HHmmmm.....guess I will have to be on the lookout for a 4.3L S10 pickup or Blazer with a manual trans. I looked yesterday and found nothing, much less near me. Have to call around to the salvage yards.

 

yup they are getting hard to find. XP performance has rebuilt NV 3500’s on sale for $850 or something like that. Then you know it is a ‘good to go’ transmission. Just make sure to get the S10 one and not full size truck or the shifter will be in the firewall.
I got mine from salvage but then got it rebuilt due to mileage. Salvage yards around here don’t keep track of mileage anymore. Man I don’t get that!

 

There's nothing wrong with using full-size truck parts, but you might need to use the transfer case out of the full-size, too. You're probably thinking of the old-school SM465 4-speed, which will still work but require a little more creativity. The newer 1/2-ton 5-speeds are no problem. It would still be best to get a donor with a 4.3, though, so you can use the flywheel and hydraulic parts.

This is what the shifter looks like with an SM465 (after slight modification).

 

Good info....I will begin looking into this more.....I need a project to work on.
And Tom A....hey nice radio....I have the same exact one in my Blazer.

 

Thanks. It's a lot smarter than I am, so I don't really use it for even half of what it can do, but it sure beats the old CB for trail communication. BTW, I wasn't quite finished installing it yet when I took that picture. It looks nicer now.