3.42 First gear Super T-10 in a track car
We are building a more dedicated autocross/road course car and the transmission I have is Iron case (904) and steel midplate Super T-10. The downside is the dreaded first gear. I am trying to figure out if it will stay together (at least for awhile!) for what we are doing considering it probably won't see first gear, especially on a road course. Are these transmissions weaker just because of hard launches with sticky tires out of first gear? Does this make the rest of the gears weaker somehow as well?
Will be in a 3200 Ibs 77 T/A with at least 500hp of Pontiac power. Appreciate the input! Colin |
I think the 3.42 is rated at like 250 lb TQ
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Hi Tom,
Something low for sure but wondering if that just the case for hard first gear starts and then is it the same strength as any other super t10 for the remaining gears? Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk |
I have been running them for almost 20 years.Had one in a 63 421 HO.Raced it a few times with a 3.42 in the back and never broke it.I think the weak spot will be between the main drive and the cluster.I have one in my 421 62 GP right now.A guy at Richmond told me they have a 20% fudge factor on their ratings.I think a iron case and mid plate will help.Worst that happens is you break it!Tom
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I've toasted two late '70's Super T-10's in the '79 T/A with 3:23 rear and drag radials. I contacted Paul Cangelosi of 5speeds.com and had him build a new Autogear aluminum cased, billet mid-plate, all new internals, based on a Muncie M21.
Awesome trans for a fair price. |
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Autocross you will be lauching pretty hard at the start and using 1st some tight turns. In the 79 Camaro(with teh IA in it now) I autocrossed a 380 HP 383 with a ST-10 out of an 80 Z28 and 3.73s and 25" roadrace slicks and used 1st often.
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The TA will go back to a manual eventually. How much for the Auto Gear, horsepower rating ? |
Skip, did you have any issues or did it do okay? Although the car will see some autocross it will only be to shake down the car as we are setting it up mostly for road course duty. Was also thinking I could just start in second for the autocross work, it will have more then enough torque anyways :-)
As far as the autogear stuff it's definitely nice stuff and might happen down the road but we are trying to keep costs reasonable with this project and it's kind of a use what we have type of thing, All this came about as we have been taking our cars to more and more track days and one of our friends wrote off his old car, he was okay but just by luck. So we decided to build a dedicated track car with a proper cage, fire system etc, life is too short already! |
Fingers crossed, my 3.42 1st gear Super T-10 has lived with the 406 on my 81 T/A for both drag racing and autocross. I've only used street tires on it and have kept more pressure in the tires as a safety precaution. I do have a much stouter iron case T-10 1B (over the counter performance tranny) that will be going in the car sooner than later.
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The iron case helps big time. The reason they are weak it the 3.42 gear is so small. Heavy car and sticky tires in an aluminum case has a short lifespan. The case spreads/ flex's and the gear shears. The iron case will not flex, this helps a bunch. Just take it easy on the launch.
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Here's a ratio chart for the B/W T-10 if anybody needs one.
http://www.dandltransmission.com/borgratio.html |
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Two years of running the 455 T400 T/As was extremely successful with both cars. I was class winner (C/Prepared) for the year with my 73. I took 4 first places, 1 second and a third and wound up with the trophy for the winner of the class that year. I also ran a borrowed T/A 6.6 400 77 Bandit car one time with a 4 speed, and saw no advantage over the T400 cars. The owner wanted someone to drive the car that had experience autocrossing, and asked me to drive it. I've owned a good many 4 speed Pontiacs and never saw any advantage to using a manual transmission on a dirt track, or an autocross course, won a good number of events using a slushbox. Both of the dirt cars in my signature pic have T400s, 67 GTO has a 400 engine, and the 69 GP had a 428 in it, zero transmission problems with either car over a 5 year period 13 feature wins, and a good many heat race wins over 5 years................:2cents: |
autos= boring
3 pedals= mucho fun |
3 pedals, much more room for operator error, broken driveline parts much more frequently, missed gears, jammed shifters, been there done that, not my idea of fun. If you want to win, you have to have all the advantages in your favor.
2 pedals, almost no room for operator error, and dead consistent, never break a transmission or clutch, no shifter to jam, much easier to be able to judiciously modulate power to the wheels, (spinning ain't winning, in any form of motorsports). If winning races is boring, I'll take boring every time. I've tried it both ways, and would never go back to a stick because of the need for consistency and reliability. This isn't drag racing the OP is talking about, it's closed circuit racing, totally different animal than running for 10 seconds in a straight line. You have to ask yourself, why Jim Hall, one of the most successful engineers, innovators, and builders of the Chaparral sports cars, used a T400 in his road race cars, and was super consistent, won scores of races with his cars. Hard to argue with the success Jim Hall had using a T400 in his race cars for years. I drove semi for 7 years, I've probably shifted a stick more times than many people on here. There is no pleasure from rowing gears for me whatsoever, in a race, street car, or a truck. It's monotonous, and there is no reason to subject myself to it. When I was young, everything I owned had to be a stick shift, as I got older, and more experienced, nothing I owned had a stick shift in it. I do curently own an IH wrecker that has a 5 speed in it, if I could have gotten a truck with an Allison in it, for what I paid for the 5 speed truck, I would have bought a truck with an Allison. :focus: |
Mine did OK. Got it second hand from my machine shop's brother years ago when he converted his 80 Z28 to an auto. Not sure if it's first gear is that low I'll have to look it up from the numbers It has a cast iron side plate but is aluminum. Even autcrossed it with the old Mr Gasket Veritgate I had had in my old 409 Impala in the 70s!.
