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Mal, not right around the corner, but close enough run down, pick up parts, have lunch and get back with a few hours to spare before dinner. :)

Doing some more cleaning to get everything ready to start doing the actual rebuild.

I dug out the GS bellhousing and Pan I got from Gerry awhile back. The GS bellhousing should allow the 56 tranny body to mount to the 327 motor I have. Also I needed the GS pan because the 56 pan puts the dipstick on the wrong side of the car.

Comparing the two bellhousing I am noticing 4 places where the differ. I assume they changed some of the oiling locations as they were refining the Twin design.

Also, I think the GS bellhousing is missing a bushing. Probably was removed by someone for some reason?

So I need to chat with Ross about these oil passage differences and see if I need to modify the GS housing in any way.

Differences marked by the arrows in the pictures.

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"Engineers love to change things." Sometimes with good reason, although I certainly don't know why that would be in this case (54GS vs 56TU).

Craig

There was a ton of running changes between 54 GS and 56 Twin. Some of those changes were retrofitted back to the 54, some were not. One of the big changes was going from 20 splines to 40 splines. I just need to understand what effect the differences in the oil passages is going to mean on the front pump and what it delivers where.

I'd be interested in what Ross says about the oil passages and in the back of my mind I think there is a difference with the front pumps which may have something to do with the passage layout. I can't find it at the moment but there is an article advising the field that the factory was reworking a limited number of later pumps for service use with 54 gearstarts because the original supply had run out. They explained some of what was involved but if you have an extra 54 pump you might compare the two. I believe one of the factory mods had something to do with adding another sealing ring on the pump. That may explain why there is a difference in bushings in the bellhousing.

On the 54 housing, someone started to push the bushing out but inexplicably stopped. All Ultras use the same front bushing, and it should be installed slightly below flush as seen on the 56 housing.

The other differences will require some thought, but have to do with the fact that the front pumps are different as the fluid to apply the direct clutch was rerouted in the 56 version. You will of course have to use the 56 pump with the 56 guts and convertor and case. You will find that it will bolt right up to the 54 housing; just need to be sure that none of the 54 drain slots siphon off a needed pressure. Pretty sure they do not.

Will try to compare a few housings later today. By the way, I am interested in obtaining a 54 GS bellhousing for a future playtoy.

Ross, thanks for the input. Once I get this transmission done, you can have the bellhousing off of the GS that is current under the car.

I just want to figure out what needs to be done on this bellhousing before I proceed any further.

It almost looks like the GS bellhousing needs to have those upper passages milled out/extended, and the bottom one filled/blocked. But that's my layman's view of it.

Power Steering pump arrived in the mail...

Heading down to Gerry's to pick up the rest of the power steering stuff on Sat. He has two Bendix PS assembles for me to choose from.

Any issues using the standard steering box with it?

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Box will work OK although the ratio is different than PS used so there will be a combination of more turns than it would be with a PS box but maybe a bit less effort than with the PS box. There is a different pitman arm with PS so be sure and get that too. Not sure what the difference is -- maybe length or maybe the end that fits on PS valve is changed.

Howard, good to know, thank you. Is the Bendix unit the one with the three hoses?