[pfilean]

I know this subject had been discussed much over the years. I probably should have done it years ago when I might have done it myself. But at 82 the idea of up and down with a creeper is not appealing. And it cost me dearly to have someone else do the work. But h this is what I did.

As I still have the original 1961 389 with a bell housing mounted starter, I was forced to use an adaptor. I had decided to use the Wilcap adaptor as it is a little tinner than the Bendtsen. I was worried that there would be firewall interference at the upper bell housing bolts. With the thickness of the adaptor plus a BOP bellhousing plus the bolt heads it would require a lot of hammer work on the firewall. Then I realized if I used a Chevy bolt pattern 350 I could remove that thickness as those bolts would be lower. I also had not realized that both Wilcap and Bendtsen use countersunk or counterbored bolts at that upper location so there was no problem anyway. The following pictures show really a lot of clearance and likely either adaptor would have worked.