bell housing and clutch question

[midniteblues]

Originally Posted by chevycc1970

I don't know if you are aware or even looked but I doubt that your 400 has threads for the clutch pivot ball in the block where your bellcrank goes. I ran across this same problem with my 400. I drilled and tapped my own in the forward location. I saw that no one has posted anything about that so you may want to look beings from what research I had done about this 400 were not offered in many manual transmission configurations.Attachment 1543386

I was kinda nervous to drill and tap for the ball stud holes but it went fairly easy.
I used a gen correct oe sbc ball stud bracket to line it up the holes.
even though I only needed the one hole I still did both of them just because. Also had too drill and tap for the oe 71 wire loom brackets.
My 400 block had the bosses but no holes for any of them.

Your truck looks like some good quality work. Good job Keep it up.

No progress on the truck today.
Gotta get my tires mounted up so I figured I should service my old bishman tire machine.
ive had it for 5 yrs now and only used it.
it can use a good cleaning and lubing.


I want it working great before I mount my new ta's for the camaro.
So these bf at's and 8 lug accurides will be my test before I do the ta's.

[Mike C]

The OEM Dana gears might have had pinion depth markings on them. One nice thing about gear sets is along the outside of the ring gear along with the part number and gear ratio you should be able to find a date code showing when the gears were made if you are interested.

On my Jimmy I replaced the bellhousing mount starter with a Denso style mini starter. This is the one that bolts to the block but has an unsupported Bendix so nothing goes past the bellhousing flange on the block but the drive gear itself.

For the most part I'm done with old style GM starters. The aftermarket gear reduction types are just so much more powerful/lighter. You can get GM style gear reduction marine starters on Amazon for less than $60 FWIW.

[midniteblues]

Thanks mike.
Never really had too many problems with gm style starters.
Just the usuals. i've Learned good tite connections clean mounting pad proper bolts and a good ground and cables are what works for me.

I did find it weird that the date codes on my gears matched the truck since I thought they were replaced. The fella at the axle shop said # scribes are pretty common on oe stuff.

When I bolted the cover back on and looked at my cover bolts laying on the cart I knew I did it again!

Opened my mouth without having ALL the clues.
Here is what I saw.... I could kick myself ...AGAIN!

I did manage too get my wheels and tires put together.

I got the new rotors and wheel bearing but duh! forgot to get new inner seals.

Oh another bike ride too the store.

I stashed the 307 wrapped in 2 tarps in my lawn wagon and parked it behind the garage too keep it out a my way for now.
I went back to pull it out the other evening with the tractor and go figure one of my tires blew out the side wall.....dum dum I should blocked it up off the tires.
So a tire change is in order for that also.

[midniteblues]

A few weeks ago when I was thinking on painting those accuride rims above I made this contraption from a old throw out bearing with a plate weld too it and clamped the set up to a junk vice and screwed it down too a saw horse.

Used it to spin the rims for sanding,clean up and primer and paint. It worked fairly well but couldn't spin them too fast cause they would blow/fan the paint away. Slowly worked the best.

I figured I wanted too Polish the camaro's wanna be drag lites before mounting the new tires.

So I made a improved wheel spinner for my bishman tire changer after i completed its well over do serviceing.

Tire machine spins at the perfect speed and I made this so I can mount the rims on it and hold a buffer or rag and just spin Polish them.
At this time I only have the 4 3/4" lug pattern drilled in it now but I also laid out and punched the 5 on 5 pattern the 5 lug metric pattern, 6 lug pattern and 8 lug just for future use and I'm Only using 3 studs too hold the wheels.

My buddy saw my contraption/adapter and is gonna try pin stripeing his rat rod wheels on it.
Should work great since I busted my butt to keep the runout to a minimal.

Another buddy booked it for a weekend too clean up some old slots.

Gotta start charging these guys

[midniteblues]

Doesn't look like I'll be using the cast bell anyway.
Cleaning it up found a cracked it goes all the way through too the fork opening.
But it looks like the alum one should work fine with the cast bells fork and ball stud.

I pulled the 307 out of my lawn wagon
And gave it a wash just cause then set it up on this cheap azz motor cart I picked up at a yard sale,hey whatever works right.

I power washed the rubber rite out of the one mount and the other is a nasty goopy mess...all ready have new ones on the 400.

After pulling the bell and clutch off the 307 the pilot bushing fell out..... guess I won't be reusing this either.