Hi everyone,

I am building a rat rod and have purchased an A833 transmission to mate to my slant 6. I will need to get a flywheel and starter to test my engine and could use some advice. I have read there are several varieties of flywheel and wondered if there was one that would be best for my build or if I needed a specific one for my motor or transmission? The motor is from 1978 and was supposedly out of a 73-74 Dart (yes you read that correctly) and the transmission was out of a 1980 Dodge Van.

Thanks for the thoughts,

Paul

The flywheel from the van that donated the trans would be fine as would just about any other 1968+ 122 tooth flywheel.

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Joshua

Thanks Joshie,

I have been struggling to find the 122 tooth flywheel. The most econominal I have found is on Rock Auto. It's specs are as follows.

Perfection Clutch

Pressure Plate Bolt Circle (IN) 13.213
Ring Gear Outside Diameter (IN) 6

It is located under the 1980 Dodge Ramcharger selection and I am assuming they were only using the A833 four speed at that point.

Also, what exactly does a flywheel do and why is a larger/smaller flywheel more desirable? As far as my hopes for performance go, I just want it to be able to hold 70mph reasonably well and maybe squeak the tires a little. Thi's thing is destined to drive in Gambler 500 off road events so speeds of 20-60 will be normal.

Paul

Pretty sure a Ramcharger used the big truck style 4 speed, not the 833OD.

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

In the ‘80’s one could get about everything in a Ramcharger that you could get in a D or W truck.
Including either the side load a833 or the top load NP435.

The larger diameter flywheel allows one to run a larger diameter pressure plate and clutch disk. The larger diameter clutches typically have more holding power and durability.
The room inside the flywheel housing limits the diameter of the flywheel. If you are using a stock slant six flywheel housing the 122 tooth flywheel is the largest flywheel that will fit.
The 130 tooth flywheel will fit a v8 flywheel housing but not a slant flywheel housing. Unfortunately the v8 flywheel housing is not a direct fit to a slant.

If you have the slant Np435 housing you can run the 130 tooth flywheel. But I do not believe those are easy to find. Plus the Np435 is a genuine truck transmission.

I would think that you could still locate a used slant six 122 tooth flywheel from a salvage yard.
Slants were used in Dodge D trucks till 1987.
Try http://www.car-part.com

I did a search for a 1984 slant D150 flywheel and found used ones from $45.00 to $100.00

Be advised that folks on this forum have had stock style slant six clutches blow apart in drag race usage.
When a clutch blows you can loose body parts.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

NP slant bellhousing from the mid-70's to 80's uses the 143 tooth Flywheel which allows use of the big block 10.95" and 11" clutches... the 130 tooth
in the NP will be smaller in diameter and no starter gear will engage the ring gear... The late run of bells in the 80's that Rick Covalt had are similar to the Forklift bells
used during that time and use the 130 tooth small block flywheel...(the QT bell also can be modded to take the 130 tooth flywheel...but are out of stock).
You are about 50/50 on junkyard find flywheels as most D-100 got the 122 tooth flywheel, and most slant equipped late D150's got the NP monster.

This conversation should be moved to Transmissions Topic.

First of all thank all of you for the input, I would not have gotten this far without it. With that said here are some things that spring to mind.

1. If my transmission did come from a 1980 Dodge van would it have a bell housing that corresponds to a 10" or 11" flywheel? The only lead I have on where the transmission came from was that "1980 Dodge Van" was written on the side with faded paint marker. I picked the transmission and bell housing up out of a junkyard field in Tuscon and they were not attached to anything.
1a. Is there a way to inspect the bell housing to see what size flywheel would fit into it?
1b. If I have the V8 flywheel housing am I in trouble trying to line in up with my slant 6?

2. I will check out the link posted by Dadtruck. At least here in Phoenix, Mopar stuff seems to be harder to find. In all honesty if I had to start all over again I might go with a straight six. It's been quite the challenge to find bits and pieces and I have to thank one of you for hooking me up with a shift mechanism and Brewer's performance for helping me with mounting brackets.

