Most of the cars I mess with are GM but I picked up a sweet 64 convertible I'm doing a little work to and I will more than likely take on Power Tour next month. Its a 352 3 on the tree I am kicking around the idea of converting to 4 speed floor shift. What transmissions can I use? Any other year columns the same to find a donor, Bellhousing? Shifter? Any other things I am going to run in to doing the swap. Thanks in advance. <!-- / message --><!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig --><!-- END TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig --><!-- sig -->
A 63 XL steering column will also work to get the shifter off the column. You need to check your bellhousing to see if it takes the later bolt pattern transmission or the early narrow bolt pattern transmission. Either transmission should be available. Keep in mind that Ford 4 speeds for the Galaxie has the longer tailshaft.
Thanks Don, Can I use the shorter version and change the driveshaft or does it then become a shifter location issue. Have any measurement of the length difference and the measurments of the two bellhousing bolt patterns you mentioned.
I know a guy that has a bellhousing in stock... oh yea, the 4 speed has a "hump" that bolts onto the floor around the shifter..
It would be so easy to do if you just locate a Galaxie transmission because they came in the car and its a bolt in. As far as I know the only difference in the bellhousings are the bolt pattern for the trans. I was going to do the exact same thing to my 64 Galaxie that I had. It was also a factory 3 on the tree. I used a 63 steering column out of an Xl, bought an early T-10 4 speed because I had the narrow bolt pattern trans. I found an original Ford 4 speed shifter and bought a reproduction fiberglass hump for the floor to give the shifter clearance. But I sold the car recently and never put it together. Should be easy as cake if you just get the factory parts. The two transmission bolt patterns are obvious once you see it, the early one is like the old 1955up three speed, the later one is like the 1965 up top loader transmission. The length is obvious also in the transmission, the short one like they used in the Fairlane is short like a Saginaw 4 speed, the longer Galaxie trans is odd looking to me.
Did the later Galaxies use the same length trans as my 64 assuming I switch to a wide pattern bellhousing? I have found one out of a 67 Galaxie for a possible decent deal.
If you do find the correct Galaxie BW T-10 4 speed, make sure and check the output splines, as they twist very easily, and it is very common for them to twist. Ask me how I know.
I have a couple 64's I've converted to 4 spds from automatics. One has a 66 Galaxie 4 spd and the other has a 64 Fairlane transmission. The Fairlane trans looks like a Galaxie one because it appears to be a long tailshaft case, however it is actually about 1.25 or 1.5 inches shorter than the one you would ideally want. I did have a slightly longer driveshaft made for that one too. You can use any Ford 4 spd trans that came in a full size car up thru 70 or so. The "big input" one may require additional items to be rounded up so stick with a standard 4 spd. Mercury cars had the same one as well. You could even put a truck trans in it thats almost like having a 3spd/OD trans.
In addition to above info, the Ford 4-speed top loader came out in '64 production, replacing the B/W T-10, and is a much better trans. The narrow '49-'64 bolt pattern lasted sometime into '65, when most/all top loaders were cast with both narrow and the new wide patterns for several years, which will bolt up to Ford bells back to '49. JFYI, the '64 Galaxie BB top loader measures +/- 27 3/4" overall, with the shifter all the way forward on the tail housing.
Thanks for the info. I remembered on of my car buddies is a big ford nut and got ahold of him this morning. We are going tonight to dig through his storage. He thinks he might have some of all of what I need. Also found this site last night that has a ton of information http://www.davidkeetoploaders.com/
Well my buddy with the stuff all needed rebuild. I found a correct fresh rebuilt Galaxie shifter, linkage and toploader on C/L in Ft Smith AR for less than most wanted for a core so made a quick trip last weekend to get it. Then I bought a parts car off a member here and will get the colum and the hump from it. This week I scored a correct bench shifter handle on EBAY and ordered a new boot and ring. Once all the pieces of the puzzle are here it will be transformed to a correct looking 4 speed bench car.
Tilt-a-way column was only for an automatic with shifter on the column. Even an XL with a tilt-a-way had a column shifter and used a blank plate where the shifter would normally go in the console. That is because the mechanism attached to the column shifter verified the transmission was in Park before the column could be moved to the right.
For anyone following this thread, I just found a Ford Borg-Warner T10 long tailshaft tranny which looks like it could go right in without a rebuild, but your results may vary. What's the going street price for one of these? jack vines
I have seen the go for a couple of hundred around here. I paid that for mine but that was a few years back. Don't know how much demand is for them now, the top loader is much more desirable..and costs more.
I have a good 2 hours this afternoon try to figure a way to snug up the top bolts on my Galaxie 4-speed swap. I have no shortage of tools ,wrenches , swivels ect. Short of unbolting the motor mounts and tilting the motor way back is there a way to do it? PS for the record this trans is soooo much heavier than a Muncie 4speed HAHA I'm worn out wrestling this thing.
OK all the research I did never mentioned having to swap bell housings to do the 3-speed to 4-speed swap. I found out the hard way my 67 galaxie 4-speed uses a front bearing retainer that is .175 larger than my 64 3-speed bell housing. I finally tried to snug it up with a modified wrench and the trans never would seat. Now I know why.
Well its almost done now. I little test drive to go and if all is well I'm leaving for HotRod Power Tour rowing gears.
This is NEWS! (I never thought about it, profound observation!) I had a customer with a 'loose steering column' once...she had bought the car used, I discovered the car (a 'Custom' '62) had a swingaway column...and a BROKEN engine mount!) Engine mount replaced, she was elated to find such an easy entry/exit, truly one of Ford's better ideas! Pretty lady...good cook, too... long time ago.
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