I thought I should inqure here before blowing 595.00 plus shipping... I still need a 58-60 pontiac standard bellhousing like Rocky has told me so many times that I need to put a later tranny in my 56 pontiac....I am about to spend the cash to order an adapter from bendtsen's, but would rather do it the old fashioned way.... if ANYONE has one, or knows where I can get one, please PLEASE e-mail me or something before monday, I have looked on ebay for MONTHS to NO avail, scoured junk yards and back yards and interrogated innocent friends..... it appears NO ONE has one, yet, there HAS to be one in existance someplace, because everyone says they know someone who did it... would I be best off to order the adapter? this thing is supposed to (according to the e-mail I recieved from the man who makes them) for all practical purposes, turn the back of my engine into a small block chevy...with a screwed up starter locale... now, I know that purchasing a complete sbc in the same condition as my 316, plus the added expense of motor mounts, would be cosiderably more...but I dont want a cookie cutter motor under the hood...the only thing I see here that would be a problem would be the rear mounts that USED to be bolted to the original bellhousing that provided the support the old style front mounted motors require... another option is buyng a complete rebuilt 57 "heavy duty" tranny I found online for $350....then I would be back on borrowed time with the same thing I had before second gear committed suicide on me.... I'm dying here...help, anyone dealt with bendtsens before? Here is a link to the product I'm talking about... early pontiac to chev trans adapter below is a link to the pic of what comes with it...the one pictured is for a 61-64, but the earlier one comes with the same basic stuff.... pic of kit
Why don't you have one made at a local machine shop? Kinda like the plate adapter to mate a BOP tranny to a Chev or vise versa. I know this sounds easier said then done, but you could ask your local machine shops or junior colleges to make you up one. -Jesse
Hey man... Hold on there! I might just have a couple of numbers fer you to call... Scott Brodell (920)625-3412 N4549 Hwy R Iron Ridge, Wi This is my buddy Scott. He's got like 3 of everything...especially when it comes to old speed stuff...I'd be willing to bet he's got what you're looking for, if not a couple of 'em. If he doesn't have it, try this junkyard: Van's Auto Salvage Waupun, Wi I don't have the number for Van's...seemed to have misplaced it..but they're open every day till about 4:00pm, at one point they had something like 5,000 cars out there, and I just walked though there about 2 months ago and saw quite a few 59-60 ponchos...all you've gotta do is call 411 information to get the number...I don't think that you'll have a problem with either one of these places shipping stuff out to you, but just in case you do, here's my cell phone #...give me a holler if you need me to go get it for you and ship it...I got no problems helpin out a Hamber in distress...oh yeah, tell Scott that Dino sent you....I know Scott though my buddy Dino (sounds like Deeno) and it'll be less confusing if you tell him that Dino referred you....i'm gonna try and dig some more for ya and see what i can come up with.... The Cadillac Kid
Try this place too, www.allamericanclassics.com . They're in Vancouver, WA and have quite a few old pontiacs in the yard. Give them a call, it's worth a shot.
I don't know if it will help or not but we have made several adapters for Mopar and Ford to Gm trans before. It's not that hard But is time consuming. Get a plate like they use ,and drill the bolt pattern for the motor ,including dowels ,in the plate and put tapered head bolts in them .try not to go deeper than flush with the heads.Allen heads work best ,not screwdriver heads. Then take a dial indicator and mount on the flywheel flange of the crank so it reads the center hole in the bellhousing. I use C-clamp vise grips to gently hold the bellhousing on and a small hammer to tap it until the crank and dial indicator reads 0 when rotated. Then just drill your bellhousing bolts and dowels and thread the plate. As you can see the starter is bolted on the bottom ear of the plate but the crank adapter would have to be done first. Just bolt the trans up with the flywheel pilot bearing on the trans input and measure the distance that the crank adapter needs to span. I would let the machine shop do the crank adapter. But you can give them the specs.The nice part about doing this yourself is the starter can be put anywhere ,even on the other side of the motor. Hope this helps. By the way ,all modern GM motors share the same dowel pin location,IE 265 chevy 's the same as 500 caddy . Therefore if the trans bellhousing is on the dowel pins it's located correctly for the crank. It may or may not be the same in the older pumpjacks.It is the same for the 350's thru 455 though.
[ QUOTE ] Try this place too, www.allamericanclassics.com . They're in Vancouver, WA and have quite a few old pontiacs in the yard. Give them a call, it's worth a shot. [/ QUOTE ] Yes, call these guys for stuff because urban sprawl has surrounded their location and I doubt it will be long before they are told they are an "eyesore to the community" (One of my Brother's lives about a mile form them, but I don't think he's neded anything for his '67 Chevy truck yet.)
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