69 drive train options

My 69 Galaxie has a 302 in it and it runs good and strong. You can tell the engine wants to go hard but it seems like the drive train is really holding it back. I'm ready to buy a stroker kit or larger engine, but that's not going to do any good if the tranny/gearing/rear end isn't going to help put the power to the pavement.

What are my options? I have been looking around, but I'm not really finding anything that answers my questions. I'm not looking for a 10 second car (but if it's an option, I'm listening), but I'm looking to do better than grandpa's Sunday cruiser.

BTW - tranny is stock auto.

What do you mean the drivetrain is holding it back?..Is it revving too high or not enough?..Do you know what gears are in the rear end?..Ideally you want the gears matched to the engine so the optimum setup will depend on what you end up with for an engine....Personally I like big blocks in the big galaxies..I had a 69 LTD with a 429 for a bit and it worked pretty good..

put a 3.73 gear in it if you do long highway trips, or 4.11s

or a gear vendors overdrive and really steep gears for best of both worlds

I'm guessing most cars in the late 60s had 3.0 or so rearends, going to 4.11 is over a 25% torque/seat of the pants/there all the time increase in fun- long as you dont do a lot of highway driving as MPG will suck, and cruising at 3k wears things out and even with the beautiful noise of a V8, would make for a long trip...

a very mild bigblock can put out 500 ft-lb effortlessly, all day, and probably get similar MPG to a geared smallblock, but the more gentle rumble is nice on cruises...I'm a big fan of bigblocks, even if the new mustangs a lot faster than the old429 gal was, I still miss that off idle torque

So last night was the first dry night that I was able to get the Galaxie out for a long cruise (150 or so miles). The tranny is deff not right. The fluid looks good, but it just might be worn no matter.

So is there a better tranny to switch up to? I'm looking for as little down time as possible (even though the car goes to winter storage tomorrow). Can I have this one rebuilt with performance parts?

I'm going to seek out the 3.73 gears. Sounds like a mid range from what I'm gathering. I'm not looking for the fastest car, but a kick in the seat would be nice to have.

I would like to keep my tranny/rear end work to about $1500-$2000 if that's helpful.

what do you mean -the tranny is not right ???
whats it doing -

You can be cruising, give it a little extra gas (like going from a 35mph zone to a 55 zone) and the engine revs high. Then you take your foot off the gas a little and you can feel the tranny kick in - then you can accelerate to 55. Also, freeway/expressway driving feels like "passing gear" isn't kicking in when you accelerate to merge with traffic.

I've had the car for about a week, but it's been too rainy to actually play with and diagnose until last night. Like I said, I put about 150 miles on it last night.

From a dead stop, if you romp on the gas, the car takes off pretty good up to about 60mph or so, then you have to listen to the RPM and make sure the tranny is keeping up.

What trans and rear is in the car? Look for the codes on the warranty plate/sticker on the drivers door opening. My guess is a FMX tanny and a WER type rear, the type with the non-removable carrier. The transmission and axle code will tell us for sure.

Kicking down that car at highway speeds is not going to get you anywhere, it will just make a lot of noise and RPM's will be way above the power band. My car accelerated much better in passing situations by just rolling on the throttle and letting the torque do the work. It should be different now with the new cam, intake, 4bbl and headers, but I haven't been on any long trips with it since the rebuild. My FMX trans was like new inside after 123,000 miles and has always worked flawlessly.