I have a 270 red ram hemi, a Desoto bell housing and Desoto 3 speed trans. I know the bell pattern is the same, but will the trans work? Shaft length ok??? Etc...
Depends......what year model(s) are the bell and trans and from the same car? Desoto from '52 through at least '53 and I think '54, had a long bell housing to accommodate the semi-automatic fluid coupling and attached manual clutch. The fully manual shift cars, no fluid coupling, had a very long trans input shaft and throw out bearing carrier. The three speed trans used with Fluid drive had a shorter input shaft. If you have '55 up Desoto stuff, both bell housing and trans, they are shorter but of course, being the same yr model should be compatible. All this stuff will fit on your 270 Dodge engine as 241 thru 325 Dodge is the same block/crankshaft shape/size/pattern, etc, as '52 up Desoto and '54 up Chrysler. The key, as indicated above, the trans and bell housing must be of the same period and application, either full manual or semi-automatic. Ray
I'll third what Ray said. I can add a bit from my experiences. Back in the early '60's I built a "T" bucket with a 270 "Super Red Ram" and a stick setup out of a mid fifties Dodge I got from the boneyard. Ray is right about a looong input shaft; IIRC, it was well over a foot long. The engine I was using was out of a car that originally came with a Powerflite automatic transmission. The Powerflite cars had no pilot bushings. Also, the recess in the crankshaft was not deep enough to accommodate the pilot on the input shaft. I ended up cutting about 1/2" off of the pilot shaft, which still left almost an inch of pilot. Also, a stock Dodge pilot bushing was too large to fit into the unfinished hole in the driveshaft. I mounted the bushing on a proper sized bolt which I then chucked up in my Dad's drill press. Using various files, I turned down the OD of the bushing until it fit into the recess of the crank shaft. Everything went together and the car worked great for the next two years I had it on the road. Ideally, the crankshaft should have been finish-drilled to allow the proper pilot bushing to be used, but I was a young kid, short on money, but long on ingenuity. I initially tried to cut the pilot shaft with a hacksaw, but it wouldn't even scratch the surface. I ended up paying a lot (for me at the time) of money to buy a cut-off wheel that did the job. Since most 270 "Super Red Rams" came in Powerflite cars, there is a good chance you'll be facing the same problems I did even if you can find a proper stick setup. Good luck!.
If you are talking Manual not torqueflite remember you have a select shift so you will have to most likely get to build your shifter.
It may come to that. But I did one many, many years ago and it wasn't too bad to fabricate. If the OP needs some suggestions on that problem, message me and I will try to ***ist. Ray
Ray here's one from the HAMB https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-floor-shift-conversion.617487/#post-11543525
Hey Sunbeam, Thanks for posting that link......I really like the unit shown in the colored illustration. Very clever and quite simple. I began to browse further and found one of my own posts in that thread! The electric solenoid ***ist I described was my first attempt at solving the problem.About a year later I had occasion to be working on a friend's Plymouth (installed a Dodge 270) and needed a floor shift. That time I did it all mechanical and it operated just like a conventional floor shift. Just push the lever to the left against light spring pressure....push lever forward for Reverse, pull back for 1st.....shifting through the neutral gate with light right pressure got 2nd & 3rd. The unit Gatz illustrated appears also very easy to use and may be even easier to fabrciate. Ray
As to the pilot bearing/bushing issue, it is common to put the bearing in the flywheel and not try to get something to fit into the crank which is not a finished hole. The hole in the flywheel is also not a 'finished' hole so, when making a bushing, the hole in the wheel must also be sized for a press fit. The pilot bearing/bushing then simply mounts in the reducing bushing. We typically make the bushing with a shoulder to have a stopping point when it is pressed into the wheel. .
Gary's way of doing it is probably better than my "jerry-rigged" method, but it was beyond my equipment and capabilities in 1964. Kinda sounds like "a horse apiece" though.
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