Swapping Front Bearing Retainer - Large to Small

So finding out I have a 68 833 4-speed and a 67 Bell housing. Long story short, I want to use this transmission and bell housing, but as you know the transmission has the larger front bearing retainer and the bell housing takes the smaller front bearing retainer. Can I buy a smaller front bearing retainer and swap it onto my 68 833? Thanks for help.

There area, at least, three front bearing retainer sizes and two bolt patterns. The smallest retainer will not bolt up to the largest bolt pattern, IIRC. So we need to know exactly what you have.

http://www.brewersperformance.com/products.php?cat=82

You would need a different bell housing or have yours machined larger.

(as mentioned, the bearing retainers will not swap)

C97621 is on the 68 transmission. It is an 18 spline overdrive 4-speed built by Jamie Passon 10 or so years ago. I want to use it in my 67 440 GTX but I would like to keep the factory cast iron bell housing.

Thanks all..

Talk to the guys at Brewers, maybe they can suggest a compromise.

NP I think made both size front bearing retainers for both the 23 spline and 18 spline tranny depending on what year the tranny was going into, I THINK
I've ran into that years ago doing some work on a customer's 4 speed car swapping the stock bell housing for a scatter shield so he could race it at some tracks in SO CA years ago
Another option is to use the adapter ring from the scatter shield so you can use the smaller front bearing retainer in the larger hole bell housings

If you have the small 307 front bearing then you should be able to buy a retainer that is the smaller size to fit the 307 and the 67 small hole bell housing. Only the 440/426 cases had the big 308 bearing. Check with brewers.

Guys? He said;



There is not an adapter to go from large bearing retainer to small.

That's what I did with mine.
I too have a 1968 23 spline 4 speed meant to go behind a 383 engine.
I'm using it behind my 360 engine.
The retainer that came with the 4 speed is too big for my bellhousing.
I was going to open up the opening in the bellhousing, but hesitated.
I went online and found the correct one thru Brewers.

did you need to change the bearing as well ?
i know virtually nothing about 4 speeds. just wanting to learn, so bear with me, please.

Just emailed Brewers about any possible solutions.. but, if I decided to go with the making the bell housing hole bigger, what would be involved. Could any engine builder/machine shop do it? Is it costly? would I ever be able to use the original smaller retainer transmission again?

Making the bellhousing hole bigger would require I believe also relocating the the clutch fork pivot over as it is very close the the hole, this may also require a different fork to go with that? I would have a machine shop do it , costly , probably but you got it ... .

You would be able to use your other transmission with just a bearing retainer swap or an adapter ring to fill the hole back in.

The big block A body uses the same bell, I want run a hemi 4 speed in my dart but didn't want to modify my original bellhousing so after doing some comparing it looks like the 70/up 130 tooth BB alum bellhousing is a copy of the 67 cast iron with a larger bearing retainer hole.

The other thing you could do is put the guts of your trans into a small bearing case, it's not very hard to do, though the OD trans went to the 308 front bearing for a reason?

No need to remove the input shaft and change the front bearing, remove the large bearing retainer and install the small one with a new inner seal and gasket

I believe that there is no small retainer (4.354" outside diameter) that uses the large bolt pattern (4.16"). I don't know which the OP has, which is why I linked to Brewer's as the dimensions were there for his use.

You DO NOT want to do that.

You have a 68 HEMI transmission. The C97621 is the large diameter 4.805"dia, 308 bearing with 4.16" hole pattern. The bearing and hole pattern are on your transmission so you can't change that without swapping case. Your trying to stick this in a Bell House that need a 4.354 diameter retainer.

So messing with a BH is problematic. Your alternative is to get the over drive retainer that has 5.125 dia, 308 bearing and 4.16 hole pattern. Turn it down to 4.354. This would also be pretty close to cutting into the holes of the retainer. This is much easier to do. BUT since your a 18sp, they will also have to put a sleeve on the tube the throwout bearing rides on and bore the diameter out. Lot of work, but I think better then working on BH. Frankly I would look for the 68 BH.

I have turned a OD retainer for a 308 23 spline to the large hole 4.805. That was easy and worked. You really may be stuck with changing Case or BH.

Seems like a lot of work and cost to try to modify what I have to work the way I want it to. Brewers also mentioned just switch the bell housing. Since it is the wrong (numbers wise) transmission anyways. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Is there enough meat on an 18 spline retainer to turn it down to the size your bellhousing is?

As you said, your trans isn't the "correct" one anyway so if you can source a compatible bellhousing, that's probably the easy button solution provided it's compatible with your clutch and flywheel.

Most of the car show "experts" will be too busy yammering on about their uncle's factory 383 hemi 62 Valiant to notice anyway.

Kevin

Changing to the 68 BH won't work for him unless he also changes the flywheel , 67 is 130 tooth , 68 is 143 tooth.

Not really possible because it would run into the bolt heads, the smaller retainer and bearing has a smaller bolt circle also .

Switching to the 70 Alum 130 tooth bellhousing is the easiest, and probably cheapest, solution .

He seems to have given up , if anyone is looking for the Passon 18 spline OD trans he has it listed for sale ...

I thought I would give an update.. I sold the Passon Overdrive transmission and am using the original 18-spline. Done! lol, but thank you for all the good information and John, yes, good information about the flywheel as well.