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Thu Jul 01, 2004 10:38 am

Can I put a 66 fasty body on a 72 fasty pan? Girlfriend wants a fastback but wants the 66 in my garage to be automatic. Today I was given a 72 fastback minus motor and other stuff I'm not willing to deal with. So the 72 gets to donate its pan to my girlfriends cause.

Thu Jul 01, 2004 12:30 pm

Jeez, what a demanding girl friend. Anyway, do I understand that you have a 66 FB w/std trans, and you want to make it into an auto trans car? You can put a 72 automatic pan under a 66 body, but you will have to fab a rear engine mount

Thu Jul 01, 2004 4:59 pm

Fab the rear engine mount? Like you mean the rear engine cross bar hanger? On my fastback wich is a 69 fastback with correct pan. I put a type 1 motor in without the mounts for the rear engine hanger. So we took the wish bone I geuss you could call it from a swing axle car to allow the transmission to support the motor. It's been like that for 5 years. Could I basically do the same thing with this new automatic transmission. I haven't picked up the 72 yet so I haven't had much of a chance to look at it and plan for anything.

She isn't that demanding at all. I bought the 66 for her in the first place and figured I could teach her how to drive a standard but she would rather stick to the auto trans. This 66 is almost completely apart anyway pan will be off this weekend. Then we start the swap. Just wanted to see if you guys knew if the swap was possible.

Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:59 am

Just kidding about the girl friend. I completely rebuilt a Squareback for mine. She treated me real good after that.

Can you install an auto trans in a swingaxle-type wishbone subframe? It would be easier to fab a rear mount and use the IRS subframe.

First of all, pre-68 T3s use a different front trans mount; you would have to graft the later mount onto your 66 torstion tube. Second, I don't believe (my memory is a little fuzzy) that the auto trans has a provision for a rear trans mount, and I don't know how much work it would be to make one. Much simpler to cut the rear engine mounts from the body of an IRS car and weld them to your 66 body. A little trimming to the body is necessary for the mounts to fit, but it's nothing like the work involved putting an auto into an early car w/swingaxle subframe.

You don't necessarily have to swap pans, just remove the swingaxle subframe, put in the IRS, and install the rear engine mounts. But then you'd have to modify the 66 pan for the auto gear selector, and I'm not sure how much work that would be.

Sat Jul 03, 2004 9:18 am

toumadrivesa66 wrote: Fab the rear engine mount? Like you mean the rear engine cross bar hanger? On my fastback wich is a 69 fastback with correct pan. I put a type 1 motor in without the mounts for the rear engine hanger. So we took the wish bone I geuss you could call it from a swing axle car to allow the transmission to support the motor. It's been like that for 5 years. Could I basically do the same thing with this new automatic transmission. I haven't picked up the 72 yet so I haven't had much of a chance to look at it and plan for anything.

Yes, you'll need to do something like the 69 to 73 rear engine hanger set up. The AT is wider, hence the reason for the removal of the forks under the trans. Also, as mentioned earlier, there are no provisions for the trans mount under the trans. My 65 Notch was converted similarly, as I'm running IRS under it (70 pan and all), and set the car up for a possible AT conversion at a later date. I hope this helps.

Sat Jul 03, 2004 12:02 pm

I'm sure it can all be done, but how much are you willing to fabricate?

I was looking at a couple of core T3 A/T's a few weeks ago, and there are a couple of mounting bosses on the top of the bellhousing you might be able to use, depending on how much you're willing to fabricate. Those bosses are there because essentially the same A/T was also used in the earlier T4-engined busses (different A/T after '76), and the 411/412's also used a near-identical A/T.

The 411/412's basically hung the engine/tranny combo from that bellhousing mount. Sure, they've also got a mount at the front of the tranny and the back of the engine, but there's not a lot of actual weight on those. Also, my M/T '75 bus has a tranny hanger at the top of the bellhousing, and it's pretty substantial. Maybe you could duplicate that kind of mounting?

Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:14 am

tristessa wrote: I'm sure it can all be done, but how much are you willing to fabricate?

I was looking at a couple of core T3 A/T's a few weeks ago, and there are a couple of mounting bosses on the top of the bellhousing you might be able to use, depending on how much you're willing to fabricate. Those bosses are there because essentially the same A/T was also used in the earlier T4-engined busses (different A/T after '76), and the 411/412's also used a near-identical A/T.

I think it would be easier to remove the brackets from the "donor" car and have them welded in, rather than adding a bracket above the trans on the body (overhead welding sucks:evil: ). I had to slightly rework the air box drains on my Notch to install the engine hanger brackets, but it wasn't as big a job as I thought it would have been. The biggest thing is to get the engine and trans in alignment first, then set your height, then figure out where your brackets need to be located. I used that upper mount to help locate the engine where I wanted it, and that helped a lot. :D I hope this helps.

Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:19 am

sounds like a lot of work. Maybe I'll just try to find her a 69 fastback with automatic trans. Then the 66 can once again be mine.

Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:45 am

Why can't you just put the body on the 72 pan?

I realize the rear torsion assembly swap is possible but seems like the whole body would swap in a weekend. That way the auto trans shift linkage etc stays on the pan etc.

unbolt the 2 bodies ... by a few cases of beer, some grub call up 6 buds and go to town?

I've done it to numerous bugs and ghias and the type 3 has some mounting point differences but it basically the same design/idea.

Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:22 am

keifernet wrote: Why can't you just put the body on the 72 pan? ...
The early and late T3's differ in engine mounting. Read the above posts :roll:

Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:46 am

Air_Cooled_Nut wrote: keifernet wrote: Why can't you just put the body on the 72 pan? ...
The early and late T3's differ in engine mounting. Read the above posts :roll:

I did, and I realize that, but that seems to be a small amount of fabricating compared to the other methods discussed.

I guess I made it sound like it is as easy as the type 1 swap and it's not. :oops:

Your right you still have to do some fab work no matter which way you go.

:roll: back at ya! :wink:

Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:29 am

You might also have to fab for the valance under the rear seat bottom. That panel goes across the floorpan and has the heater outlets. Very odd design as half is part of the floorpan and half is part of the body. I parted out a 1964 T34 Ghia and a 1966 T34 Ghia where both were like that. There were about 8 or 10 10mm bolts holding the two pieces together. When I parted out the 1970 Square the valance was one piece across the floorpan.