1963 Mercury / Ford Cruise O Matic Medium Case Transmission Rebuild

rprice (and any who care to comment), I do not mean to hijack your thread but I recently acquired a five bolt 1963-64 Cruise-O-Matic that started life behind a 289. I want to put it behind the 260 in my '64 Fairlane.

It's condition is unknown and I have not the skills to even begin to rebuild it. If I take the unit into a reputable transmission shop will they know enough about it to rebuild it right on the first try alone or do I need to spoon-feed them some info about this fairly obscure transmission? Is there actually a rebuild kit for these dinosaurs or will they have to gather the parts piece-meal?

 

Wombat - no problem! I encourage questions! When I started this journey right after I bought the Merc I found out there is almost no information out there on these save some obscure diagrams. However, there are rebuild kits available.

I used bulkpart.com (I am not affiliated with them in any way and do not officially endorse them). I believe it was one of my first posts in this thread where I listed the part numbers.

One thing that stinks is the bands have to be sent in for relining so you have to pull the transmission apart before you can have them on hand for replacement.

A lot of folks think the MX is the FMX. They are very similar and the only design changes I can see offhand is the placement of the filler tube (case instead of pan) and there appears to be differences in the case, but everything else looks the same.

To add confusion there were three of the original pre-FMX transmissions in the family:

FX (Small Case for use in smaller ford cars) 9 7/8"
MX (Medium Case for use in larger Ford / Mercury cars with large engines) 10 7/32"
LX (Large Case for use in Lincolns with the biggest engines)
1958-1960 10 7/8"
1961-1965 11.6"

The best way to identify the transmission is usually the pan gasket. The image was taken from crankshaftcoalition.com.

Hope this helps...

The best way to tell if you have FMX / Small case is to measure the case using the measurements above. From what I can tell they used beefier parts in a similar case for the FMX.

I also referenced the part number on the case and found a reference to another database identifying it as 1965 Thunderbird MX

 

I went through every core transmission in the San Antonio area the last time I rebuilt the iron cruzo in My old 64 T-bird. The case I ended up with came out of an old US Mail truck & didn't have the ports in the casting for the rear pump so it had to go. I worked on the valves in the body untill they moved like trumpet valves but they still hung up a bit until the thing would warm up. I finally got tired of fighting inherent problems with the old beast and sold it. Type F fluid with conditioner made it work as good as it ever would. It was A-OK as long as it was warmed up. It always hated the cold weather.

 

Just for reference..... I took my 59 trans to a shop here in town. He does good work and has been in buisness for im guessing over 30 years, So I have full trust in his work.

It cost me $1000.00 for the rebuild, plus he sent out the converter for rebuild also included in that price.

I am just posting this for comparison.
From looking at your pics, there is no way I would do this job. Keep up the good work..

 

Greg - it really isn't that bad. IF this thing hadn't been so abused by the PO this would have only taken a day or two. I'm also working with a co-worker as I have never done this before - and this way I have someone to "blame" if things go wrong ---- just kidding!

Once it's apart it is VERY intuitive as I'm taking pics and taking notes. Its not like a VW engine where you have to set valve geometry and deck heights and all - its just plain tolerances.

The main wear is from a bushing failing prior to the other rebuild and burned clutches / bands from the PO. I bet we could just replace those and move on and it would be fine.

Besides - so far I probably only have $450 or so in parts. Baring any major problems I doubt it will cost more than this. The machine work was $30 for the drums being polished. That's nothing really!The biggest part of the job is getting the trans out. Next time I will pull the whole engine AND transmission as one unit.

 

Greg -

Ford-o-Matic 2 speed or dual-range Merc-O-Matic three speed? Big difference. I'm learning the dual range is MUCH more complex and it didn't need to be. Oh well. Sometimes you get more into the weeds of what you can do and what you really need. The later model C6 was the way to go in design - but the 2 speed DOES work and has its small advantages. Ok - not really but it sounded good!

 

Just a heads up. Once those transmissions get metal coursing through them, you really have to clean every last nook and cranny. I was lucky that the bands and torqure converter could be rebuilt locally so it didn't take very long to get the parts all in order. The valves were sticky due to the tiny scratches from metal particles floating through and I had to really clean & pollish the stuff to get them to work in decent fashion. Like I mentioned earlier, use conditioner when you fill it up and it will help with this. Mine worked flawlessly unless it got cold and it doesn't have to be very cold either. I live in San Antonio and winters aren't very cold but it was cold enough. It would take about 15 minutes till the trans was operating normally after first start of the day. Follow on starts & running was no problem thoughout the day.

