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Dauntless BOP Bell housing Q.

Golden Burro

Golden Burro

New Member
I know there are two types of bell housings that were used on V6 to T14 combos, one shorter one with an adapter to the trans, and another that was single piece. I wonder if any one here knows if the non adapter one was used on other vehicles besides Jeeps, and if so which ones.
 
My understanding is the bellhousing used with the adapter is the standard GM BOP bell and as such, should be the one used with most RWD BOP manual transmissions applications.

Welcome to the forum. Absolutely the best forum for pre 76 CJ's.
 
Note that Buick had starter on the passenger while I think both Pontiac and Oldsmobile V8s had them on the driver side. I've seen belhousings with provisions for both starter locations, and bellhousings with the Buick only location. Either will work.

If you search "BOP Bellhousing" on e-bay, most are the universal ones for a starter on either side. Any of those should work.
 
The one piece cast bell housing was used only on the 71 Dauntless. It was discontinued when AMC bought Jeep. I have had several of these, and wish I had held onto at least one, they are getting rare. They were never used on anything other than a Jeep vehicle with the Dauntless engine.

When they were available at dealer parts counters they were very popular for doing a V6 conversion in early Jeeps, as they can be easily drilled and tapped to fit a T-90.
 
Oldpappy said:
The one piece cast bell housing was used only on the 71 Dauntless. It was discontinued when AMC bought Jeep.
Click to expand...
I wonder what went on with this.
AMC bought the company in 1970, and I'm sure they had plans to switch to their engines even before negotiations started.
In the scheme of things, you'd think a one-year part that was predestined for elimination would get thoroughly scrutinized by the bean counters.
Why was this bridge part needed?
Maybe availability of the Buick bells from GM was the problem?
I don't think the mechanical advantages are enough to justify developing and manufacturing this part for one year.
Maybe they could make in-house or purchase the combined bell cheaper than the cost of the bell from GM and the adapter?
 
I second Oldpappy’s reply. The 1-piece Dauntless bellhousing was unique to the ‘71 Jeeps. I have no idea why Jeep changed this design for only one final year.
 
I suppose it was developed prior to the AMC acquisition with plans for more than one year in production, then AMC decided to ditch the V6.
 
timgr said:
I wonder what went on with this.
AMC bought the company in 1970, and I'm sure they had plans to switch to their engines even before negotiations started.
In the scheme of things, you'd think a one-year part that was predestined for elimination would get thoroughly scrutinized by the bean counters.
Why was this bridge part needed?
Maybe availability of the Buick bells from GM was the problem?
I don't think the mechanical advantages are enough to justify developing and manufacturing this part for one year.
Maybe they could make in-house or purchase the combined bell cheaper than the cost of the bell from GM and the adapter?
Click to expand...
Just speculating here, but justifying the casting tooling cost & creating the tooling probably started in 1969. They may not have known the future of Kaiser Jeep at that time.

Also Kaiser owned 25% (ish) of AMC after the merger. Maybe the AMC engineers had no idea the Dauntless would be ditched until after the famous "rough as a cobb" quote. AMC owned the Dauntless tooling until 1974.
 
Fireball said:
Note that Buick had starter on the passenger while I think both Pontiac and Oldsmobile V8s had them on the driver side. I've seen belhousings with provisions for both starter locations, and bellhousings with the Buick only location. Either will work.

If you search "BOP Bellhousing" on e-bay, most are the universal ones for a starter on either side. Any of those should work.
Click to expand...
Yup, mine had a started swell on the drivers side that I removed to clear the upper link.IMG_2699 by Rick , on Flickr
 
Thanks for the info, typical Jeep stuff. My March 1970 CJ5 had the one piece bell housing. It seemed to have the original V6 and T14 engine and transmission. I swapped in an SM 465 last winter and was able to open up the bellhousing rear bore to clear the front bearing retainer on the trans. I was asking because it seemed like one of those things I would like to have an extra of, because, well, hoarding parts seems like the thing to do when you have an old Jeep.
 
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