transmission thoughts and ideas
 

just thinking for a future project... but do you guys think it will be a better investment to upgrade my 727(od and a new torque converter) or to look for a donor truck and do a transmission swap. If i choose a transmission swap what is a good reliable transmission to swap to. Any thoughts or ideas will be helpful. Thank you.

An A518 would be the easiest swap in (727 with OD).
A 47RH or any manual will require more parts.
Any manual conversion will cost the most because of the amount of parts required.
As for manual transmissions the pool is kinda shallow. Not too many can take the abuse. Getrag 360, NV4500HD, NV5600, G56 are the common ones used in Dodges There is an adapter for the Ford ZF(?) used behind the Powerstroke. There are engine adapters for SAE bell housings.

Which manual will be the easiest / cheapest to swap out.? After driving a manual for so long driving an automatic just doesn't feel right. Haha I'm kinda picky

nv4500 is going to be your cheapest,easiest, best bang for the buck swap. advance adapters makes a kit that makes it a direct bolt in swap.

If you find a good deal on a Getrag 360 and decide to go that way be sure to overfill the transmission at least a quart. The factory fill point is too low and when you are towing heavy loads uphill the front main bearing gets starved of oil and goes out. I put a 90* pipe elbow in the fill plug hole and turned it straight up which was approximately a quart more.
I recommend either a 47RH or a manual, I fought with my A518 until I was sick of all the problems and then swapped in a Getrag 360. The A518 and 727 aren't worth messing with in my opinion. The 47RH is a good transmission after you build it. If you go manual you will need to figure out how to mount the master cylinder, as the automatic trucks don't have the bracket it mounts to. (My truck had a rubber plug in the firewall for it though) I believe the 727 has the same crossmember as the A518 and the Getrag 360, if you go NV4500 you will have to modify your crossmember. No matter what you do you will have to have your drivelines lengthened/shortened. If you get a Getrag 360 and need help converting let me know.

The Getrag is just as good and probably come out cheaper in the long run. To install an NV4500 you will need either the Advance Adapters bell housing kit (last I checked $450) or the engine to bell housing plate and starter from a 2nd gen ($200ish). Then you need the rest of the stuff. With the Getrag, all you need is the rest of the stuff. Fly wheel, bell housing, clutch stuff. In all cases you will need the clutch peddle and hydraulics. I recently checked prices on Getrag 360 vs NV4500s and they were about the same. If you find a "cheap" 4500, make sure it is an HD and not an LD. You can use an LD, but it won't hold up.

In any manual swap will I need to get a new transfer case. I think I've read that they are different spline count ,manuals and autos. I just want to make sure that if I choose to go with a getrag ill still need to get a transfer case too. The getrag is looking what ill do. It seems easier and in need of next to no fab work /adapters. I'm just hesitant to get a getrag because I've heard a lot of bad things about them.

All you need to do is change the coupler which are still available. That is the only difference between the 2.

Couger the auto transfer cases are 23 spline and the manues are 23 spline I got around that by building stepped coupling not highly recomended

I think one is 23 spline and the other is 29 spline.