3. Is there a way I can shift this thread to the transmission section without loosing everything? I had originally posted here as I though that flywheels were more engine related.

4. To make sure I know all the parts I need it goes; Engine, flywheel, clutch, transmission right? Anything else I need like a flex plate?

Sincerely,

Paul Barrow

the easiest and surest way to identify what you have would be for you to post photos of the transmission and bell housing.

If you have mentioned it, I missed it, what kind of vehicle is the slant/A833 going into?

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Hi DadTruck,

It will be going into a rat rod. Basic idea is slant 6 (because it looks cool), A833 transmission, sitting on a truck frame of some kind, with a VW beetle as the body. It's not going to look pretty, but my main goal is to have something neat that runs. Performance is not really an issue, my big goal is that it can hold 70 mph comfortably and if I can squeak the tires a little, great. I will try and remember to take some photos tonight, but I have to run them through 5 or 6 compression programs to get them small enough to upload to this site!

Paul

with windows 10, I get the photo on my desk top.
mouse over it
right click
select edit from the drop down
left click
left click resize
change horizontal from 100 to 15 or so
vertical changes to match horizontal
click ok
do a save or save as

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Measure the mouth from side to side (not at the starter pocket...).

None...or with a rare adaptor a few more Benjamins.
He's making a Rat Rod with a late slant and wants manual transmission...
Yeah, I bet DVAP is kind of expensive, but you might slip over to the Casa Grande yard and see what they have...they are less $$$ than the Phoenix/Central yard.


A basic manual tranny behind a slant for your application will require:

1968-1987 Flywheel 122 tooth
9 1/4" or 10" clutch (you'll burn up a 9 1/4" before it will blow up...)
1976-1987 Slant Six Bellhousing and dust covers
1976-1980 Clutch Fork (or if bellhousing is the ballstud 1981-1987...you will need the truck/van fork for this bell)
Dust boot for the clutch fork
Shift Rods for Reverse/1-2/3-OD
Shift Toggle Tabs
Hardware (Nuts/Washers/Clips,etc)
Shifter
Shifter Mounting Pad (and may need shifter locating plate...Trucks had these as the shifter didn't mount directly to the B or E body shifter locations)
Throwout Bearing

If going hydraulic actuated clutch ignore this list:
Mechanical Clutch linkage
Z-bar, bushings and ballstuds
Clutch pedal set
Clutch pedal to Z-bar Rod
Clutch Fork Rod (with adjustable nut and rubber washer)
Linkage retaining slips
Z-bar bushing retainer clip

You'll be fabricating the cross member, but would want the rear mount for the tranny as well.

There currently is no conversion for the A-833 to truck 11" clutch bellhousing...

Hi all,

I have some photos here. After counting the teeth on the...ring gear?...on the auto torque converter I have confirmed it does indeed have 122 teeth.

1. DusterIdiot: Measurement side to side was about 14 1/2". The measurement across the ring gear was about 12 1/2".

2. 99% sure I have a slant 6 bell housing based on comparison to my auto trans.

3. I am 100% going to check out the Casa Grand yard. I had not seen any on the regular sites, but I will start calling around.

4. I will lay out and take photos of everything I have and post it in the transmission section to see if there is anything I am missing. I purchased an A833 book and while it has a lot of good information in there, it was written for people who have more than zero experience with them. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which tab related to which gear before googling it, lol.

Thanks again guys,

Paul

yes you do.
And
If I was building a rally vehicle, I would strongly consider building with the 904.
The automatic will make the installation much simpler, no clutch mechanism to
figure out and install. Have the 904 built with the right internals and it will be
rock solid reliable. Get the right ratchet shifter, you will be able to make shifts with
no effort. It is your vehicle, build what you want. Just saying the 904 will simplify
the build and offer some advantages.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Hi Dadtruck,

You are probably right, but I just really enjoy the manual. It makes driving more of an experience.

Paul

Good news!

I have found (knock on wood) a 122 tooth flywheel. Thanks Dad Truck for the website, I finally found one in Nebraska after my 8th call. We'll see how it looks once it gets here.

Paul