Z Bar Ballstud Bellhousing Bracket Seems Wrong.

Hi yall,

I ve run into a little trouble along the way with my 4 speed swap and I'm quite sure it has to do with the mismatch of parts I'm using.

I'm working on a 70 Dart with a slant six. The engine and transmission came out of a 74 I believe, but I'm unsure. It's a 225 833od combo. I have the correct z bar but everything else is from a 71 Duster 340. It appears that the ball stud bracket for the z bar that bolts to the bellhousing is not right. I cant quite figure out how it's supposed to bolt to the bellhousing because it's not quite the right shape. The part that has the plastic bushing is bent back towards the bellhousing but the mounting pad on the bellhousing is flat. Also the engine to bellhousing brace has a small tab that interferes with the ballstud. It can be seenninnthe first pic at the end of the z bar. It has a small hole in it.



Is there a piece missing here like a spacer plate? Or do I have the wrong bracket? I'm tempted to cut the two offenders off but I'm hesitant to cut up original stuff. I'm a little confused by the plastic bushing, is there something that goes in there that rotates?

Thanks in advance and happy motoring!

I think you have multiple problems;beginning with the BH. What is the casting # on your BH or what was it out of originally and is it for a 9.5" clutch? According to Brewer's,your application calls for #3743643, or could be #4202506,
I think the inboard end of the Z-bar is all wrong.
I think the bar is too short, or the TO fork is too short. and
the lever seems to be mounted too far out board; on the Z-bar.
The Z-bar should push on the TO fork, in a straight line parallel to the centerline of the vehicle.
Secondly the inboard anchor that bolts onto the BH is wrong The plastic ring is not used and I think it is supposed to point up. There are two of those brackets that I am aware of; an early and a late, but I forget the year of the break. The brackets have to match the BH, not the year of the car. As you can see, if you re-orient your BH anchor plastic bushing up, and level it out so the slot and the remaining hole are vertical to the ground, that should bold directly onto the BH. In your case that would be impossible, so it is the wrong anchor for your BH.
I think one of these is what yours should look like;



Having said that; if the outboard end of the Z-bar is too far forward on the stub-frame, then you would get a similar misalignment, but that would not cure the crummy push-angle.
So here is a link; call these guys and they will hook you up

Brewer's Performance - Mopar A833 4-Speed Transmission and Component Specialists

Happy Hunting

Matt, I had a somewhat similar problem with my car. It is a 340 Duster that originally came with a 727 automatic. Somewhere along the line somebody swapped a 318/904 combination into the car. They used the original z-bar but it did not reach all of the way to the ball crank on the transmission. So they got a piece of angle iron and made their own. This caused the shift lever on the column to not line up correctly to the indicated gear on the selector.
I had to locate and buy a z-bar and ball crank for the 904 a body application. Got them from a FABO member.
The z-bar and ball crank are different for the 340/727 combination. I imagine that you should look for a z-bar and ball crank for your engine and transmission combination for an a body.
Good luck.

72 was the switch over for the bell mounted ball for V8. Not sure about slants.

DFX 340 Duster said:

Matt, I had a somewhat similar problem with my car. It is a 340 Duster that originally came with a 727 automatic. Somewhere along the line somebody swapped a 318/904 combination into the car. They used the original z-bar but it did not reach all of the way to the ball crank on the transmission. So they got a piece of angle iron and made their own. This caused the shift lever on the column to not line up correctly to the indicated gear on the selector.
I had to locate and buy a z-bar and ball crank for the 904 a body application. Got them from a FABO member.
The z-bar and ball crank are different for the 340/727 combination. I imagine that you should look for a z-bar and ball crank for your engine and transmission combination for an a body.
Good luck.

Click to expand...

I think you are referring to an auto setup and he (/6 Matt) is talking about a manual setup ??

Here is a photo from another member of slant bell housings by year

slickchick said:

I think you are referring to an auto setup and he (/6 Matt) is talking about a manual setup ??

Click to expand...

Right about the manual transmission. AJ rightly said that the z-bar is too short. That’s what I found on my jury rigged setup. I went to a Mopar swap meet and found that the z-bars come in different lengths depending on the transmission and body type. Also, I found that the attachment point on the z-bar for the shift rod differs from tranny and body type. Matt’s car seems to be a column shift so that is why I suggested that he finds the right z-bar and bell crank specific for that type of transmission in that type of car.

