I was talking to a few of the technicians in my shop about 2 weeks ago about the 200R4 tranny.
The general consensus was that they blow up - often. And when they do, they eat themselves alive. So there's generally not much left to work with.
I have one on my 71 skylark because the moron who owned it before me blew the bottom end out of his 350 then got a "good" deal on a 305 and 200r4 from an 86 camaro if he gave up his TH350.
Now i have to deal with the damn tranny banging into gear, LATE shifts and slippage.
so the motto of my story is: stick with a 350

Syd,

I will agree with you to an extent- the 200 is an okay tranny.

However, in the hands of a good rebuilder, they can be set up to be *very* strong and reliable- these trannies are behind some 600HP Grand National motors and run very nicely!

Before I would use a 200R4, I would bring it to someone who knows them and have all of the weak links replaced. But then I would have a very strong tranny, with an overdrive and a lock-up convertor, that would last for a long, long time.

-Bob Cunningham
bobc@gnttype.org

I just put in a 200-R4 trans in my 72' Buick Skylark (350, 4bbl). I was told the trans was good since it was running before I got it, but I can't get the thing to shift out of 1st gear. Since my carb doesn't have a place to hook up the TV cable, I tried hooking it to my gas pedal. I think that may be my problem. If anyone has any advise on why it won't shift, or a good diagram on how to fabricate a TV cable bracket to the throttle, I'll by the first round.

I have heard that the adjustment of that cable is absolutely crucial- even if you adjust it to shift right, it's possible to get incomplete engagement and you can burn up clutches in a hurry.

If I knew how to adjust it, I would tell you...

-Bob Cunningham
bobc@gnttype.org

Ah! This may help...

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/transmission/tvcable.html

-Bob Cunningham
bobc@gnttype.org

You're a life safer Bob.

After taking the cable off the gas pedal and screwing it onto the side of the carb, I still had the problem (not shifting). It wasn't until I fiddled with the adjustment that I finally got it to shift. The shifting is still a little odd (hard shifting, no shift down, etc), but now that I have the 'GM Recommended' adjustment, I should be able to finish this project.

Thanks again.