Lakewood bell housing install a body small block

Hi guys I have a 69 dart automatic car and I'm switching over to a four speed with a Lakewood bell housing I'm wondering if there's any different type of Z bars adjusters anything out of the ordinary that I'm going to need to do this ! thanks you for your tip mopar or no car

It should use the correct A body Z bar, you may need to trim the inside (bellhousing side) of it, I did on my B body, had to trim about an inch or so.

Years ago when I ran a drag raced a 18 spline four speed I re-fabricated all of the parts.

The trick is to use a factory Z bar as a template, but re-enforce it so that there is 0 flex. I also re-built the pivot ball because it also showed some movement. I also welded a gusset to the mount on the bell housing.

I also used heavier clutch rods until I had it correct. Worked very well when i was done.

I used a Ram, Borg & Beck/ Long style clutch assembly after much trial and error. Contact them for what is the current best system. I know that spring pressures are quite low today and they are very reliable.

If you are going to drag race the thing, do it right and you will be happy.

I did the same thing... I changed the ratio on
the Z-bar on my 69 Valiant plus beefed it all up..
this was years ago so the heavy pressure plates
were the way to go... I was running a 4200# plate
and a 4400# plate.. on a 10.5# flywheel.. now days
the dual disc and other things are the way to go with
the adjustable weights(higher revs added more weight)
I also welded another plate to the frame rail with those
big pressure plates.. the first one started tearing out
the frame rail

Was putting it behind a mild 360 street use burn out and Brodie's 😇

If you have tti headers youll run into some clearence issues..
Dont ask me how i know:-)

got dougs the same ive bin told

look the same

The problems i ran into was that one tube on pass side hit bell bad.
Had to grind a huge notch in bell.
Also the piece that goes down on the zbar was rubbing top of headers just before collector.
And i had to smash one tube just to get zbar in place.
Also needed to bend the down piece on zbar.
Id say that a mock up outside of car is close to a must.

If possible this is the way to go. The pipes usually fit the body pretty well but things need tweaking when you switch to a scattershield. Better to grind. the bell than dent the tubes!!

I cut the headers to fit around the bell.. I
didnt like grinding on a safety shield.. but
since I changed the Z-bar I had to move the
header tubes anyways

You will need to push, hammer, bend the lip up between the firewall and the floor that will be in the way of the scattersheild when it is installed in the car

Won't you run into a problem with SFI recert if you grind on the "scallops" of the Lakewood?

No as long as you are grinding on the side for header clearance.

11.50 and slower don't even need a scatter shield, and if you want to put your own window in it and it's legal.

11.49 and quicker can't put more than a 1 inch hole in the bottom with having Lakewood put the window in it and doing a recent.


In this day and age, I can't imagine needing all the reinforcement. You won't need more than 1000 pounds of base AT THE MOST.

That's if you run the correct clutch. That means no diaphram, multiple rag disc junk.

Should be running sintered iron.

If you grind ANY on a SFI part you have now violated
the SFI.. try sending it back for a renewal on the
SFI tag... it WILL BE denied.. thats FACT.. no guessing
about that... I tried that on a SFI part