Cali4nia Monte

Can someone please post a picture of what piece you guys are talking about....that way when I get to it on our car I won't be sooo disappointed when I can't find it. Thanks, Jaylene

I personally think they are sweet! I've tried talking Mike into getting one but he prefers the old school style. They are spendy though as Andreas said...I think they are around $700.

Those are some really sweet welds....Mike has been letting me try to do some welding, so I've come to appreciate a nice clean weld. It's kind of fun....except for the fact that its been over 100 degrees here for the last week and its no fun to have to turn the fan off in the shop! Of course Mike teaching me is like the blind leading the blind....and thats just what some of our welds look like Jaylene

Well I don't know about stock TH350s but B & M said our 377hp 385trq motor was too much for their TH350, we went through a few of them. I don't remember what was wrong with the first it was actually DOA, but the second one they gave us we broke the second gear spag in less than a week. Then the 3rd one we upgraded to a TH400...and it was DOA! Lesson learned>>>DON'T BUY B&M TRANSMISSIONS! Jaylene

Actually I take that back...you guys never "grow up" your toys just get more expensive....

He is grown up he's 38 years old. Its just we've known each other since 6th grade. My son was making fun of him and made up new words to the sexy back song...goes like this: Im bringing sexy back...those other wheels dont know how to act..... Oh by the way the transmission shop had our transmission done today and it works killer. Mike said he really can't feel any sort of loss of power, he is very impressed with it so far. Sadly however he only got to drive the car for 10 minutes before he blew the tread off one of the front wheels, we knew the tire was going...but were hoping it would last until the wheels get here. I guess that goes along with our luck the last few weeks....oh well life goes on and at least the car is here so we can work on it.

Wallaby, you crack me up....Mikes already over it....he was over it when he got home yesterday and I already had the tranny shop building him a new tranny! That and the fact that I ordered him wheels....so now he's sitting and staring at the photo I printed out. He thinks his new wheels are soooo sweet, he says he's bringing "sexy back" to the Monte...so he keeps singing that Justin Timberlake song. Yeah he's weird I know, thats what happens when you pick your husband in sixth grade

Yeah if only we'd pay attention to them.... Had I researched it better before I let Mike loose with the checkbook...we wouldn't be in this predicament. It really is sad that a well known name like B & M has gotten so generic. I am hoping as you said that their shifters are still OK because we installed a B&M floorshifter in December. Mike is ready to yank it and put something else in...not because it isnt working but because he has no confidence in their products...he was looking at the Jegs catalog at the Hurst shifters until I told him B&M just bought them out

Yeah we just going to get our money back from the speedshop for the B & M TH400 and have the old GM TH400 that was sitting in our garage rebuilt the transmission shop said they will build us a heavy duty TH400...Luke Dodd is the owner of the local shop we are using...he races himself, I think he feels kinda bad, so he's cutting us a break on the installation part and only charging us half. If we can get it back on the road by this weekend we'll be happy campers. We finally bought a new brake booster and master cylinder...so I'm guessing that will be on the agenda for this weekend. Lets hope we have better luck with the brakes...keep your fingers crossed for us!

Well you know the old saying: If I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all! Yesterday Mike was just in denial....he just kept laughing about it ....but todays a different matter...I think he's moved on to the anger stage....

We actually have a TH400 that came out of a 73 Chevy Truck...Mike bought it months ago thinking he wanted to put it in the Monte...then changed his mind and decided to go with the TH350 so we wouldn't lose HP and so we didnt have to cut the driveline. It was supposedly rebuilt and then the truck got totaled less then 1000 miles later, so Mike is thinking of just having the transmission shop check it out and or rebuild it just to make sure its good. It has a bolt in yoke, but like you said those are changeable....so we'll see. I have to make some calls today and find out what the heck is going on. Luke the trans shop owner has been out of town at a race, and we really want to talk to him and see what he says.

Completely insane isn't it! The speed shop said they just want to give us our money back for the transmission and be done with it! But what I want to know is who is going to pay the rest of our costs, we've spent over $100 on B & M's stupid trick shift fluid...they insist is the stuff, Mike installed the first two tranmissions so all that cost us was pain and agony, but now with this third transmission we paid $300 to have the driveline cut down and another $200 for them to remove tranny #2 and install tranny #3, because Mike was sick and tired of laying on the ground fighting them under the car and we didn't want there to be any questions as to it being something we did during installation. The transmission shop we picked has done work for the speedshop guys so there is no question about his reputation. Do you know are all TH400 transmissions about the same size or are we going to have problems with the driveline length when we go to put the next tranny in?