 

This thread is a blast from the not so distant past. I just completed a rebuild of a 57 Ford-O-Matic, very similar to a Cruise-O-Matic. In fact I started with the COM manual.

I second the opinion on the thorough cleaning. There is a lot to the story and I am more than happy to share. The high level synopsis is be very careful with the front pump. I had some damage to the stator shaft and thought things were 'good enough'. The problem came in that the drive gear bushing, originally bronze, is now only available in babbit. The surfaces must be perfect or it will eat itself. This causes the pressure regulating valve to stick and I ruptured the front servo casing. The end result was a turning of the shaft and a customer bronze bushing. A parts washer was mandatory for good cleaning.

In addition, I enjoyed the forensics of see who had been in there before me. Boy, I found a lot of issues. The first thing I noticed about your first picture with the tail removed is that your Governor is on backwards. The 'access window' is supposed to be point toward the trans.

Again, happy to share whatever you would like to hear, have tons of pics as well.

Good luck

 

Nice thing is that these torque converters have drain plugs, 180* from each other...remove both when draining.

With the crud RPrice found in his pan, filter and drums, 'flushing' the converter won't be adequate...there's probably a Sahara Desert of chips & shavings throughout.
But as a standard service, when changing fluid & filter, the plugs can be a great help.

At our Santa Cruz shop, the tranny guy used to drill holes (north and south) on the GM converters, drain, and tap them 1/8" pipe. Allen pipe plugs went back in, then all fresh Dexron.

This was an extremely informative thread! The page from Adobe was the frosting, but I LOVED the adage: 'on the shift indicator, Follow the dots: white for snow, green for go.'

 

Thanks for the advice all!

Yes - we are pressure washing everything and I have a ton of cleaners on hand for the reassembly.

It looks like most bushings had been replaced during the last rebuild and that the failures necessitated the rebuild. When I got the car, it would shift very well into reverse, but forward gears would only allow a light forward movement no matter what. Extra gas etc had no effect. Correct me if I am wrong - but there are only three things that can cause that:

Pump Failure
Band Failure
Clutch Failure

What I know about automatics come from my days working on Model T Planetary Transmissions. Band tightens, causes drum to stop - changes ratio for direct. No bands - shifts through via clutch to direct. Clutches also affect neutral. Am I right so far?

This site:
http://www.modeltcentral.com/transmission_animation.html

Has a good animation on how the T transmission works. Its the basis for all auto transmissions after with slight alterations on how they are each engaged and is the basis for what knowledge I have. I've redone two of these - probably more than 15 years ago through.

I plan on pulling the converter and flushing it for sure.

Most of the "Crud" in the transmission was from burned bands and clutches. The clutches were BLACK and gritty as all hell. The bands - had metal showing and there were grooves in the drums. The fact the governor was on backwards probably did nothing to help the situation.

This may have been why Original Previous Owner (OPO) sold it to PO. Too much transmission problems. He may have just given up when the trans made tons of grinding noise, to have it rebuilt and start slipping and burning right away after the rebuild (worn bands etc). I'm guessing whoever rebuilt it did not delve into the differences and just did what they figured was right.

 

I would say that you would not get any proper functionality with a pump failure. The fact that you had reverse means you had pressure. f you have the weat that you are talking about I think it is safe to say you have found the smoking gun.

This is the manual I found and printed. it is a 5 dollar pdf and is pretty hard to beat for the price, info, and instant delivery:

http://cogpro.com/chapters/E-CruiseOMatic/

I'm not sure about your converter, but if it is a split case (e.g. 18ish bolts holding it together) then take it apart and flush things. It is very easy and the large, square section, oring is easy to source. There is no other way to really flush things out. Every item I thought was 'clean enough' I managed to force myself to take apart and I always found something that made me glad I did.