If you go autocrossing a set of road race slicks (John Berget sells used race tires) makes it even more fun! I even has some heavy steel 16x10 wheels I had made form one of the circle track wheel companies for it I'll give you if you pay shipping! |
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Not the best pics but ill get some more https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...55c7a8efd1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fa2bcea7b5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...926af6b7fa.jpg
Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk |
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I have had 6 daily driven manual transmission vehicles. Never had to replace one clutch. My work beater is at 240K with original clutch and exhaust. Many times simple is better. But not better for car companies pocket books. |
Electronic controlled transmissions are not new, GM has had them since 1991. Anyway, I talked about the T400, not electronically controlled, and easily able to handle a 500 HP Pontiac with just a few modifications. I do believe the OP was originally concerned about breaking transmissions, and asked for input. I offered input based on my own past experiences. After looking at the pictures I don't think it's a weekend street driver.
From the pictures posted, the OP looks to have a dedicated race car, if he has gone to the trouble of building a race car he might want to win races, not go out and have "fun" shifting gears with a 4 speed...............:noidea: Not too many people on this board have driven closed course cars as 99% have drag cars and the race section is almost entirely devoted to drag racing. If that's what floats yer boat, that's fine. I myself like other forms of racing, and have participated in them as well. If the OP was dead set on a stick car, then he can disregard my comments. I didn't get the idea from asking for input, that there was no consideration of any other transmission, but then I have no idea of his criteria, for his car. I have a tendency to not follow the crowd, and work/look outside of the box. Innovative ideas win races, not following what everyone else is doing. A friend of mine that raced circle track for many years put it in perspective. Quote:
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My 70TA has a TH400 in it and it's seen plenty of autocross and track days and I can assure you that your right, if it was a 4 speed car I would have been slower! Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk |
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I was once told by a pit steward, that my 67 GTO, (in the second pic in my signature), had too many bars in the drivers door, WTF...............:confused:...............:huh: My response was that it was my A$$ sitting in that seat, and when their butt was in the seat would they want less protection? That ended the discussion pretty quickly. One time at a drivers meeting I broached the subject of oversize wheel studs not being allowed. The track owner said a wheel coming off a car adds a little excitement for the fans. I then said, that a wheel going into the grandstands should be the ultimate in excitement .............. we were allowed oversize studs after that exchange..........:clap2: Stay safe in your pursuits, there are no good wrecks in motorsports. I hate to see anyone taken out of their cars, and put into an ambulance at any racing venue. Go fast, but be safe above all. Kick A$$ with a PONTIAC. |
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Paul offers an array of options including gear ratio's. Give him a call or checkout his youtube video's. |
So you banged the gears hard on the new tranny?
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The 3.42 gearset has the lowest torque capacity rating of the available Super T-10 gear sets. The 3.42 main drive gear(gear on end of input shaft) is much smaller in diameter than the gear it is driving on the front of the cluster gear. The strongest arrangement is when the input gear and the gear it drives on the cluster gear are closer to the same diameter. So that means that the closest ratio unit will be the strongest. The 2.43 close ratio gearset is the strongest of the Super T-10 gearsets and is identified by 2 identifying grooves on the input shaft spline. As far as not using 1st gear and avoiding drag race style launches, that will definitely help it live longer. But dont forget; the power flow for the speed gears 1st, 2cnd and 3rd flows through that same weaker maindrive gear and front cluster gear combo. To illustrate, the 2.43 gear set has a 21 tooth maindrive gear driving a 28 tooth gear on the front of the cluster gear, while the 3.42 set has a pitifully small diameter 17 tooth input shaft driving a much larger dia 31 tooth gear on the front of the cluster gear. Power flow for all gears except for 4th flow through the maindrive/cluster gear pair. Curious, where did you get the 904 nodular iron case and is this a 1st design Super T-10 or a 2cnd Design Super T-10....or is it a Richmond (basically a 2cnd design)? From a HotRod online article: " the Super T10 that Pontiac specified for its high-torque 400 and 455s was a close-ratio unit with a First-gear ratio of 2.43:1, which happens to boast of the greatest torque capacity rating of any Super T10. ........... As years progressed, new lower-ratio gear sets were developed, and by 1980, a First-gear ratio of 3.42:1 was used with 301ci Pontiac and 305ci Chevy engines. The number of gear teeth required to achieve that ratio made the gears vulnerable. The above speaks for itself .. wouldn't you say? Here are the available gear-sets as listed by Richmond gear. |
So I have been looking around, and there is a tex racing ST10 not too far from me. Would be able to possibly trade from some parts I have...anyone have experience with these? It's not the T101 tranny but still a Super T10...
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-transmission...-10/1491914950 |
I have a t101 going in a project now. Sitting next to a stock t 10 it looks like a heavyweight vs a lightweight. The tailhousing has 5 bolts, the case is way thicker.
It will hold much more horsepower. The shifter set up on that one is great too. |
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Picked up the transmission today and decided against the shifter for now, ill first see how things fit and go from there (moving the motor back and down in the car)
Transmission looks perfect, really happy I grab this and won't have to worry about the other tranny Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk |
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