About to put my 4 speed back in... I've become aware of the need to align to the bellhousing/tranny to the crank. Is this really necessary? i cant believe they did that level of precision at the factory.. thoughts?
It is not an issue on a street car with a Ford bell. The amount of play in the pilot bushing is greater then the misalignment would ever be.
If you are going to rev your engine constantly 8 to 10 thousand rpm then you need to check everything as always.
In 50 years, I've only had to replace one input shaft bearing. That was on a stolen and recovered 69 Boss 302 that not only did the thief blow the transmission input bearing but they are still looking for the pistons in the trees somewhere.
A shame. Another C8FE block gone to Heaven.
If memory serves me right, that was an issue with the early Lakewood "scattershields" for the 427's? On those you needed to use offset dowels BUT that was MOSTLY because the starter ring on the flywheel would contact the top of the bell house.
That's actually a waste of time anyway. What we would normally do is start the engine and let it run until the sparks stopped coming out. Then it was clearanced.