Anybody here ever driven with the OD 4spd in these trucks?
Well they are a ***** and when the shifter bushings get worn they are a bigger ***** to shift.
The novelty and mystique of a 4 speed wears off very quickly...Been there..
I drove one a couple years in the 90's, beige with red interior. It did not make a lot of sense, it had something near a 3.00 rear gear so the little 2 barrel 318 could only push the o.d. on flat ground at best. I remember driving home an hour on the freeway and when I took the off ramp and went to down shift I had been in 3rd the whole 60 miles! Which was 1 to 1 of course. Damn it. Lot of time you would try the o.d. and it would bog so bad you had to just drop it back down.
However I have always wanted another an I wished I would have kept that trans. I think the shifting issue was that the factory supplied shifters were junk. Which I think were Hurst if I remember right.
The gates were so close together it took a knack to drive one.
I think that truck with a 3.50-3.73 ish ring and pinion and a better shifter would be a great combo.
I rarely ever see one, never it seems.
I traded for mine. A friend had smoked the clutch and wanted a Dart. We looked at a few then I bought a $500. 71 slant six car with a trailer hitch that had "***** hitch" stamped in it. It needed some brake work from sitting. It was a great car. I fixed that and he gave me the truck and I put a clutch in it out in the dirt.
I sold the truck to a guy at work for $800 because I wanted a 4 wheel drive or something. Close to a year later he was moving and wanted to sell it back. I told him I couldn't because I did not have space. He lowered the price all night until quitting time when he said $200! I could not say no.
I parked it on the street and my buddy said why is that back?
I forgot when I owned it the first time he said his grandpa said he had canopy I could have that might fit it. The paint was such a dead match you would have thought it was painted together.
Anyway he offered me $500 and the back was entirely full of the last guys garbage to the roof, and it stank. So it was gone again.
Funny thing was, well kind of funny anyway. My buddy got home late one night in the rain and parked under his barn light. He said the truck looked entirely different in that light but he could not put his finger on it. In the morning it was obvious. The canopy was gone!
He said he knew it was on before he left town. We figured somebody was trying to steal it before he came back.
I asked him if he went back to see where it came off. He said " hell no I was too scared to".
