If anybody is interested, it looks like there is an adapter out there that would almost mate an R154 to an OD slant 6 bell. The reason I say "almost" is two of the bolt holes on the plate line up with existing holes on the bellhousing, while the last two do not.

The adapter can be sourced at Advanced Adapters. It is intended to mate a Ford bellhousing with the "butterfly" bolt pattern to a Jeep AX15. The R154 and AX15 share the same bolt pattern and the bottom two bolts on my bell match the bottom two bolts for the Ford pattern.

I'm not sure what the bolt pattern is for on /6 bell. I know the other two (A833 4 speed and standard 3 speed), but don't know what the third pattern is. I know that on at least one of the OD V8 bells I've looked at, while the bosses were there for this pattern, they were not drilled.

One interesting feature of this adapter is they set it up to use a Ford bearing retainer, thus the trans index is retained and centering the input shaft is much simplified. I don't think it would be hard to either get them to set it up for Mopar bearing retainer, or modify it to accept one. As a bonus, the stock throw out bearing and clutch fork could still be used.

Price was $270, I think.

Look here for a picture of the plate on an AX15. It's the first picture in the thread.

BEWARE, I have not solved the problem of the top two holes yet. While I think they will land on the existing adapter, I am not sure how to bolt it all together as they will be obscured by the transmission on the outside, so attachment may have to come from the inside. This would pose it's own set of problems.

BTW, as a correction to the above, it looks like the R154 and W58 share the same input shaft size and spline count. My bad.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Dion,

What trans is pictured? It looks like an R154, but the input shaft splines are coarser and the nose is larger. AX15 maybe? I happen to have an R154, Dakota AX15 bellhousing and the cast iron LA to slant 6 adapter. What I don't like about my solution is the 3.9 Dakota bellhousing requires a 143 tooth flywheel and 10.4/10.5" clutch which looks like it will require a custom disc. The V6 Dakota flywheel is very heavy too. I also have an aluminum 143 tooth flywheel. To use either on a slant will require plugging and drilling one bolt hole.

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Joshua

Yes, that is an AX15. That is what the company is marketing it for, but the BH face of the R154 and the AX15 are a match, so the plate would bolt on fine.

Want to sell your R154?

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Here's a scan of a drawing showing the R154 bolt pattern with the Ford bolt pattern and the three /6 patterns. The circles with the "+"'s are the R154 mounting bolts, the circles with the "x"'s ar the Ford pattern holes, and the numbered circles correspond to the /6 bell patterns.

The only thing missing from the drawings is the dowel pin holes.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Well, I just got one reply from a company that makes a similar adapter to the one above. They would be willing to machine an adapter for me, and interrupt the process before the bellhousing bolt holes are drilled and the outside shape finished. He said they would also machine a nominal relief for the Mopar retainer, I assume so I could locate the retainer and match drill the mounting holes.

Other than the relief, it sounds like there wouldn't be any additional setup and programming, so cost looks pretty low. Estimate right now is $218.

I asked if the cost would come down if I bought five. Anybody else want one?

BTW, I'm not planning on buying five, I'm just testing the water to see if quantity would sweeten the deal.

In the end, you would have a plate with the standard bearing retainer bolted to it so you could locate and drill the bellhousing mounting holes. You would also have to finish the shape of it.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

The cast Iron LA to slant 6 adapter, who makes this product?
I assume it is a flat plat that bolts to the back of the block.
Is there any additional machining required to use the adapter?

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1971 D100 SWB Step side, 225, 3 on the tree, 3.91 gear

Dion,

I'm confused. Why wouldn't the outside of the adapter be finished? Is this of some benefit?

So a Mopar input bearing retainer would bolt to this adapter? And that this adapter plate supports the transmission's input bearing and seal?

Sireland,

The LA trans to /6 adapter is a factory piece. I pulled mine from an A100 van years ago.

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Joshua

The only benefit to the outside of the adapter not being finished is less cost for me (us?).

The adapter is intended to bolt a SB Chevy bell to an AX15. By not having them setup for and machine the adapter to bolt to a slant bell, I don't have to pay extra. By not finishing it, I can finish it the way I want, plus it take less time for them to finish which costs them less. Most of these adapters I've found so far run close to the $300 range. If I could get one for closer to $200 and only have to drill a couple of holes, great.

I not certain, but from what I understand, the adapter plate goes over the stock bearing retainer. You have to machine the nose off, or find one without the throw out bearing support. Then, the stock Mopar retainer is used only to index the trans to the bell, and support the stock throw out bearing.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Quoted price for the partially finished adapter plate is $185.30, for a quantity of (5). Price would be higher to buy only (1).

BTW, it appears that the TKO shares the same bolt pattern as a Ford Toploader, which is the same pattern as the first adapter I talked about from Advanced Adapters. So, if you wanted a bolt together way to make an R154 work, buy a /6 bell from Keisler adapted for the TKO and order the Advanced Adapter plate for an AX15 to Ford swap, and bolt it together. I know the big block bell from Keilser is $300, so maybe the /6 bell would be the same, and the adapter is like $270, plus another $125 (or less) for a clutch disk. For about $700 you could bolt up a stronger five speed than a T5. Just a thought.

I just wish it wasn't so wide in the tail. At least it isn't as wide as the A518/A500 (as best I can tell).

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I am not sure Keisler sells a /6 bell for there tranny.


Jess

I ran into a guy in Seattle last spring that had bought a Keisler kit and installed it in his Dart, so I know they can do it. It wouldn't be any different that what they do for the smallblock bell. At the very least, the /6 bell just may not be listed on the website.

My bet is, if you supplied the bellhousing, they would do one for you at the same rate they do the smallblock ones. Then again, I could be wrong.

Common sense says that it should be seamless on their end, but I've found that common sense doesn't always make sense to everyone.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Oh, and just so nobody misunderstands, the Dart with the Keisler kit in Seattle was a slant 6.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

LOL, this is true. They dont list it on there web site though. But I emailed them last night to see if they would offer or do offer such a thing. The cool part is they now offer 4 speed auto trannies for the Mopar, maybe they will make them for a /6 also. The one they use has a removable bellhousing so it would just be a bellhousing they would have to build to make it work.


Jess

I just got the Email back from Keisler. They do not offer a Slant Six bell housing for there Auto or TKO tranny setups. Your freind must have been using a GM bellhousing with the /6 adaptor from Transmission Adaptors.


This would work just fine you would have to just tell them what you are doing so they set you up with the right shifter location & type & crossmember and anything else you got from them to work with the tranny .

One thing about the TKO setup if you did wish to have a stronger tranny you could send it off to MMR and they could upgrade it to a 950ft tq setup for $595.00. Many people are saying the Viper spec tranny is holding up very well for them so this could be another option. Ofcourse none of these choices are cheap.

One thing if a person was building a turbo setup you wouldnt even need a OD. You could just use a 833 and a set of 323s and be in good shape because a turbo engine will push this kinda gearing. Heck you could pay for a turbo setup for what some of these options would cost. And we all know the old 833 will take the grunt. If money was to be spent on a tranny OD setup a 833 with a Gear Venders unit would make a strong setup. But again we are talking money.



Jess

No, Keisler used to offer the slant six bell conversion (I saw it listed on their site for at least several months a few years back). I had my eye on it for a long time, back when I thought I could afford it one day. The fact that they no longer list it on their site doesn't surprise me, but the fact that they won't even modify one on request does. Glad I decided to get in on the T5 group buy instead.

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vm