This is for the 1956 265 small block my dad and I installed into his 1953 Sunbeam Alpine. I made this adapter to be able to bolt a starter to the engine. We did not want to use, or pay for, one of the adapters that sandwiches between the block and transmission. The 265's didn't have a place to bolt a starter and where one would have bolted was on the original transmission bell housing. I used a piece of 1" steel plate that I cut to roughly mimic the shape of the block and drilled and tapped two holes for a Hitachi style mini starter which I used to bolt it to a 400 block I had sitting around. After it was secured down I took a piece of 1/2" plate and ground down one side of it and welded that to the 1" plate so it would hang over the engine side of the hole for the lower transmission flange bell housing bolt. Then drilled it out so that a bolt could be tightened through the adapter, into the block, and stick out the back far enough to bolt the transmission to it with a nut. At some point someone had drilled two holes through the bottom of the transmission flange for some reason so I drilled and tapped holes in the 1" plate for bolts to run through from the inside. Ended up only being able to use one of them as the hole was too close to the back of the block to be able to turn the bolt on the other. I reckoned it only needed one anyway. To line up the starter bendix it requires clocking the mount 180° and bolting it on upside down, or I suppose the solenoid could be left hanging upside down. Evidently there was some difference between the 400 and the 265 or between the starter I used for mock up and the one that was put on permanently because it ended up needing a few shims. I also had to grind a recess so part of the starter gear housing would clear. I accidentally put it on the wrong side so that is why there is a recess next to the block. Last thing I did was run a weld bead down outside the transmission bolt hole that I ground to sit flat on the curving portion of the end of the bell housing flange. We were very happy with the results! The starter engages and works fine and the car has been on the road a couple of times now.
Like way you think , My self dealing with later sb with broken outer block & starter bolt where some one used wrong outer bolt. Bolt bottom out left gap did not clamp. Trying to do in vehicle & upside down . Thinking something like this & there are other way's / style . Believe I seen a plate for dirt so you can Move / install starter on left or right
The Jalopy Journal
