Why? Because we can!!

[cobrakiwi]

Recycling is sometimes needed, turning scrap into something we can use.
Old csx 4k firewall to these.

[cobrakiwi]

Small block 5 bolt bell housing, I picked this deal up years ago thinking I may use it someday, I'm sure we all know how that goes.

It was missing the bottom cover so that's the project, make one.
This is the start of that job, after acquiring a couple of pictures of what the cover looks like (thanks Dan)
I made a pattern then broke out the plasma.
To my surprise my plasma cut through the 1/2 inch plate no problem.

[1795]

Wow, nice job Craig!

[MAStuart]

I take it you more work to do to that so the flywheel will fit?

[cobrakiwi]

Thanks Jim

Yes still a bit of work ahead before we can use this bell, the lower cover has to be made to fit this.

[cobrakiwi]

Upon further inspection of this bell I noticed the gearbox locating hole just did not look right.
Sure enough it had been taken to with a grinder or some other type of hand tool.

Looks like the hole had been opened up to take the large toploader/tko size bearing retainer from the t10 size..

Not good, now how to fix?
After sleeping on it and coffee in the morning I came up with an idea, why not machine the hole out to take a modern quicktime bellhousing insert?

First make a jig up to locate the bell were it should be for machining. To do this I made a fixture up using my good ford bellhousing.

Center the ford bell in the bridgeport then swap out the damaged bell.

[cobrakiwi]

Next, cut the center to fit the quicktime insert, this went great but I noticed the cutter hitting the 12 o'clock area first and taking a bit to cut the entire 360 degrees.
After cutting the center, I checked the gearbox side surface and sure enough it was low at the 6 o'clock.

The fix, lock it down in the bridgeport and cut the gearbox side surface. Took a .040 cut to get it to where I am happy with it.
You can see by the blue paint it is still a little low at the 6 o'clock, but good enough.

This problem was not disclosed too me when I purchased the thing, but am very happy to be able to fix and save it.

This was a fun sunday afternoon project.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by cobrakiwi

....Not good, now how to fix?
After sleeping on it and coffee in the morning I came up with an idea....

Nice job Craig.

So many times the solution to a problem isn't immediately obvious. Sleeping on it and with your subconscious working on it, it's quite amazing how often we can come up with novel and satisfying solutions when we had thought that the problems were insurmountable.

Cheers!

Glen