I am replacing the stock bell housing (cracked) on my 68 442 with another stock bell housing. It has a 4 speed that is original to the car. Is it necessary or recommended to align the bell housing being I am replacing it with one from another car? I believe I am over thinking this.

 

It's basically self aligning to the dowels and bolts. You should be fine.

 

Stock bells are pretty close and muncies are pretty tolerant of runout.
If it's a Chinese repop, that's another story. Last one I zeroed was 0.020 out.

 

I appreciate the replies. I won't give it a second thought, and put her back together.

 

I always use aftermarket housings, and have found that they are usually .010 to .020" out. The misalignment is hard on stuff, and racers always use offset dowels to bring the alignment as close to 0.0 as possible. You can use a long spring center bolt in 7/16" x 20 on one crank flywheel hole, and fix the dial indicator to it.

 

Why not weld it?Just because it's cranked that isn't a real good reason to replace it