Other than Mac’s speed in New Zealand who in the states makes a transmission adapter for Flathead v8 to the Ford F-150 T170 RTS trans? Thanks.
Try to find a phone number for MEC on Ford Barn. Bunch of posts but no number and the website isn't working. Maybe 330-644-3450 Gene in Ohio?
Takes a while to get him by phone but well worth the effort IMO. I bought one of his adapters for a Ford toploader 4 speed to a flathead for a project that never went anywhere but the adapter was top notch. I also bought thermostat housings for an 8ba with 1 3/4 inch inlets for the 8ba in my '39 p/u. Again top notch. And yes his web site sucks if it happens to working at all.
I have the same setup for my 33, but have not installed it yet. @Randall on here shared with me his way of doing this. Using a truck hogshead, he simply transfer punched and drilled new mounting holes in the trans case. He did it without stripping the innards from the case, only draining the lube. Only one bolt length is critical to keep it from hitting a gear The input shaft retainer fits the hogshead perfectly, so the location is established. I mocked mine up, but haven't finished it. I'll try to get some better pics if you want. I used the level to get the hogshead and trans case parallel. Locate and drill the furthermost outside hole, bolt it up and locate the other three. Sounds too easy, but Randall swears it works. The depth was correct for my 8BA.
I started work on mine today. Got a hogshead from the classifieds on here and a t170. I had to open up the big hole in the hogshead a bit to fit the retainer on the t170. Tomorrow I will drill and tap the holes into the t170. I am still trying to work out what size bolts to use.
I’ve got the Macs adapter and it’s really nice. Only thing is the clutch cross shaft is super tight and probably needs to have the bushings reamed a bit… Now if I can only find out where to buy the plastic shift fork pads I would be in business! These things seem to be impossible to find (not trying to hijack your thread though!!)
I shortened the pilot on the input shaft. I still have a 1/4” gap. So I am trying to decide if I should modify the pilot bearing so it seats in further or modify the inputshaft by extending the pilot back 1/4” by cutting away some of that taper. Or a combination of both. Or get a chunk of 1/4” steel plate and make an adapter. Edit: see below why I need to use a 1/4” spacer to fill that gap.
I used a truck hogshead, but I bought a piece of ground plate 1/4” thick and made an adapter to go between the hogshead and trans. I had a complete 3 speed that I sat on the bench beside the other trans and just tried to replicate all the depth measurements from the 3 speed over onto my T170 project. I put the T170 bearing retainer in the lathe and cut a little off the end to match up with the original. I also turned down the diameter of the retainer mounting area for a nice fit to the hogshead. I haven’t cut my pilot shaft yet but I am going to have to like ActionYobbo did. I have a piece of tube I will machine a sleeve out of to go over the T170 bearing retainer so I can use the old 3 speed throw out bearing. Now, having said all this, I don’t know if all this is going to work yet, as I’m not done yet. Lol. I still have to work out the clutch and pressure plate puzzle.
I have to get a clutch disc before I can continue. I have the original 11 inch pressure plate. I just have to find a clutch disc that will work with it.
I had a similar problem with input shaft to pilot bushing interference so I chamfered the pilot bushing about 1/4" deep for clearance. Considering the light side load on the pilot bushing, I decided it's acceptable to reduce the contact length by this amount. I also did not cut down the input shaft as mine didn't bottom out, but it was a different engine.
I have an 11" clutch/pp as well from the 47 1 1/2 ton truck that my engine came out of but I'm not going to use it. I'm pretty sure the effort required to clutch it would be too great. I'm dropping back to a 10".
On a related issue, does anyone know where I can locate a shifter top for one of these transmissions? I have an earlier version that had the shifter shafts coming out from the side which I converted to top shift with a Jeep shifter top. Since the Jeep wasn't an overdrive, this leaves me with a really bad shift pattern. I can see from the pictures that the backup switch is in a different position than mine which leads me to think that this would solve my problem. Or maybe even a complete transmission?
After doing a bunch of measuring and test fitting of clutch parts I will put a 1/4 inch plate between the hogshead and t170 like ronzmtrwrx has done. This will keep the clutch parts spacing the same as the original. That 1/4 inch is needed to compensate for the big end of the bearing retainer sticking out 1/4 inch more than the stock 3 speed. My measurements are all referenced off the flat face of the bearing retainer where the throw out bearing would sit when at rest and the flat face on the big end of the hogshead.
The up side to the thicker bearing retainer is that it catches both the adapter plate and the hogshead as well, keeping everything aligned. I have written down somewhere the amount I machined off the length of the tube where the throw out bearing will ride. I’ll have to look for it.
I had Tim Sheridan here in Michigan do it. He has done a bunch for the Model A crowd. Found his info from the Fordbarn.
I am trying to decide if drilling the 6 hogshead bolt holes into the front of the t170 and tap and 609 in some 7/16-14 studs on the top 4 and 3/8-16 on the bottom 2 is a practical option. I have searched far and wide and have found no information on doing it that way. I have to rebuild the trans so cleaning out the shavings will be done then.
I did not drill into my transmission. I used flat head cap screws mating the 1/4” plate to the hogshead and then mating the plate to transmission. Just make sure you have a perfect fit on the hogshead center hole as well as the adapter plate center hole to trans bearing retainer, keeping everything centered up properly. The bolts through the plate to hogshead are 1/2”. The bolts through plate to trans are 7/16”
I ended up copying what ronzmtrwrx has done with the plate. I have not cut the outer shape I will do that when I get time. Now its in so I can get the crossmember setup. Took 4 hours to get the holes in the plate. I did not have a cutter big enough to do it so I did the ring of 1000 drill holes and then finished it off in the mill
Good job. That’s a lot of drilling. I was fortunate enough to have a rotating table given to me a few years ago, so that’s how I cut mine on the mill. I probably have the dimension written down somewhere, but I took a little off the length of the tube of the bearing retainer where the throw out bearing slides. I haven’t done it yet, but I’m going to make a sleeve light press fit to that tube with the right o.d. To run the old ford throw out bearing. Probably use some loctite stud n bearing mount on it. As I said, I’m trying to replicate as close as I can, all the depths and diameters of the original 3 speed I have on the bench.
Bringing this back up selfishly… any of you guys know where to get replacement plastic shift fork pads for the RTS? Or if they are common with something else? I’m striking out Thanks! Matt
Just add a picture of the spacer plate after cutting it to shape with an angle grinder while it got to a high of 35 outside today I am still working on this build just slower than what I planed. My hold up now is I got a 4x4 trans because I was going to do a torque tube but have decided to do a modern drive shaft. So now I need to find a 2wd T170 or the tail housing for the 2wd to convert the t170 I have.
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