Yup. Factory steel. Not the first one I've seen either. I did a thread on it when I tore it down. It had the spades, clubs, heart and diamond markings on it. Was no doubt a factory piece. Had properly date coded bearings. The block was even stamped indicating it had a factory undersized bearing. It did too. .001" undersized. I have no clue as to whether it was manual or auto. Just that it came out of a 77 truck.