No, the reason the input was cut was for a Mopar "automatic" crank that had not been finish machined deep enough. This was suggested to me once, "in the seventies" and I ended up having the crank machined instead, as the crank was out of the engine. Some automatic cranks are not only not machined to proper bushing ID, they are not deep enough, either. Some of the late model stuff has shown up with very little depth beyond the converter snout.
That box is B/C body or could be used in a pickup. Same length, installed, as a 727. You could use it in an A body except building a shifter mount is a bit of a PITA. If you search, someone had a pattern of the adapter.
