It's an easy swap, but not very rugged unless you want to spend big-bucks. I've got several early 80s Chevy trucks with manual overdrives, but mine are diesel. OD makes a big difference in fuel mileage.
Chevy factory-installed four-speed manual overdrive transmissions on 82s and up 1/2 ton trucks, vans, and Blazers. It's a nice setup, uses conventional mechanical clutch linkage, and has a separate bell-housing. Has full .73 overdrive just like the 5 speeds. I've got four of those setups. NP833 four-speed-overdrive made by New Process and first used by Chrysler (as the A833). It is also full syncrho and has a side-cover shifter posts that use a Hurst-type shifter setup.
1st-3.09, 2nd-1.67, 3rd-1 to 1, and 4th OD-.73
If you insist of five speeds, the NV3500 is the one usually used. It's a light-duty trans used mostly in 1/2 ton or lighter trucks and has an integral bellhousing and hydraulic clutch setup. They're cheap. Now, if you want something rugged, then you need a NV4500 which is very expensive.
The real neat setup is using the original old cast-iron HD four speed with a Ranger-Gearspliter setup bolted between the trans and bell housing. It comes either with 27% overdrive or 17% underdrive. This makes a very rugged OD setup, and . . . since it mounts before the transmission, works fine in 2WD or 4WD.
By the way, about OD and older carbed gas engines? My 65 SS Chevelle with a 327, 10.5 to 1 pistons, 4.11 axle, mild cam, Torker intake, headers, Holley 600, and TH400 trans got 14 MPG at best. When I put overdrive into it, it came up to 19 MPG. That's a big jump, but only works if I'm driving it very easy. OD certainly did improve it though, so the comments about OD not working on carbed gas engines?? Not true in my case.
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Today's Featured Article - An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration - by Kim Pratt. Sam was born in rural Kansas in 1926. His dad was a hard-working farmer and the children worked hard everyday to help ends meet. In the rural area he grew up in, the highlight of the week was Saturday when many people took a break from their work to go to town. It was on one such Saturday in the early 1940's when Sam was 16 years old that he ended up in Dennison, Kansas to watch a demonstration of a new tractor being put on by a local dealer. It was an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership,
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