Swapping a 4 speed into my originally auto-equipped 383 '68 Coronet. The back of the crank was 'drilled' somewhat but apparently not enough. I measured the distance from the deepest point of the crank to the back of the bell to check for clearance and sure enough the input is too long. I knew I had to cut the input down but I wasn't comfortable making one large cut to start since based on my measurements, it looks like I could be lopping off 3/4" or more.

I went against the math and tried a smaller conservative cut to see if it would go but I'm still seeing about a 3/8" gap before the trans meets the bell. Since I can't really see the input with the trans in place to see if something is way out of whack, the 3/8" gap would indicate that it's still bottoming out.

Does 3/4" + seem like an excessive amount to have to trim or is this 'normal' for this scenario where you're trying to seat it in a crank that was originally mated to an auto? The input looks like it would be pretty short after it's all said and done.

Or - could I be doing something wrong with how I'm installing the trans? I have the clutch, flywheel and bell installed and I aligned everything with an old cut-off input shaft. I went with a pilot bearing instead of the bushing and it's installed correctly. Should the bell be installed on the trans first? Should the bell bolts be left loose until the unit is all the way in? There is a point where the input goes in then it just stops.No fiddling with the trans jack angle or bell height helped. I even tried smacking the case with a piece of wood and a hammer but it's a no go. I figured if I'm having to resort to this type of tomfoolery, somethin' ain't right. This should not be that hard!

Thanks fort any input.