Hello John,
I greatly appreciate the advice everyone has provided and I know there are many far more experienced people on this site than myself.
But I too have done a lot through my life and worked on cars/ trucks for many years seeing I'm now 53.
The main issue driving much of this is my current floor configuration is not all original. The floor had rotted out years ago and the original owner put a piece of steel plate across and welded it in place. The floor is nice and solid and I don't really want to start cutting that all up to put back to original.
That being said, the original bellhousing doesn't solve my problem. The floor will still cause interference with the top of the SM420 transmission and in fact I think would be worse with the old housing because it appears to sit up even higher on the crossmember. That would then require me to cut a hole in the floor for the needed clearance and would make the top of the transmission sit 1-2 inches above the floor in the cab. Maybe thats fine and I will go that route but I won't really know until after I have put the engine back in with the bellhousing attached.
I truly am very sincere when I say I'm thankful for everyone's help and I know I will have many more questions as I now get into reassembly. I also know that I will not be able to complete my project without the continued assistance from this great site and membership.
Have a safe and Happy Holiday John and members.