For those of you who have been following our transmission hassles over the last several weeks you are just going to laugh when I tell you that the transmission shop called us today to tell us that the B & M TH400 transmission we got to compensate for the 2 defective B & M TH350's, has a problem with reverse. The shop we took it to have it installed said that they think its the pump or something. I just started laughing...I was like you have to be flippin kidding me. Unfortunately they were not. So for those of you just tuning in this how its been: Tranny #1 B&M TH350 was DOA right out of the box...we installed and it would not shift into second gear. B & M gave us a another one. Tranny #2 B&M TH350 again we installed worked for a week before the second gear sprag went...with B&M blaming our 377HP car, too much HP? Tranny #3 B&M TH400....the speedshop we bought it from upgraded us to the TH400 so there could be no questions as to our car having too much HP....only this time we paid $500 to have a shop cut our driveline and install the new transmission, so there could be no question as to it being something we did during installation. Its DOA....First and Reverse are not right. I wonder what B & M is going to blame this time for their tranny not working?

Thanks Grease, Yes we realize that we are going to loose HP. We actually have a used TH400 sitting in our garage already that Mike bought when we first bought the car, but then he decided he didnt want to hassle with getting the drive line cut and really didnt want to loose the HP....but he keeps hinting that he wants a Big Block, so he figures he will just live with the loss of power now. As for the rear gear ratios, I believe he is going to get all that changed real soon. On a positive note.... The owner of the transmission shop also has an Auto body shop and does classic car restorations. He has a Chevelle, Camaro, Vette.....I saw the Camaro in his shop its pretty sweet. So now Mike is actually excited about getting some body work done. I never thought I would see that day!! He keeps telling me he doesnt care what it looks like...its whats under the hood that counts! I figured it would be scratched and dented forever. That it would never stop needed something mechanical especially since he now wants to upgrade the engine after only 4 months! So now I am on a mission to sell his bike to get the body work done before he changes his mind! Anybody want to buy a Midnight Black 2005 Buell with only 4500 miles????

I need to clear up some of my facts...I originally talked to Mike on a cell and it was hard to hear him. I guess B & M was not totally trying to get out of the warranty on the transmission, they just wanted us to pay them to upgrade the 2nd gear sprag to a heavier duty one and beef up something else as well. The speedshop did not want us to have to wait another two weeks like we had to with the first transmission, so they gave us the TH400 they had on their shelf. Besides the fact they know Mike wants to get a BB as soon as we win the lottery.... Oh yeah and Mike said there was no neutral drops or reverse hole shots involved in the demise of this tranny. He said he had stepped on it to get on the freeway and it just made this weird noise ...its kind of hard to explain when you cant hear my sound effects... But he said he never heard anything pop or anything like that it just sounded like it slipped out of gear.

Ok well I just heard from Mike, B & M has confirmed what the transmission shop said in the first place...its a broken sprag. B & M is saying that our 377 hp motor is the reason this part broke, according to them its too much horsepower for their TH350, they didn't say anything about it being gears or appearing to be overheated, their saying its just too much HP! The speedshop (which I keep calling "speedshop" because its called J & M Speedcenter and felt it would be confusing) is going to upgrade/give us a B & M TH400 they have in stock, they said its BS what B & M is pulling and they will deal with it. The only bummer is that we have to now have the driveline cut down and are going to lose some of that 377HP, Mike is sick of pulling trannys so we are just paying Lukes to do all of this work. So there it is..... Jaylene

I will definitely let you guys know...Mikes not here to ask about the gears, but I do know that he installed a "trans cooler" when we purchased the first transmission. I believe this was done at the suggestion of the speedshop, although I don't remember why. I always ask....why, why, why when he is spending the $$ and if its like you said that the gear ratio and the 3000 torque converter combo ends up being the problem then I think we need to be ticked at the speed shop as it was at their suggestion we went with the 3000 vs the 2500. I mean Mike has been down there every week since we first bought the car in August, they know where we started and they know what weve done and they are supposed to be the experts. I know for a fact that he has discussed the rear end with them because they gave him the name of a place to go to because he wants a posi rear end?? Am I on the same page or am I talking about completely different gears? Anyhow I will let you know...the good bad or ugly truth. Jaylene

