Im wondering if the bellhousing thats on a 4speed in a 65 truck conected to a slant six would be the same as a passenger car bellhousing for 3speed overdrive??

No, the top bolts holes on the a833 will match up, but the bottoms won't. Also the 3sp/od has a larger center register.

Face it, you are going to have to buy a bell housing from a late '70's F-body and adapt the clutch linkage.

If you look at the 4 speed article, and a few other posts...these are the junkyard bellhousing options:

60's to 1974 3 speed = 3 speed bellhousing-standard flywheel
most 60's and some very early 70's 4 speed cars = can be for Direct 4 speed and pattern for 3 speed sometimes-standard flywheel
60's to 80's trucks with NP-435 4 speed-= large bellhousing, low mount starter, direct drive starter with 9 tooth gear, uses 10.5-11" clutch
1975-76 A-body, 1976-1980 F-body= A-833 OD, and pattern for 1975-1980 A-230 3 speed
1975-1987 Truck with A-833 OD= pattern for both A-833 OD and late 3-speed...note 1981-1987 Bellhousing uses longer fork and a ballstud retainer vs. the "spring clip" retainer the 1975-1980 cars and trucks use.


I have been stalled on my project that I have made an adapter plate due to necessity that has mated the A-833OD to the Np-435 bellhousing for use in an A-body, once I can get a work space I can finish the fitment of the starter and see if it really works.

Sweet. Thanks for all the info.

I just got done putting together the late-70's-80's Np435 bell with adaptor plate on a mock up motor and got a standard ministarter with 10 tooth gear to mesh correctly...I suspect for best fitment here, I will need the noseless starter that Dan recommended for the late trucks so I can wallow out the mount holes a little and shim the starter a little out board....

Although the tooth count is the same between the 60's fly wheel and the 70's fly wheel, it looks like the older "full body" bellhousing puts the starter closer to the flywheel and that flywheel has the "face" that covers the meat of the ring gear...which if this fly wheel is used in the late bellhousing will impede the starter with a 10 tooth starter gear...9 tooth version works fine (late model, Rob McNabb Hemi Hitachi starter, etc...)

Once I am convinced that the ministarter will roll the engine over and mesh correctly I will regasket my last race engine and get the linkage figured out... and see if we can successfully get a big block clutch behind a slant for those guys that are needing that much grip and surface area on a budget.... Although I think at this point the larger flywheel might cause slower upshifts...my next worry is going to be the peanut u-joints going boom or the driveline being a pretzel after a drag race launch....

DI, I am in the process of swapping in an 11" clutch in my '84 W100 NP435 from an OEM 10" clutch. Your post got me wondering if my starter will work. I went out to the garage and mated the teeth of a starter from a '98 Ram 5.2 to my 11" 143 tooth flywheel and they meshed correctly. These parts are loose not mounted. I hope they will work together.

P.S. The 11" flywheel is very heavy. I think the 10.5" would be a better choice in a car especially if you can afford the dual disc set-up.

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1976 Feather Duster /6 4sp
1984 W100 318 727 np241
1972 'Cuda 340 4sp
1985 D250 360 46RH

I would be interested in that spacer plate. Are you going to duplicate it and make it availabe to others?

The late flywheels aren't drilled for the dual pattern like the 60's and industrial flywheels are...the LA flywheel is too narrow in diameter to engage any starter using the truck bellhousing and this conversion is one of my normal junkyard conversions for people who can afford $150 of junkyard stuff instead of the $500 adaptor plate and 318 junkyard stuff...

I don't think it will be too bad, considering one of the racers on my side of the continent uses the big block clutch in his race valiant wagon...but he's using a planetary transmission which doesn't need to clutch between shifts...

I had two "blanks" CnC'd for experimentation, once I have this functional with the one I am installing then I will have the second one finished for patterning, then we will talk....This will work for a 67-up...not sure about the 66-down cars since they are a little narrow in the tranny tunnel...