I'm in the process of installing a b/e body a-833OD into my 64 dodge dart. The transmission will not go high enough - tail housing bumps into the bumper-pad located on the underside of the t-bar/tans crossmember. With the trans mount and trans mounting bracket in place, looks like I'm about 3/4" too low. I'm thinking about making the cut illustrated below. Of course, I'll close it with new metal - basically, I'm raising the roof by 1/2 inch and losing the bump pad. I read Dave Clements comments in the 4-speed article but suspect he didn't encounter this because his car is a 68, mine is the earlier body.

Q:

- What purpose does the rubber pad provide?
- What consequence do I face if I delete it?
- How big should that clearance gap be between the top of the tail housing and the bottom of the crossmember?
- Oh yeah... am I crazy? - thanks, -shane

<img src="http://www.south12th.com/bb_images/tail_clearance.gif"width=400>

I believe that pad is just a "bump stop" for the trans, but you won't hurt anything by leaving it out. You are not crazy at all - I've done this on two cars already for my Frankenstein T5 and A500 swaps. If you box it in again, it will be fine. I think 1/4" is probably fine, although you may get a little bumping on clutch dumps and such. 1/2" would be really safe, and 3/8" would almost certainly be safe too. You could also throw a piece of hard rubber in there to avoid metal-to-metal bumps.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

I agree-cut, weld, paint, and forget.

Errrr, we are about to cut and weld on a structural member of the car's frame in order to install an incorrect transmission for the chassis....
"Plan B", find an A-Body 4-speed or just the main shaft and tail housing and change the tranny over to the correct type used for the A-Body.

I have done what you are about to do, it is a lot of work. You have to cut -up and custom make a bunch of stuff. Doing this take as much (or more) time as finding / changing-over to the factory correct parts.
The real "killer" is once the job is finished, one way leaves you with a desirable factory 4-speed set-up, something people are looking for, the other method leaves you with a "cut & welded" custom arrangement that most would steer clear of.

Don't take this wrong, I have done more then my share or custom cutting and welding but it is done to use stuff never engineered to go into that chassis. ( like Lou's OD or 5-speed conversion, EFI, Turbos etc.)
For parts or systems that the factory engineered for the car it is best to find those parts and start from that "base point". (4-speed conversion, Super Six conversion etc.)
Just my 2 cents....
DD

Thanks for the reply everyone. I agree that it would be easier to fit the correct trans but there are a few reasons that I'm considering this swap:

- I have two b-body transmissions
- The t-bar/trans crossmember is already hacked up by a previous owner who had tried and failed. I don't think it will take any more work to revise the crossmember while I repair it. The picture I posted is a view from the rear, most of the front and side are missing.
- While I have heard that the a-body trans is pretty common, I see the long tail trans in junkyards all the time - never seen the shorty.
- I'm not afraid of a challenge - kinda why I wrench in the first place.

Before I go any further, anyone have a rebuildable a-body trans in northern california for sale? (I'm in San Jose - bay area) thanks -shane