Hi all. I picked up a 4 speed today, stamping says it's from a '68 or '69 roadrunner(6th digit isn't legible). The front bearing is a 307, but it has the small O/D retainer. Didn't these come with the 3.70 bolt circle/4.805 retainers? I'm assuming someone changed the retainer to put it behind a small block, because the 383s didn't get a unique bellhousing, did they? It has a drop-in/bayonette style hurst shifter as well, what year(s) were those used? TIA, Karlin.

307 is the smaller one, 308 is the larger one

Never, ever assume anything when it comes to production cars and parts I would bet money that all the pre 1970 23 spline trannys came with the small front bearing and retainers and only the hemi and 440 Hi Po tranny came with the larger 308 bearing and retainers
Some of the early SB 4 speed tranny came with a different gear sets and a smaller output shaft but I'm going to say all of them used the same front bearings and retainers as all the other non hemi, 440 23 spline tranny did
As far as the OEM Hurst factory built for Mopar shifters I'm going to say all of them had the slip in shifter handles instead of the bolt in handles like the over the counter Hurst Competition Plus shifters had Maybe not

Its a 50 year old trans - who the hell knows what was swapped on it during that time !!

I think the larger bearing retainer on the 383 B-body trans started in 1969, but I'm not positive...

Yes the retainer was likely changed to work with a small retainer hole bellhousing at some point in time. 68-9 383 RR would have used a trans with the 307 bearing and 4.805" retainer diameter. Retainers are readily available if you have the large hole bellhousing.

Thanks Dan. I thought that's how it worked, but I wanted to make sure. There just aren't any marks, grease/dirt ring, etc on the front of the case to indicate it used to be a larger retainer, so it got me wondering.

If you have a large hole bell and a small retainer you can buy an adapter ring from Brewers. $20.

I have a supposed to be 69 RR trans in the garage.Was pulled over 40 years ago.It did have the small retainer.I have it on my 65 tranny now.Rocky

It had the small (4.350") outer diameter retainer? If I understand you correctly, that's interesting. This one's probably been sitting for that long as well.

I think I saw that on their site last night. IIRC I had one of those with a scattershield once. My stuff is all small block, so luckily it will work for me (if I keep it) as is.