muncie conversion

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by Furno68C20

Good info here. I too am in the process of trying to figure out how to convert a 67 Short box 250i 3spd over to a 355i / Muncie combo. One question I have is how different are the bell housings? Would I be able to use the bell housing and support position from the 250i set up?
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My setup uses the 67 bell housing BUT , I removed the i6 cross member and installed the V8 manual cross member so I could mount the V8 in the stock position and have the shifter fit , Use the V8 linkage , and make life a whole lot easier down the road . the Muncie has to fit the bell housing input hole (67 does ) 68-72 has a larger hole so you would need to add a spacer to provide support . Muncies are famous for breaking the mount ( ears) off and not designed to be just hanging off the bell housing . So if your not interested in changing stock cross members you may just want to remove the i6 cross member and use an aluminum bell housing and a auto trans rear trans mount along with the V8 engine mounts to bring it all forward and avoid clearance issues with the shifter . there is a lot of good info/parts here https://www.5speeds.com/

you can see the "tight" fit of the Muncie trans into the 67 bell housing by the paint removed when I was mocking up mine .

[Grumpy old man]

you can probably find a used 5 speed and make it all fit cheaper with less time than using a Muncie , I wanted this set up because it's close to what the "fast cars" were using back in the 60's early 70's . I'm trying to keep this a 67-72 a period build with No computers /injection systems or custom parts that weren't available back then . you know back when you needed a timing light and a screw driver to change the tune and not a computer or metric tools .

[Grumpy old man]

I didn't like the idea of leaving the Muncie hanging off the bell housing , So after talking to 2 different Muncie builders I decided to add the tail shaft trans mount and cross member . I did a little massaging to the cross member to have it sit right . Also I was watching some of the Chip Foose C-28 build videos and noticed he added a tail shaft cross member on it under his 5 speed so he's running engine mounts / bell housing mounts and the tail shaft mount on it . If it's good enough for Foose it's good enough for my truck .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgtmBmzPKOE