I did on on mid 90s lifted f150 4x4. Had a built 351 sbf, c6, transfer case, and gear vendors.....stuck it all in as 1 long a unit.......had to sit my little brother on the motor as counter weight.......no grill or radiator in the front end
I can tell you this, Gear Vendors has excellent customer service. It was no problem getting a hold of them ever. Mine was installed by a shop in 2006. Unfortunately, they omitted one shimming step, but it took 13 years to give me a problem. In 2019, it would not shift, and I must have called them a dozen times to try and diagnose it over the phone. We tried a bunch of things, but nothing worked, so I had to ship it to them, NY to California, 35 lbs. They arranged shipping for me for 35.00 each way. They also rebuilt the entire unit and added a deep pan for 425.00 total. It's been flawless ever since. It is very important to shim the coupler properly. Mine wasn't shimmed at all, and it took 13 years to wear out the oil pump inside.
Getting ready to pull the trigger and order the Gear vendors unit but I came across a built 2004R for $1400 vs the GV unit for $2800. I am trying to do the pros and cons. I think I am leaning towards the GV unit since I can do it on jack stands and no lock controller is needed.
It really depends on how much power you will run through it. Who built the 2004R? How much power is it built for? Is there a warranty? Does it come with a converter? The Gear vendors is good to 1200 HP. You can easily transfer it to another transmission.
Subscribed … im also really considering Installing one on my 70gs it has 373 gears … what kind if performance gains did you notice other than lower highway RPM for cruising larry ?
A buddy of mine offered it to me, from CK performance, comes with converter but no warranty. I like the ease of removing the gear vendors if swapping over to another car. As far as power goes, I have a stock built 430 with Kenne belle long tubes and an edelbrock performer intake. Sniper EFI on it as well. Just a cruiser pulls hard though, chirps the wheels going into second since it has a shift kit and the 3.73s
I know some here have great success with 2004R's built by various builders, and they hold up well, but I also know others who have had sudden problems and even outright failure with built transmissions. If I was doing this today, I think I would look at a 4L80E. It's a lot easier to do one today than back in the early 2000's, and that is why I went with the GV. It was very easy for me to swap the GV over from my Switch Pitch ST400 to the Fixed Pitch THM400 I use today. I don't worry about it at all at the track.
I bought it for the overdrive, to lower my RPM on the highway. That was the main consideration. They advertise splitting all the gears as a performance enhancer, but I would love to see anyone who could split gears going down the 1/4 mile. I can't imagine how that would be possible. You would need to turn the GV on and off to do that. It's just too much to do, and not enough time. It does produce enormous passing power on the highway if you have it in 3rd over, and you induce the THM400 to downshift to 2nd gear. You are going from 3rd over to 2nd over. On the highway it gets scary fast, and I have only done it once when there was NO TRAFFIC. What you could do at the track, is leave the THM400 in 2nd gear, and then turn the GV on so that you go through the traps in 2nd over. That would be like 4.10 gears in 3rd. That would take some practice though. The GV has a bit of a shift lag. It takes a good second or more to shift when you turn it on. The one time I tried it, I didn't time it right and I hit my rev limiter before the shift was accomplished. It ruined the pass. You need to get the timing right. It would take practice to know when you needed to hit the button. I would love to fit a modern 6, 8, or 10 speed automatic into my car. Can you imagine a transmission that kept the motor right at the torque peak through the entire 1/4 mile pass. I recently looked at a video of the new Vette going down the 1/4 mile. It was a modified car that went 9's. All you heard was shift after shift in quick succession, and that tach never dropped below 5000. Amazing.
Larry, received my GV and planning the install. Question on the dimmer/OD switch - did you put the GV below the high beam or the other way around. And do you like that location? I was thinking either there or just to left and under the brake pedal. My kit also came with the 2 LEDs and a rocker switch, so will fabricate a bracket for the 3 so I don't have to drill holes in the dash. Thanks! -Greg
Below the dimmer, and yes, it is perfect. Easy to find without even looking. Not sure if it is possible for you, but if I did not have the GV control console (which they no longer supply), I would consider putting the LED's and rocker switch into the small removable panel that houses the rear defroster switch. Not clear to me what car you are actually working on. If it is a convertible, and a rear defroster equipped car, you might not have the room.
70 convertible. I made a small bracket out of aluminum angle and installed under the AC controls just to the right of the filler panel. Rocker switch and both lights in it, painted black. Turned out good, you have to look close to see it. Not sure yet how visible the LEDs will be, but it blends in and reflects off the lower dash so pretty sure the lights will show without looking.
I have the unit, have yet to install it. For those that have installed it. How long would you say it takes? I actually have my bachelor party this weekend and was thinking of throwing it in the GS and driving up to Reno with the boys in the GS.
If you have the drive shaft already correct length, it is easily a one day install. (the yoke may be different with the auto. Mine was T-10 and used a different yoke than the GV output shaft) Removing the tailshaft, installing the adapter, (shimming the coupler/shaft) bolting the units together. Just pull everything out of the boxes lay them in order and look at the instructions until you don't have questions. If you pull the transmission to do it, that might take a while longer and doing it on jack stands is going to be a workout. (I pulled mine as it was the T-10 and easier to swap out the tailshaft, reverse idler shaft thrust bearing etc. out of the car, so it took a while longer) Hope that helps.
For me, getting clearance to the floorpan took a couple days since I had 50+ YO body bushings in the convertible. If I recall correctly, I couldn't slide the crossmember in with the GV bolted up, so I dropped the GV, slid the crossmember nearly in place, and then bolted the GV back in. I know Larry the Wizard modified his trans crossmember to get that extra 1/2" or so, which I would do if doing it over again. Another puzzle was the E-brake cable, since the GV occupies the space where it originally was
At this point, why not just put a modern 4 speed auto in? Seems that a gear vendors unit is kinda obsolete by now
