Switch-pitch converter?

[Mikel]

I found this quite interesting:

http://www.wagoneers.com/FSJ/tech/Transmissions/switchpitch.html

[Rande]

I saw a write-up in a hotrod magazine many years ago. The thing is supposed to work great.

[gsmikie]

1964-67 caddy had that set-up i had one in a cj it gives you about 500 rpm diff

[grimgaunt]

Bud Pauli in Green river Wyoming has one (or maybe it was in his dad's waggie)
worked great from what I hear.

[BIGYELLOW78J10]

So how hard would it be to put in?

Daniel

[gsmikie]

you need the front pump and converter and the wireconnector in the side of the trans with 2 connectors and a toggle switch

[Mikel]

Wouldn't this allow people to use very tall gears without hurting performance too much?

[Chuxwagon]

Buick actually marketed the switch-pitch converter on some of their early 'sixties cars, I know I have read some write-ups on them on the 'net. Try a generic search like 'Buick' and just wade through the material. I seem to remember that there were some minor case differences, esp. to the pan/valve body clearance, but someone like T.C.I. should be able to put any TH400 in the game with a reasonable amount of $$$.
The basic idea was that the converter 'understood' that you needed tall gears for this situation and low gears for another and then determined, via pressure (I think) which situation you were in.
In the boneyard, the switch-pitch TH400's are, I believe, remarkable because of a hump in the usually flat pan, though what that has to do with the operation of the tranny, I don't know ... and don't take the pan shape as the gospel, I'm comin' from distant memory here.