The importance of measuring bell housing runout.

When I switched my Dart over to 4spd 22 years ago, I picked up a used Lakewood blowproof bellhousing and all the parts and pieces to put it together. Well it was the worst shifting 833 I ever drove. Long story short found the same thing you found Kern Dog, but my was around .040 to .050 out if I remember right( way to much for offset dowel pins). At the time I found an article about this problem with Lakewood bells (magazine or a book don't remember) the article said to drill the dowel pin holes out over size in the bell, install longer dowel pins, find large flat washers with the center holes that fit snug on the dowel pins (I found two 7/16 washers that fit snug on the 1/2 inch dowels). Bolt the bell on snug enough so you can move it with a few taps of a mallet, tap it around till you get the runout to less than .005, place the washers on the dowel pins and weld them to the bellhousing. That 833 shifted a hell of a lot better after that.