to 1

Virtually the same ratios as the 700r4 if it helps for comparison. Although it'll need to be the 2wd variant for the OP's application.

i just swapped my Auto for an SM465. overdrive would be VERY nice but im putting 35's on for now so kinda overdrive. the truck will spend 90% of its life under 40 MPH and in the woods so im not super worried about it. 5 year plan will be 6BT so ill do NV4500 then. if i was doing more HWY i would do some sort of over drive trans now

I have the NV3500 in my 76 4wd

And the NV3550 (same trans , removable bell housing ) in my 74 bronco

They are a good trans for daily driver

I used a hydro clutch , some 3500s have it built into the the throwout bearing

I just drilled a hole in the existing clutch pedal and bolted the push rod of the hydro
MC to it

I used threaded rod and some nuts to adjust where the MC sat out from the firewall

Once you figure out the location for the MC still the hole for the push rod
Then after you get that done
Drill the mounting holes

Don’t try to drill all the holes ahead of time , it won’t line up