'77 Iron Duke into '72 Vega

[GroceryGetter]

All - may have found a complete '77 2.5 iron duke/AT setup sitting in an Astre. My '72 Vega currently has original aluminum block 4 and the powerglide tranny; that's coming out. Was leaning toward 4.3 S10 swap but the above opportunity could change my mind. I have seen 2 threads on this forum about this swap but just want to clarify; am I looking at a straight-forward swap if I pull the complete powertrain with all mounts? Do I need to swap the drive shaft? Linkages? Any gotchas? Main appeal is simplicity, get it running faster, and get that TH350 in there. Thanks,

GG

[sportriderok]

I'm putting a 1980 Iron Duke into my 76 Vega right now and it has been pretty straightforward. Both of my cars have the torque arm rear suspension, though, and it was a direct swap. My later Iron Duke gave me trouble with the intake hitting the AC box, but your 77 should have the intake manifold combined with the exhaust on the drivers side. There may be a little adjustment of the trans tunnel required with a BFH, but it should be an easy swap.

[GroceryGetter]

Awesome; thanks sportriderok. Yeah; I did see the carb is closer to the driver side on the 2.5, just like the 2.3 I believe. Hopefully they use the same throttle cable. No A/C on the '72.

GG

[GroceryGetter]

All - so I eyeballed the Astre today and I see that the engine mounts bolt to frame mounts which then bolt to the car. There are several bolts holding the frame mounts to the car, both vertical and horizontal. The '72 has no such frame mounts. Anybody know if I unbolt the frame mounts from the engine mounts on the Astre Iron Duke, if it might bolt right in on the Vega? If fabbing is needed, I would probably abandon the swap and again think about the 4.3 V6.

Tranny cross member is totally different, though that doesn't mean the TH350 mount won't bolt up to the Vega crossmember. Anybody know if the AT shift lever is the same between '72 powerglide and '77 TH350? Driveshaft on the Astre is 48" from u-joint to u-joint; haven't measured the Vega piece yet. Thanks,

GG