AJ/FormS said:

I think you have multiple problems;beginning with the BH. What is the casting # on your BH or what was it out of originally and is it for a 9.5" clutch? According to Brewer's,your application calls for #3743643, or could be #4202506,
I think the inboard end of the Z-bar is all wrong.
I think the bar is too short, or the TO fork is too short. and
the lever seems to be mounted too far out board; on the Z-bar.
The Z-bar should push on the TO fork, in a straight line parallel to the centerline of the vehicle.
Secondly the inboard anchor that bolts onto the BH is wrong The plastic ring is not used and I think it is supposed to point up. There are two of those brackets that I am aware of; an early and a late, but I forget the year of the break. The brackets have to match the BH, not the year of the car. As you can see, if you re-orient your BH anchor plastic bushing up, and level it out so the slot and the remaining hole are vertical to the ground, that should bold directly onto the BH. In your case that would be impossible, so it is the wrong anchor for your BH.
I think one of these is what yours should look like;
View attachment 1715513557
View attachment 1715513527

Having said that; if the outboard end of the Z-bar is too far forward on the stub-frame, then you would get a similar misalignment, but that would not cure the crummy push-angle.
So here is a link; call these guys and they will hook you up

Brewer's Performance - Mopar A833 4-Speed Transmission and Component Specialists

Happy Hunting

Click to expand...

I want to say that the z bar is right and it just looks weird cause of how its hanging in the picture. I'm kinda self doubting myself though so I'll check after work. I think the bracket in the second picture is what I need based upon where the end of the bar landed when I was holding in place.

bcschief said:

Here is a photo from another member of slant bell housings by year

Click to expand...

That's a really cool picture! Thanks for sharing. I'm having a difficulty though telling the difference between the two bells on the right. Does anyone with a good eyes see anything distinguishing?

DFX 340 Duster said:

Right about the manual transmission. AJ rightly said that the z-bar is too short. That’s what I found on my jury rigged setup. I went to a Mopar swap meet and found that the z-bars come in different lengths depending on the transmission and body type. Also, I found that the attachment point on the z-bar for the shift rod differs from tranny and body type. Matt’s car seems to be a column shift so that is why I suggested that he finds the right z-bar and bell crank specific for that type of transmission in that type of car.

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm going from a column shifted 904 to an 833od. Still very useful info though. Thank you.

/6 Matt said:

That's a really cool picture! Thanks for sharing. I'm having a difficulty though telling the difference between the two bells on the right. Does anyone with a good eyes see anything distinguishing?

Click to expand...

Regarding the two on the right, I think the differences are as to how the TO fork mounts; one has a ball-stud pivot, and one has a regular flat topped bracket with a rectangular window in it for the fork retaining finger.
You can't see that in the pics; except the one on the far right you can see in the window, the fork pivot bracket is the flat-topped style.
In both cases the forks used with those bells is the longest one in Brewers selections at about 12.5..
If you are 100% positive that your Z-bar is correct, then I am 100% positive that your TO fork is;
too short,
not correctly installed,
or your trans is installed too far to the passenger side,
or that pic is not of an A-body, lol.

Your inner bracket seems to want to go on the 62-65 bellhouse

In this pic, you can see your TO fork seems to be installed correctly, but it is waaaaay too short. Another thing you can see is that the outboard end of the Z-bar does look to be right, and rightly positioned on the inner fender wall.



In this pic, you can see that if the Z-bar is correct then the pushrod is waaay to short as well.


Additionally , you will need the ball-swivel to properly locate the pushrod in the TO pocket and a locknut to keep the adjuster from having a mind of it it's own, and the correct TO bearing assembly for your clutch, which I don't see on the retainer in front of the TO fork,lol. And a new forkboot wouldn't hurt. Don't forget that the Z-bar needs a pair of ball stud bushings, and seals, at each end and a bailing-wire retainer to locate the Z-bar in the transverse plain. You can see those parts here, but of course the Z-bar and brackets are wrong; it was just the first pic I found that shows all the parts.

It occurred to me today that the clutch fork is probably wrong. Even though the engine, transmission and bellhousing originally came from a 74 Dart (I think) it was last installed in a 65 Barracuda and I'm betting the fork would be shorter on the early A to clear the floorboard.

Oh yeah, and I emailed brewers a few minutes ago. Hopefully my pictures are clear enough for them to get an idea of what's going on.