Mine had been reworked heavily. In fact, I beleive it was a remanufactured unit and there were issues all over the place.
-Had all new friction materials in it (modern, no brass rings anymore)
-Clutch steels are flat in the front clutch and dished in the rear. I have a single rear steel in the front. I also had some rear steels flipped (dishing is supposed to all go in the same direction.
-I could not eliminate the excess end play. When replacing all the thrust washers it became evident that something was up when the planetary washer was different. In the end, I determined that I had a 'small case planetary' in a medium case trans. Furthermore, there are two different planetaries, a large step and a small. This refers to the height of the thrust surface on the outside. This is where the selectable thickness thrust washer goes to tune the end play. With the largest washer (supposed to be something like .086, though mine was .090) i still had 040 in end play (spec is 010-029). It turns out I had a low step and need a high step planetary. I think the steps are 030 and 080. So with a high step I could have dialed back the selectable washer and been perfect. This was not an option so I ended up manufacturing a 020 shim that I placed between the rear pump and the rear pump thrust washer.
-The servos had bad/hardened orings. When it was remaned, I believe they went grabbing at functional sub-assemblies. These would have worked 30 years ago, but started life in the new rebuild with a decent amount of age on them. They were also loaded with crud. So good frictional material, but I could not hold proper pressures on the bands with sub-par servos.
-already mentioned the damage to the front pump stator shaft. There was actually two types of damage, wear and deformation. I believe wear was just that, time on task for the bushing, but possibly accelerated by debris. The deformation looks like the pump got squished by a misaligned torque converter and a guy pulling the bell housing up to the engine with the bolts. This was the most problematic for me. It killed one babbit bushing in about 5 minutes of stationary running in the chassis. I pulled it back out and dressed the shaft as much as I could while still having an acceptable clearance for the new (stock size) bushing (fully turning would have yielded too much slop). This turned out to not be good enough and it ate another babbit bushing in about 5 minutes again. Third time, I sent the pump out and had the stator turned down to a new diameter and had a custom brass bushing made to re-establish the proper clearances. Seems to be great now.
-Also saw wear out on the end of the stator just inside of the large splines on the bottom surface. If you think about this one enough it is weird because nothing should be touching this area at all. I believe the P.O. had the bell housing bolts loosen over time and allowed the engine and trans to start separating. The resulting 'yawning' at the bottom misaligned the stator shaft inside the torque converter. There is no corresponding wear in the converter, which tells me it died and got replaced, the stator was deemed good enough.

 

Thanks for the info jforand!

I'll definitely get the manual you mentioned as well.

This poor thing was abused. Period. There was wear where there shouldn't have been any. Even the machinist was confused and was the one to diagnose the replaced bushing.

In talking to the PO about why the car died I asked many questions about what happened. It ran fine but started leaking fluid bad on the filler tube at the pan. PO said he didn't think it was a problem and would just refill the transmission once it was empty. This practice led to the transmission slipping worse and worse.

I cringed when he told me that when the slipping got bad he'd "have to floor it to get it to move and eventually it would take off and slipped when it shifted."



Finally it died in the middle of an intersection and would no longer move. He had it towed home and had his mechanic friend look at it. The mechanic who was working on the car said someone had removed the original filler tube and had replaced it with some Rube-Goldberg filler. Mechanic said he found a replacement filler tube, pulled the pan and welded up the leak and it no longer leaked. Then changed the crudded up filter, put new fluid in and hopped for the best to no avail, the damage had been done.

 

Ouch! Definitely not a symptom solved by the gas pedal.

Well, it sounds like it is in much better hands now.

 

I checked back through my last overhaul info and refreshed my memory. I ended up getting a new torque converter that was modified to work with the old medium case cruzo. Mine was not repairable. The work was done by a torque converter rebuilder here in San Antonio. He did a good job and it fit just right and lined up with the flex plate like it was meant to be there. Those old converters are impossible to get new parts for and he felt it was a lot easier than scouring south Texas for a decent core. The guy said he had done them before for the post office when they had a fleet with those transmissions.

I had already been to the only local "Old Car" salvage yard over south of Seguin and gone through a half dozen cores that were worse than the one I was trying to rebuild before I found the one I ended up using. It was a later model with the short tail shaft but the case and guts were still pretty good. With three cores for parts I finally got one good one out of the three. I had experienced problems with the transmission from a previous dupont overhaul and I wasn't about to pull that bastard out again. I had help from an old boy that took over his dad's shop so he grew up working on the damn things.

