Getting greasy and grimy is all in a day’s fun when you’re scrounging for a junkyard transmission, but knowing what you’re looking for before you go is definitely important. Wrenching under a teetering hulk to pull that perfect truck tranny is all good, until you get it home and find out it won’t fit your rig. We’ve nearly done that a time or two, and now we do our research before we trundle off in search of gold.
When you’re building up that ultimate trail rig, it’s more than likely you will need to swap out the weenie stock transmission for some major beef, be it automatic or stick style. But what fits what? And what can be adapted? We could write a book on the subject, but for now we’ll concentrate on a few proven performers of big American iron—our favorites. Don’t get us wrong; there’s lots of smaller stuff from around the world that has its place and makes for fine conversion, but we prefer bulletproof components that give us back trouble as we heave them around from the junkyard to the garage.
To watch video of the
4-Wheel staff hitting the junkyard for this and other bargain stories,
click here.