Cast Iron Muncie

[Greg L.]

Quick question...

A friend of mine was telling me that Muncies were cast iron. I told him no, they were all alluminum and that I had never heard of an cast iron Muncie before. Then I said that I'm no expert on 4 spds but I know of some people that are...

So were there any cast iron Muncies?

[Terry F.]

Re: Cast Iron Muncie

I am not an expert either but it sounds like a Saginaw... Terry

[Steve D.]

Re: Cast Iron Muncie

As far as I know, they all had aluminum cases, even the M-22 (Rockcrusher).

Steve

[Tom R.]

Re: Cast Iron Muncie

In 78-E79, the Muncie (Saginaw type) cast iron case was used with L48s when manual transmission was specified. This was an "economy" four-speed used in late 60's and early 70's but brought back for the depowered L48.

During the same period when L82 was specified the M20 Borg Warner aluminum case was installed that came with the cast iron side cover. When the heavy-duty M21 was ordered, it was equipped with the M21 B/W and its side cover was cast iron but a slightly different configuration than its M20 counterpart.

[Joe L.]

Re: Cast Iron Muncie

Greg-----

Yes, there were cast iron case Muncie 4 speed transmissions. They are not quite the same Muncie that you're thinking in terms of, though. The cast iron Muncies were used in the later 70's for lower performance applications. For Corvettes, they were used on most 78-79's with L-48 and 4 speed. Basically, this transmission was similar to the old Saginaw 4 speed used for lower performance applications during the late 60's and early 70's. However, it was not exactly the same.

The Saginaw 4 speeds were manufactured in, you guessed it, Saginaw, MI. These went out of production in the earlier 70's. The Muncie that we are all familiar with was manufactured in Muncie, IN and went out of production in 1974. Sometime thereafter, the tooling for the Saginaw transmission was transferred to the Muncie, IN transmission plant, the design revised in some ways, and the transmission went back into production. After it's transfer to Muncie, this transmission became known as a Muncie, just like the 63-74 predecessor. Even GM referred to the later transmission as a Muncie.

As far as 1963-74 Muncies go, no PRODUCTION transmission was ever built with a cast iron main case; ALL were aluminum.

[Greg L.]

Re: Cast Iron Muncie

Thanks guys!