Inpu needed - Strange Muncie stamps
 

A friend of mine sent me the below photos of a Muncie...and there's a couple of weird things going on here and would appreciate anyone who may be able to shed some light....so here goes:

1. The main case is a 660 and carries an April 9th, 1969 assembly stamp....so far, so good, but the assembly stamp carries a suffix "BD" First assumption is it is an M21 based on the "B" designator, but has anyone seen the extra "D" character before? Any clue as to its' meaning?

2. The VIN and all other characteristics indicate 1970 Pontiac Firebird built in Norwood. There are no other detectable VIN stamps on the case and the surfaces appear virgin.

3. This trans carries the correct 1970 3988011 WL tag on the side cover, but there is also a little metal bracket under the side cover bolt next to the TCS switch I am not familiar with...anyone recognize this?

April 69 is in my mind, way to early for a carry over trans case, so I am thinking maybe someone had a 1970 Firebird/TA, broke the main case, so found a replacement used case and used everything else to make up a new trans, but wanted to see if anyone has any other theories as to how this came to be....

Thanks in advance for everyone's input and help.

The VIN stampings look legit to me. I don't think your made up trans theory makes sense. I have never seen a double suffix trans code like that. Interesting for sure.


Jason

I'm no expert on stamps, but the D doesn't look like it matches the font for the rest of the stamp. Maybe someone added it later for some reason?

What is the faint stamping to the left of the assembly code? Looks like it starts with an O and ends with an X. What I can make out, it doesn't seem to be a duplicate vin stamp.
The bracket by the TCS may have secured the harness for the switch. Been way too many years since I had my '70 with that still attached.

Freddie - I was thinking the same thing. The month "D" looks consistent with other known assembly stamp characters, but the suffix "D" appears to be a slightly different font. If it was stamped separate, they did a good job of alignment and spacing.

TMP - I am not well versed in Firebirds, but the Camaro Muncies in 1970 did not have that bracket/clip whihc is why I was wondering if it could have been a 1969 thing....

P9D09BD

P9 designates 1969 model year, but the VIN stamped on there in 20Nxxxxx which is 1970.
My best guess is this is a left over trans from 1969 that got put in this 1970 Pontiac car.

Hello everyone, haven’t posted here for quite some time! Thanks to L16Pilot for posting these for me, it’s a transmission I pickup years ago from a local “picker”. The faint stamp above the Muncie assembly stamp is a duplicate of the VIN, it looks a little more obscured in the pictures, but the “20N” is quite clear in person. I’d be happy to take any additional pictures for the discussion. At the time I purchased this transmission I had done some research myself on the extra character (with no conclusion) and ironically there were two transmissions on eBay with 1970 VIN’s roughly 50 cars apart, one a 660 case, one a 661 case. The 660 case transmission carried an extra character as well and read “P9H25AE” while the 661 case transmission had a typical assembly stamp with no extra characters. I will have to search my computer and see if I saved any pictures of those two.

I see a blade connector for the TCS switch. Didn't 70's have a pin connector? Maybe that varied with the division.

Good eyes Dave...I overlooked that.

For reference I found the pictures I mentioned earlier. These were saved from two eBay auctions from years ago. 1970 Corvette VIN's, 51 cars apart. One a 660 case, the other 661. Note that the extra character on the 660 cases assembly stamp is very obviously done separately.


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