I just wanted to make sure that a standard BOP bellhousing will work on my '70 Buick 350. I've got a buddy willing to practically give me a bellhousing off of his '71 Pontiac 400. Or is it like the rear end, where its Buick only and I'm stuck trying to win the lotto to afford the parts. If this goes well, I might push the motor project back and start my manual trans conversion sooner. Are SBB 350 flywheels hard to find? and will a pedal and linkage setup off of a 68-72 Chevelle work? Thanks for the help.
the starter kickout for a Buick is on the passenger side while for a Pontiac i believe it's driver side. check the housing to see if it's got kickouts on both sides, many were made like that. in fact, i have a factory manual trans bell that has both Chevy and BOP bolt patterns as well as starter kickouts on both sides so in know they make them. the bolt pattern is the same as the Pontiac so the housing will bolt up. Or is it like the rear end, where its Buick only and I'm stuck trying to win the lotto to afford the parts. say what? what've you got, an 8.2" rear? the primary difference between a Chevy rear and a BOP rear is that the Chevy uses the crappy C-clip retainers while all of the BOP designs have positive bolt in retainers out next to the brake drums. all of the ring/pinions and carrier units are interchangeable from Chevy to BOP for a given size ring gear.
Thanks for the info on the bellhousing, I'll find out later which side the starter kickout is on. As for the rear end, I was under the impression that the posi unit for 68-70 Buick 8.2" was a Buick specific unit with different sized carrier bearings on each side and no interchangeablity with Olds/Pont units. No availability on the ring and pinion gear sets for them either. At least that is what I got from the diff. section of the board. I've got an open rear end, and was under the impression that I could not just buy an Eaton carrier unit and bolt it in; I would have to find a used Buick 8.2 posi or swap the entire rear end housing to a later model 8.5", Olds/Pontiac 8.2" or 12 bolt.
I was under the impression that the posi unit for 68-70 Buick 8.2" was a Buick specific unit with different sized carrier bearings on each side and no interchangeablity with Olds/Pont units. ah, that's possible i suppose. i'm not that up on the pre-70 stuff so if you've got somebody telling you different you should probably go with them. otoh, there isn't anything preventing you from swapping in an Olds/Pontiac unit ( that is, the whole assembly ) is there?
