Bric Rods » bellhousing dialing http://bricrods.com Real Automobile Work With a Twist Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:45:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Dialing In a Bellhousing http://bricrods.com/2009/10/dialing-in-a-bellhousing/ http://bricrods.com/2009/10/dialing-in-a-bellhousing/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:41:02 +0000 bric http://bricrods.com/?p=197 It has come to my attention that I mentioned dialing a bellhousing without ever explaining what that is exactly, necessitating this post.
To dial in a bellhousing is to center the nose-cone hole to the center of the crankshaft rotation. To do this one can either remove the flywheel and clutch of leave it on, though for adaptation purposes it is much easier and definitive with the clutch removed and the flywheel in place. This allows for the maximum surface area to attach a dial indicator base to. Which brings me to the necessary equipment for this little procedure, which is a dial indicator and a base – preferable of the magnetic type. Mount the bellhousing like you would normally, and affix the dial indicator to the flywheel, maintaining an off-center orientation so as to get a good reading. Put some preload on the indicator and spin the motor over. Watching the indicator will tell you where the hole sits and to what degree it is off. If it is more than .010″ you should probably look into getting some offset pins to better align the bellhousing.

]]> http://bricrods.com/2009/10/dialing-in-a-bellhousing/feed/ 0 Four Speed Support http://bricrods.com/2009/05/four-speed-support/ http://bricrods.com/2009/05/four-speed-support/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 01:11:07 +0000 bric http://bricrods.com/?p=114 For those of you out there who are interested in putting an old top loader four speed behind a big block in a Ford, this may be a helpful tidbit to avoid the hardships I have dealt with.  first of all, make sure that your input shaft is not bottoming on the pilot bushing, and secondly, be sure to dial in the bellhousing, especially if it is off an unknown vehicle/year. My specific problems were on a 429, with a bellhousing obtained from an online auction.  There were no visible signs of distortion or of misalignment, but the trans opening, did not center when installed on the engine.  This bellhousing also necessitated the use of a .500″ spacer plate between the block and housing to supply adequate clearance for the input shaft splines, a problem which can probably be rectified more simply with a correct year bellhousing for the trans.  the particular aplication to trans is not so much an issue, as this particular combination was going into a Mustang, and the trans is a wide ratio four speed from a full-body car, hence it had the long tailshaft and housing. It was still able to be mounted in the Mustang location with the use of a specialized plate mounting the shifting unit.  Most people will tell you that one needs a short tailshaft trans for a Mustang. Just be awate that this is not the case.

As for the driveshaft in this setup, it needed to be shortened as well, but that is not a terribly problematic undertaking.  A Lakewood scattershield is a must to run on the track, as the 5.13 gears in this 9″ are intended.  There is quite a bit to modifying the 1970 Mustang 351 Mach cars to accommodate the insertion of a 429, but that is a topic for another time.

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