a bellhousing off a big block car should clear. i'm told i'll need to run a 10" clutch, but that's not a problem. and yeah a tri-5 one would work mint, but i'm kinda using mine at the moment
You need a factory aluminum bellhousing with a casting number that ends in 621 or 444. These take the 11" clutch and large flywheel and have the smaller register for the front bearing retainer. You will need to use a cast iron nose (4 speed) block mount starter, since the aluminum nosed starters wont clear these bellhousings.
Great thread. Thanks for all the pics and details. Not sure which trans you are using but I know Saginaws had a couple of different diameter front bearing retainers. I had to change one out on a T project of mine. Got it through a local trans shop for about $25 and it took care of my bell housing to trans clearance issues. Good Luck. DuckusCrapus
this car was somebody else's hack job of a project. we had to fix everything the "goon hand" touched. we're using a muncie. we swapped in the correct bellhousing today. everything went together nice, no misalignment issues, but it still chatters so tomorrow we'll put the clutch that was originally in the car back in and if that doesn't fix it i guess we'll just say fuck it & rip a drivetrain out of our s-10 or camaro we also picked up a really nice rebuilt gear reduction starter from a guy in down for $65 delivered! it's got a real small nose cone so it fits mint.
I know some of those "puck" styled clutch discs chatter no matter what. Some clutches seem to chatter pending on rear gear ratio. I know a guy who was running a Ram Powergrip and it would chatter with his 3:50 gears but not with his 4:56's. The problem would totally go away with the gear change to the lower gears. But...sounds like you are having some harsh chatter, which could be a number of things. Don't give up on the stick. I have been roaching clutches in my '55 Chevy, but nothing beats banging gears. Good luck and keep this thread going with updates. DuckusCrapus
thats bad ass idk why the hell you wouldnt just do a gasser tho...? but thats me i love the gasser look
Hey nothing wrong with running the mono's I still have the stock mono's under my Prostreet 64 SS fully tubed.
i wish i had the part # for you. was told it was out of a big block vette. it clears the big flywheel & 11 inch clutch, but we had to use a small nosed gear reduction starter to fit inside. the bellhousing was way too nice to cut up (even for us!). we wound using a 10" clutch cuz the bigger one we had was used, & even though it looked mint, it chattered. took it for a test drive today, it seems to be quite roadworthy.
First, I gotta thank you, I've got a '63 already for a straight axle and pretty much was at a stopping point because of the cost of the axle set up . Ironically I had looked at the jeep set up but thought it was too wide, but It looks fine on yours, so I'm going to copy yours hope you don't mind . I do have a couple of questions - what is the length of your front springs (looks short compared to the speedway kit {32 inches I think}went on the e trailer site and saw the springs sizes and they were shorter in length).Have you driven at all yet, how does it handle? Are you running the chevy II oil pan or a reg chevy pan . Again,great job. Car looks bitchin' Rob
thanks for the kind words. i think we have maybe 400 bucks in this front suspension. we lucked out & got an axle with good brakes/wheel bearings/ball joints, so i guess it could get a lil more exspensive. but nowhere near speedway prices. the jeep axle is actually within an inch of the factory front end. so yeah, it fits real nice. it is installed in the car upsidedown & backwards with the calipers swapped left to right. this keeps the tapered holes for the tie rods & such where they need to be. not sure how the balljoints feel about this, but they were in a big heavy truck before & now they're in a nice light lil' car, so that's something for you to keep in mind. the front springs are 3000lb springs (i believe that's rated by the pair, i didn't order the stuff, or even see the etrailer website) & i believe they are 27" long, kinda short, but they give plenty of clearance for the swing of the factory pitman arm. i think they are too stiff, so i'd use a 2500lb set if i was gonna do it again. just installed the shock mounts today so i can't give you a good description of the handling. it does track dead straight, and feels nice & tight over smooth roads. we dialed in 10 degrees of caster which although makes it track straight, no twitchyness at all, parking lot manuvers are brutal. your wife ain't borrowing this to get to the grocery store hard. so we're gonna add slightly longer front shackles to get a little less caster rather than re-weld the perches. i'll get you a better idea of how it handles tomorrow as it makes it's debut at skip's hamburgers megacruise show. it's got a regular chevy pan on it now, with plenty of clearance. good luck with yours & post some pics of the build!
maiden voyage to skip's mega cruise. fun show. we parked it right next to some dude who figured he'd have the only straight axle nova there, when we were cruising to the beach after the show we saw him loading it up onto a trailer less than a mile from the show. dork.
got a nice new shifter in today, & gonna mount up a nice free set of used ladder bars tomorrow. 2 days till the return to milltown with this shitbox!
so my good friend who just happened to be hacking up his beautiful 30k og mile olds out back donated these suh-wheat! ladder bars to our nova build. they are off a chevelle i believe, so we cut the shit out of them til they fit our nova. moved the upper shock mounts inboard about 2"s to make room for the axle mount & burned them into the subframe connectors here the are all mounted up. i feel like this car is traction away from wheelies on the street, (nova experts point me in the right direction!)
With your axle upside down i would imagine the spindles would be angled with some severe camber- unless the jeep axle has close to 90degrees at the kingpin... did you get a camber on it? how did it drive? You're getting me fired up to make things happen on my Falcon steering.... um WOW-just realized your chevy has a jeep axle, and my ford has a 65 chevy axle that i'm putting Jeep steering on... looks awesome! keep up the good work! -rick
the car drives mint. goes down the road nice & straight. we did however dial too much caster into it (10 degrees) goes straight but turns hard. liveable, but your old lady aint taking it to the grocery store. so yeah the camber is a non-issue. think about it, it's a straight axle so those front wheels gotta be pointing pretty straight ahead to begin with seeing as they're not indepedent of each other. ya know? cheap axle with great brakes. use it.
I have always been under the impression you need to use a floater kit on the rear if you used a ladder bar with leaf spring. Because of two different point mounting/pivit points???? The rear could bind as the springs wanted to move up and down.Some one please tell me if I'm right or wrong on this.
doesn't seem to bind... here's the nova goin nice & straight down the highway. had it up over a 100 by the gps. put about 250 miles on her over the weekend on the milltown trip. the only problem was a sticky float in the rear carb that was fixed with a few hammer taps. this car looks sooooo out of place passing econo-boxes on the highway, i f-n love it!
I got the springs in last weekend , going on the hunt for the axle this weekend. I'm really jealous now, seeing yours going down the highway, looks great!!!!! Rob
get on building you're own! clearly you know exactley what to do... we did our best in the time alotted... thanks, the car is a blast to drive! you should build one!!!
wow ...you guys did a fantastic job on that nova .....started on that after i stgarted on mine and you are finished before me im jealous.....keep it up looks sweet ..now get us adamn video of that thing burning rubber ..
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