 

I worked on these back in the 1950s-60s. The broken cases were from firing the car up on a winter morning, letting it run on the high idle cam to warm up, and shifting into reverse at 1500 rpm without kicking it off fast idle. The rear servo was bolted to the skinny case web that held the intermediate support ring, and that bolt also had a pilot on the end that engaged the support. The case would crack across the threaded bolt hole when the servo slammed the band down. A local commercial rebuilder had a jig that drew the case back together and had a drill bushing in it to drill and tap a 1/4" hole for a socket head cap screw to hold the case together. We sent the busted cases to him for repair.

One thing to watch on these is the vacuum modulator unit. When the diaphragm started leaking, the engine would draw trans fluid into the intake manifold and burn it. In time, this could empty the transmission enough that it could fail. I still have the special crows foot wrench for changing them.

The valve bodies were real touchy. I used to carefully strip them down and run the body through the carburetor dip tank and treat the spool valves like a fine watch so as not to raise a burr on anything, using trans fluid to lube everything on assembly and never using force on anything.

 

rprice, good info and thank you, sir!

 

Well - if this just doesn't take the cake!

Was in Tucson yesterday helping my mom clean out the garage and came across a bunch of books I vaguely remember getting from my HS when they were throwing old material away (this was back in 1993 or so). They were getting rid of a bunch of 1940's through 1970's manuals and I remember I grabbed anything that looked helpfull / interesting.

Dad was not pleased when I brought home 100 pounds of books.

What did I find amongst the stack this weekend?

1966 Lincoln Technical Institute Automatic Transmission Service Guide.

This should be the transmission bible at over 1000 pages of information. Includes service / rebuild information for:

Detroit Pipeline (Tech Tips)
A Jetaway
B Tubroglide
C Torqueflight
D Dynaflow
E Cruiso-matic Fordomatic
F Chevrolet Poweglide
G Dual Range Hydramatic
H Torqueflight "8"
I Tempest
J Torqueflight "6"
K Two Speed Fordomatic
L Corvair Powerglide
M Three Speed Hydra-Matic
N Powerflight
O Turbine "300" Jetaway Two Speed
P Turbo Hydra Matric Turbine 400
Q C-4 Dual Range

I don't think I'll need another service manual for 50's through 60's cars again. This should do it and should be very handy tomorrow!

 

Sorry for the delay folks - life has intervened in the guise of "extra work" at work. I haven't had hardly a moment of spare time to work let alone drop off parts for cleaning. Machinist is only open M-F 8-5 - same hours I work. More to report later.

 

Wow, does that bring back a lot!

Chrysler Powerflite was a two speed, slow and clunky

Two speed Fordomatic was an aluminum thing that originally lived behind a Falcon six, then some bright idiot decided it would work with a 352. I never saw an aluminum clutch piston melted until then.

Turboglide was a 58-59 Chevy abortion with a multi-element torque converter with one forward speed choice: Drive. Instead of L, it had Gr, which meant Grade Retard.

Three speed Hydra-matic was the one we called the "Roto".

The only thing I ever had to do with a Dynaflow was to replace the stator sprag in the converter.

The one that's not in there was the 58 Buick Flight-Pitch. It was so horrendous that Buick had only one part number in the book for it, and that was the number that ordered a brand new Dynaflow to replace it.

 

Probably why it was not included. IN fact it may have been a "Pipe Line" addition later - or a supplement - but never included in the one I have as I don't think they went further than getting just the bare basics.

 

So after much cleaning by a shop here in town - the parts are clean. I spent the evening figuring out how everything goes back together. Hopefully I will have more progress this weekend. After a lot of reading this transmission is pretty stout - but very complex. It's not as simple as other auto's and the dual range stuff is interesting. Hopefully I'll have plenty of pics and information to share.

 

Doing the same in my garage. On the floor... I got a rebuild kit from Mac's and it came with what looks like most of what I needed, sans the bushings. Really enjoyed your thread, and hope it all works out for you.

 

Thanks sekter.

I wish I had more progress to report - but work - and life keep interceding. My evaporation cooler died a horrible and noisy death on Weds, and I've been working to replace it. Not easy on an older home. I have all parts and am ready for reassembly though.