Yeah idealy we would have just had the stock transmission built and beefed up, but when we first pulled it from the car we discovered that the bell housing had a big crack in it. So we didn't think it would worth messing with. Mike has probably driven that old tranny harder then either of these new ones just because he didnt care about it...LOL

No we didn't mail order it...we purchased it from a well known local speed shop here in Riverside. They were very helpful with the first tranny and would have just exchanged it but did not have another one in their shop. We talked to their rep from B & M, and Mike actually wanted me to drive straight to B & M because its only about an hour from us, but B & M said they also didn't have one they could just exchange for me...so we had to wait almost 2 weeks for them to "build" one just for us, because as they put it all of their stock was already spoken for. The local speedshop is again helping us with this situation and they are urging us to make B & M make it right because Mike is ready to just eat it and have the tranny rebuilt by Lukes (the tranny shop) Lukes said they could fix it and beef it up for I think around $400-$500. But Mike figures if B & M determines that they are not at fault...as it sounds like they are trying to do by saying our motor has too much HP and they charge us $270 then its really going to cost us even more. So the tranny is back out of the car and waiting to go back to B & M...and I we will have to see who's going to eat it in the end. Jaylene

Thanks Don, Its completely ridiculous, I mean the motor is a nice starter for us, but Mike already wants to go bigger. Well he actually wanted to go bigger from the get go but what we got fit our budget... We are going to have the the transmission shop beef up the B & M, well rebuild if they screw us over or just beef it up if they do end up giving us tranny #3. Its just depressing that we spent $1000 on the darn thing only to have all these hassles and now were going to have to fork more to get it done right! I mean the first transmission Mike put in was defective right out of the box! He never even left our neighborhood before he turned around and came back saying that it would not shift out of first. The second one he got to enjoy a few good romps around town before it started acting weird, weve looked in all the paperwork and on B & M website and nowhere does it state that their TH350's are only rated to 325 HP. Plus they are saying that if we return it and "they" determine that it was not their fault it broke they are going to charge us $270 for them to look at it.

Mike went to bed already, but this is what I know about the car New GM 4 Bolt main with one piece rear main seal. Forged steel crankshaft w/3.480 stroke, micro polished chamfered, balanced with balancer and flex plate New 4340 steel "I" beam connecting rods with ARP bolts. Hypereutetic flat top piston 9.1 to 1 compression and single Moly piston ring New Hydraulic roller cam and lifter set. .501"/.512" lift, 224/230 degrees duration at .050" 111 lobe separation. Full aluminum roller rocker arms 1.5 to 1 ratio New performer cast iron cyclinder heads, slightly modified to match cam profile, with 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust, stainless valves. Double roller timing gear set Hardened push rod set. Edelbrock Endura Shine intake manifold (the Endura Shine was a surprise, I called the machine shop building the engine and had them add that, it was my early Christmas present to him since the motor was delivered on 12/22) A Holly 650 dual feed carb. It has 377hp and 385 Torque. As far as the rear end...we have not done anything to it yet it was next on Mikes list. So I am guessing it is just the stock rear end for the 71, because nothing else on the car had really been modified....mostly just mickey moused. They did things like gob clear silicone caulking all around the windows...and cut a hole in the grill because the hood latch didn't quite pop up high enough and it would be tight to get it open. I am not sure about the vacuum modulator? Is that the charcol canister thing at the front of the engine? Our torque converter is a 3000 stall speed, the owner of the speed shop sold it to Mike with the 1st tranny. We were originally going to just get a 2500 because the 2100 was driving me crazy lunging at a stop, but then they gave us a killer deal on the 3000 so we went with it instead. The owner of the transmission shop said he has become more and more dissatisfied with B & M and wont use them anymore, he says they have been bought out and are becoming very corporate. He called and talked to them for us and said that it sounds like it could be a fight to get them to warranty this second tranny. We have less then 50 miles on it...we had only made some short little trips to the hardware store and back. Well I don't know if I answered your questions or not....but at least I have heard from a few of you guys. Oh yeah I remembered the part he said the thought went...the sprag? Anyhow its late. Thanks again for the reassurances, Jaylene Will keep you all posted, as I am sure members would want to know how B & M handles this. Funny I guarantee the funky, leaking, cracked, old stock tranny could go right back in and work like a dream, as it has since we put the new engine in last December.

