My 64 Valiant is a factory four speed car. I have an OD trans and bellhousing from an a or f body. How hard is it to install in my Valiant? What is the best way to approach the ball/trunion vs. cross and roller u-joint issue? I do have a couple extra b/t driveshafts -- should I modify one for the more modern trans? Are there any other snags?

dbuser@northernenvironmental.com

well, I did something similar to my 63 and I think Doug was/is/did work on an archive for that. THere were lots of posts about differnt year and body type 833 overdrives. as I recall it comes down to this:

There were no ball and trunion overdrives for the a body. But my memory is very fuzzy as it ended with doug and I doing a buildup during my summer semester of differential equations which made me go mad (and we wre drinking beer) but the tranny went in great, it's slip yoke, and I love it. I seem to remember there being an easier solution to it all but we used all aluminum casings and maybe there was no way to have b/t with that.....

search the archivces, and you will find a great deal on it including several debates...

a shout out to Doug from the Misserable UK, and power stearing at xmas when I get back


Richard-cl@e-d-a.com

If you go with the later b/hsg you'll have to make an adapter for the engine side of the z-bar pivot ball. Or I have heard some people have gone with an hydraulic slave cylinder or hydraulic T/out bearing to work the clutch.
You can use your '64 cast iron b/hsg and avoid all that, but you'll have to use a different frt brg retainer . I machined my pilot hole in the b/hsg bigger and went with a turned down frt brg ret'r. Don't remember the exact sizes, I've slept since then.
Lose the B & T driveshaft. Either make up a brand new one for the slip spline output shaft, or shorten the old one and install new frt weld yoke.


fglmopar@aol.com

You can get the needed flange and slider that bolts to the B&T and then have the driveshaft modified but all this is expensive.
(around $200.00 in my area)
The other option is to get a "later" driveshaft that fits your OD trans. and have that shortened to fit.

This is a pretty easy swap, the other parts to look for is a 66 speedo cable assembly and you may have to modify the bellhousing bracket for the "z" shaft (bell crank) to line-up correctly on the newer bellhousing. (or bore open your cast iron bellhousing as Bud did)
DD