I'm looking for a good machine shop that can make a rather large transmission bellhousing adapter for my '29 model AA. I worked with one machine shop, they said they could do it in their spare time in 6 months and $1500. Soon the price doubled and the time quadrupled, still not finished so I have finally decided to throw in the towel and try to find another machine shop. Any recommendations?
How about using the adapter used with the truck 4 sp transmissions? Make an adaper like used with T-5? If it is something really strange you need, how about welding up a part and just have it faced and bored. That should not be that bad.
please explain the combination of engine / trans and what you are trying to do. Why can it not be accomplished with stock ford parts? or an adapter plate?
the engine has an SAE 1 industrial bellhousing. The transmission is an SAE-2 (smaller) Here's a picture of the flywheel adapter I already had made. I'm not aware of any off the shelf adapters, since these industrial engines have different flywheels than automotive engines. If you have an engine that was originally mated to an automatic transmission it would have bolted right up.
Yea I did talk to phoenix castings but they only had sae 2 and 3 to common automotive (th400, c6 etc) adapters, but not sae1 to Allison Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
These guys can do it. They charge a little bit but deliver what and when they say they will: www.rhinoprecision.com
Their website lists their max turning diameter at 14". You have to be able to turn about 22.5" to do the lathe work on a #1 housing. This is a big part as compared to car or light truck stuff. Big as in the size of the bell housing on a heavy truck diesel.
I've seen some #1 to #2 adapters but the ones I've seen are either about 1" overall length flange to flange or they have an inset #2 bore such that the adapter doesn't add any length to the assembly. I'm assuming you need an adapter long enough to take up the space as shown in the fit-up on your pics, i.e. 3 or 4 inches overall? If so, that's definitely custom part territory. Assuming this is strictly a round part with the proper 12 bolt patterns on both ends and not requiring any provisions for motor mounts or anything similar that would require a bunch of milling, that part should come in within the $1500-$2000 range at the max and shouldn't take months to produce. It sounds as if the first shop took it on and figured they'd try to come up with some way to make it once they had the job. That doesn't generally work out too well for the shop or the customer. A shop that's familiar with this type of work would normally start with a rotary forged ring from Scot Forge in Chicago, or a similar supplier of forged rings. Otherwise, they're either starting with a flame cut ring where they're paying for the 250# or so of steel that's burned out of the middle as well as paying for the ring itself, or they start with a flame cut circle and spend a bunch of time hogging out the hole. Either approach adds a few hundred bucks to the overall cost as compared to starting with a forged ring. I could make the adapter with no problems, but there are plenty of shops in TX that can easily handle it so there's no need for you to end up spending a bunch of additional money on freight. I know the owners of a couple such shops thru another forum I frequent. If you want, I can get their contact info for you and send it to you via pm so you could contact them.
yep. only the old school guys can do it who work on big excavators and heavy equipment stuff Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
sounds good. yea i started out with Central Machine. they said if i wasnt in a hurry they could do it for some 1500 in their spare time. we agreed on a 6mo time window. that was 3 years ago. last time i talked to him the price had doubled. he never gave me a written quote, we never had anything in writing. he made the flywheel adapter but not yet the bellhousing adapter. i havent paid anything. the piece they made is of excellent quality. i'm thinking of going back to him and see if we can just agree to cap the price at 2000. they made the flywheel adapter welded from 3 pieces, then machined it and balanced it. it's steel, probably weighs 40-50 lbs. i'll take a picture. i don't quite remember what their plan was for the bellhousing. i agree that making it out of a billet would likely be expensive Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
10-4. I forgot Rhino Precision deals with some smaller parts. Just out of curiosity did you find someone who could do it?
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