 

Hey rprice76 - I stumbled across your thread via a very backdoor route, but I have just read it through all the way.
I've a 64 Galaxie (390 XL500) at home in Perth that has some minor trans issues. It doesn't like changing out of low when it's cold - you let it warm up a little first then have to drive it up to around 20mph and back off the throttle - it kinda forces it to change up, then its OK from then on.
Another thing is if I park it on a slight incline, it's like the torque converter drains and it does need a bit of throttle to get it going. It slips for about half a mile (I drive her very gently to minimise slip as much as I can), then once she's back to normal, all is good.
I am expecting a trans rebuild in the not too distant future, but would like to avoid it as long as I can.
That manual you've got seems to be the one that is posted on The Old Car Manual Project - a link to it was provided further up your thread. Well done on rescuing the manual all those years ago - it is a priceless resource for you.
Anyway, I just wanted to say Thanks to you and every person on this great website who take the time to think ahead and take plenty of pics then go to the pain of writing everything up - just so dumbasses like us can be amazed.
Good luck with your 63 Merc - I wish you many happy years with her.
Cheers.

 

Dad-bud -

Thanks! I learned in my VW days that a "lot of people" had done stuff that I wanted to do at the time. For instance rebuild an engine. They all knew how to do it - and so a lot of postings are along the lines of "I set the deck height and was good to go" but...for those of us who have never done that I had no idea what those people meant.

So now when I get involved in a project I don't really understand or there is limited information on the net - I post that information so other n00bs like myself can at least see the process I went through to get where I went.

On that transmission service guide. I was lucky. I remember when I got home I had about 1/2 a truckload of materials in the back of my dad's truck. He wasn't too happy about it. But I was able to convince him that some of it may be very usefull one day. We went through the pile together and selected some stuff that looked good and the rest went away.

I am VERY glad I did.

 

That is amazing! I'll have to scrounge around for one of these locally when I get some time.

I love this thread, it is full of great info and shows how well trans has held up despite a checkered past. Based on what you've determined so far, it is shocking that it lasted as long as it did with the second owner!

How did the FMX/LX transmissions compare to the new C4/C6 units? I know the newer ones were lighter but did they gain any reliability or drivability along the way? I'm only curious as I hope to land an old Ford in the future and it may be an auto... I'd like to remain 'period correct' for the hop-up side of things, which means either a Y-block or more likely a 390...

 

The old FMX was quite durable once the line pressure was jacked up a bit and both of the clutch packs were assembled with sintered metal lined discs. The important thing was to use the clutch pistons for the big block engines so the maximum number of clutch discs could be installed.

If you take off in Low, you can force a shift at WOT to second by shifting to Drive and back to Low, and it won't upshift to High until you move the lever to Drive.

 

Thanks!

From what I've read the FMX was the MX shoved into smaller but stouter case and some other minor modifications - but was essentially the same (the kits are not interchangeable though). This made it slightly lighter - but it had the added benefit of lessening the possibility of a case crack from a hard shift to reverse.

 

So finally some progress. Today I tackled the valve body and pressure regulator. The pressure regulator - well - regulates the pressures going into the valve body to ensure proper function. The valve body is just that. A hydraulic set of valves and actuators that control the transmission.

Now based on the information provided by PO - for me this was just an exercise in cleaning and inspecting. One word of caution. Check balls. There are two. On mine one was installed incorrectly which probably led to finicky operation and shifting. Documentation on these is spotty because of cross-interchangability and function of the FX/MX/FMX. If you have an MX you WILL have two check balls. If you have an FMX you MAY have two check balls.

From : http://www.network54.com/Forum/260730/thread/1075429076/MAJOR+Tech+Question...

"You can tell if you just misplaced a ball because there will be a very visible worn spot on the separator plate hole (or holes). If not, then your VB did not have the balls and I would go on without them since the VB has been updated by the factory and the update did not make it in the shift kit guide."

I could tell the transmission had been rebuilt once before and noticed the requisite worn spot where the balls SHOULD have gone. One was on the right side (top) and the other was located in a passage bellow (incorrect). So I replaced them as in the pics.

The remainder of today's activities included cleaning EVERYTHING and making certain all valves moved freely without slop. I didn't take pics of every single process - just those that show what is involved. Note - I did not remove the valves but I did verify they work - are free - and don't hang. I did send a LOT of carb cleaner through every passage I could find until it ran clear.

Note: There is a difference in the manual from reality. If you look at the side-by-side comparison of the separator plate - it is different from what was in the transmission. Also the lower body is slightly different. It is possible this car has a different valve body (FMX) installed.

Thoughts?

See pics:

 

Just noticed as I was posting this - the grooves in the lower body (lower left) and the check ball. I'm going to go fix that right now and put the ball back. It looks like it belongs there.