Just got my first Camaro this weekend, a 1982 Z28. Once I got her home and scraped away the layers of grease and crud under the (very much leaking) transmission, I noticed something pecular.....13 bolts on the tranny pan. The tranny is a th350, not the th200 thats supposed to be there. Now, here is my problem AND questions....

1) When I romp on the gas, the car doesnt seem to downshift. Do I have to manually downshift due to the bubba th350 conversion, or is something not hooked up righ?

2) The shifting lever will go into any gear with the engine off and no key in the ignition. Again, is this because of the ghetto retrofit, and can it be fixed?

Any comments/suggestions about this engine/tranny combo are welcome, this car is brand new to me and currently runs like a bag of smashed buttholes. I need all the troubleshooting I can get.

 

OK if you have a 350 what is it using for a kick down? A 700 and a 200 will have a cable.
The shift lever has a cable that comes off the ignition switch to the shift lever. I had a B&M shifter in my 84 and had to do away with that cable because there was no provision for it on the aftermarket shifter.
Finally, I like "bag of smashed buttholes" can I use that sometime?

 

As far as a kickdown, all I can assume its using is the vac modulator. There is a modulator on the back of the tranny that runs up, splits into a T and one end goes to the vac advance and the other plugs into a vac port on the carb. The line are old, but seem to be holding air allright. This transmission swap issue is gonna be the death of me! Are TH350's common in an 82 Camaro as a replacement?

 

I think it is a common replacement when some one does not want to spend extra money on a 700R4. If I am thinking correctly the vacuum is controling the firmness of the shift. Not the kick down. I would think you are going to need to fit a kick down lever on there. Or get the right trans.

 

Spoke with a motorhead at the local auto store tonight and indeed you are right, I will need to install a kickdown cable. Fabricating a bracket will be the hardest part!

 

I dont know for sure but I think lockar (spelling???) might make things like cables. You see a lot of thier stuff on custom hot rods.