musting

Hi People, it's been a while since checking in here,
I have recently been given a suposed to be original '66 mustang 3 speed and was said to be in great working condition, and it does seem to shift smoothly,
actually I have been holding out hoping to find a good 4 speed although nothing has turned up, so I have for now at least decided to go back with a 3 speed,
OK to back up a moment, the Mustang I have is or was a 6 cyl. car but I have been on going a v-8 conversion, so I found a '68 289 engine from a fairlane along with the original 3 speed transmision, BUT! the 3-speed that came with the engine had a busted shifter fork and like I said I was in search for a 4-speed anyway,,,, But now that I have this supposed to be original to a " 66 mustang "
the bellhousing from the other 3-speed does not mate up, Both tranny are side shifting and top loader units but the '68 fairlane has both the wide and the narrow bolt pattern to fit the wide bolt pattern of the bellhousing and the bell housing only has the wide pattern,,,, although the '66 mustang 3-speed has the narrow bolt pattern only.
so now this transmission will not bolt up to the bellhousing of the 289...
can these be drilled out safely and be bolted up without any future problems.
there looks to be indentions of another bolt pattern there at the boses, but to look at it from the inside there are not flat thick area like there are at the wider bolt holes area, so! will I need to get a bellhousing original to a '66 mustang?
thanks for any help in what to do either way.....

JMD

To me it would depend on how much "meat" there is to drill the new holes in the bell housing if I were to eventhink about drilling and tapping new holes. If the bell housing is not as thick where the new holes are to be as it is where the existing holes are now, I would not do it.

There are three other considerations besides the above. The first is that the holes would need to be drilled precisely, and dead center... their location would need to be confirmed by mocking the trany up to the bell housing. This would need to be done by inserting the "pilot" part of the trannyinto the bell housing to determine exactly where the holes need to go. This brings up the second issue, is the "pilot" the same size? The pilot is part of the transmission that extends into the bell housing to make sure that everything is centered. If the pilot is not the same size, the bell housing can not be used. The pilot needs to fit snug.

The third issue is that you could try this ifeverything above works out, and since you are not using the bell housing anyway, nothing is lost but your time if things don't work out... Except that Murphy's law ensures that if you destroy the bell housing, you will end up needing it for sure...

Probably the best solution is to get a bell housing that fits, but if you are good enough, and the above items check out, it can be done,,, I think...

musting

I have looked back again at the bell housing and have rulled out the chances of
drilling holes in the bell a reliable procedure. Do to the fact it is so thin, the orginal holes are where the webing can reinforce that area and would not be if drilled at the rarea needed for the other transmission.,,[sm=badidea.gif]
So! now I have another thought.. perhaps I can use the shifter fork to repair the one in the '68 fairlane tranny? and change out the tail shaft housing from the '66 to the '68.. if this can be done then the bell housing will work and I want have to be looking for another one to fit the '66 tranny. Problem solved [sm=shades.gif]right!
, But? if Iam having to have a drive shaft fabed up anyway couldn't I simply just leave the '68 tailshaft on ? it's only about 2 1/2 inches longer then the '66 and all the mounts area are exactly in the same location. Like I said before I really want to do the simplest thing for now because I am still planing on having a 4-speed some day....