[xpedro01]

There are a lot of cobwebs involved here as it was almost 40 years ago. As I recall the reason for choosing Buick was because of its very short output shaft which in this case went forward to connect to the output of the pinto transmission. It must have been from an older enclosed driveshaft Buick. With this type of use it had to withstand the torque of the 1600cc engine multiplied by reduction of the Pinto transmission. More than likely it was from a 1950's 70 series Buick since it was a 3 speed with no syncros in first gear. I had converted a buddies 39 buick and my crosley while in the Air Force back in the early 1950's. Behind this transmission was its clutch shaft that had to be supported. This called for an adapter plate and ball bearing + seal. The clutch hub was used to adapt to the driveshaft which was now only about 18 inches long. It ran in what used to be first gear when cruising. This was a 2.5 to 1 stepup and allowed the engine to run at 1100 rpm at 55MPH. A small incline required shifting the 4 speed down to third. Only about 7 of the 12 gears were really usable because of almost duplicates.