Ok here's the deal, last month we purchased a new B&M TH350 from our local speedshop. We have bought alot of stuff from them and they are quite aware of what we have under the hood, the old tranny had no problems other then leaking like a sieve all over our driveway, and the bell housing is cracked which is why we didn't just have it rebuilt. So we got new B&M #1 installed and right off the bat we have NO 2 & 3 gears at all. Speedshop and B&M say bring it back....so we did. Now we put leaking old original tranny back in while waiting for B&M to ship us another new one and again it works fine. B&M tranny #2 has shown up so out goes the old and in with the new. It seemed to worked fine for about a week and now its slipping. Mike is ready to just scream....so we take it to a local transmission shop and they said....its internal...second gear is gone, and I can't remember what the part is they think went. Mike tells them whats been going on and they don't think its anything we did. Anyhow now B & M is trying to tell us that the TH350 is only rated for cars up to 325 hp....the speedshop and the tranny shop are like "No way we've put them in cars with over 400 and not had any problems." Our engine has 377 hp, and I think they are trying to get out of the warranty on it. So my long winded questions is "What is your opinion on how much HP will a TH350 take?" Thanks for your intake, Jaylene

I don't think our motor is stock..here is the information that came with it: New GM 4 Bolt main with one piece rear main seal. Forged steel crankshaft w/3.480 stroke, micro polished chamfered, balanced with balancer and flex plate New 4340 steel "I" beam connecting rods with ARP bolts. Hypereutetic flat top piston 9.1 to 1 compression and single Moly piston ring New Hydraulic roller cam and lifter set. .501"/.512" lift, 224/230 degrees duration at .050" 111 lobe separation. Full aluminum roller rocker arms 1.5 to 1 ratio New performer cast iron cyclinder heads, slightly modified to match cam profile, with 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust, stainless valves. Double roller timing gear set Hardened push rod set. Edelbrock Endura Shine intake manifold (the Endura Shine was a surprise, I called the machine shop building the engine and had them add that, it was my early Christmas present to him since the motor was delivered on 12/22) A Holly 650 dual feed carb. It has 377hp and 385 Torque. Except for the 377 horse....the rest is all latin to me.... But I know its not stock. He had me reprint him the mega shifter instructions again. Like I said he had it working perfectly with the old tranny, but just hasn't been able to dial it in with the new one. He's working on it now...I have my fingers crossed, Jaylene

Thanks Ken, I try to be as helpful on here as possible....it keeps my hands clean Thankfully we have a 16 year old son who gets to be his helper these days. He is still having some difficulty with the shifting. At Christmas time I got him a B & M Megashifter, as a replacement for the factory column shift, he installed it and it was working fine with the old transmission and he loved it. Then we bought this brand new B & M TH350 and thats where the trouble began, the first one was defective....he went nuts trying to get it to work and then we finally sent it back. In the mean time he put the old transmission back into the car 1. Because he couldn't stand not being able to drive it! and 2. So he could feel confident that it was the new tranny and not some installation boo boo on his part. Again the junky old leaking tranny went in and had no problems shifting at all. So now he has taken the old tranny back out and installed the 2nd new B&M, it shifts into 2nd and 3rd, which the 1st new one would not do at all! But he is having trouble with the Megashifter, its just not working right? They are both B & M products so you would think they would be compatible? Now the only different application between the old old TH350 and the new B&M TH350 is that when we bought the new transmission we also upgraded to a 3000 stall speed converter from a 2100 because the car would just lunge when we came to a stop. Could the torque converter be part of the problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...poor Mike is pulling his hair out! Thanks In Advance, Jaylene

Whooo Hoooo after two weeks of listening to Mike complain about his brand new tranny being defective....B& M finally sent him the new replacement and its in. The guys at the speed shop said its only like the 5th tranny that was defective in like 15 years...had to be Mikes didnt it! He says its awesome...it'll chirp the tires in second gear...I can't really tell the difference, except for when we are at a stop the car doesnt lunge forward anymore, but thats because he replaced the 2100 torque convert with a 3000...but he's happy so Im happy.