anyone ever know of or heard of anybody building up a lightweight all aluminum borg warner automatic trans for performance use, I think it's called a flash-o-matic ? used in AMC nash cans and Studebakers as far as I know and maybe some early jaguars? very slim light and compact unit as I recall perfect for swapping into tight hot rod confines
I believe they are similar to the newer FURD FMX transmissions, as they are all aluminum, including the case.
I worked in a Ford shop in the mid-'60s and I seem to recall the FMX automatics were aluminum bellhousing, cast iron main case and aluminum tailhousing. There may have been an all aluminum Ford-O-Matic, but I think those were 2 speed units for the smaller cars. The C4 and C6 were all aluminum. The Postal Jeep I would expect to have been a Chrysler 904 Torqueflite....all aluminum. Getting older and the memory is dimming......... Ray
all fmx were cast iron with aluminum bellhousing and tail.Earlier lincoln mx types often had all parts cast iron.And yes, twospeed fordomatic were all aluminum. The small b&w you looking for is probably b&w-35.Used ramblers, jags, british rootes group cars and many more.
The B-W was pretty much only seen in 'off-brand' cars (makes that couldn't afford the R&D for their own), and not noted for it's reliability. During that era B-W stubbornly refused to upgrade their trans offerings as HP climbed, which is why GM, Mopar, and Ford all started building their own performance transmissions and eventually all of them. That's also why the 3-speed-with-OD trans pretty much disappeared....
That Borg-Warner trans is so similar to the Ford that a lot of Motor's manuals cover both of them in the same section as one transmission. Some AMC versions have a push-button shifter, though.
I had one in a 55 Studebaker v-8, BorgWarner 3 speed automatic, it was pretty strong. That may have been called a Flight-o-matic, I don't remember. Dave.
The transmission you are talking about is what is known as a Borg Warner T-35. It was in Studebakers, Ramblers in the 60s and about 5 Gazillion Post Office Jeeps in the 60s and 70s. The Post office was still using Jeeps with that trans through the mid 80s. They are a very lightweight transmission that was in light, low horsepower cars and Jeeps. I dont think it can survive any real serious torque. The similar but different BW-T65 and T66 were in Jags. Most parts were not interchangeable including the case. Even though the internal design is somewhat like a cast iron Ford trans, its a completely different design for light weight vehicles. I rebuilt scores of those for the Post Office in the late 70s and early 80s. Some times 2-3-4 times for the life of the vehicle. Bill
the postal jeeps used little GM 2.8 V-6's with a GM trans anyway a trans guy I KNOW told me the T-35 B/W eas very weak and useless for performance so much so that even at their end Studebaker stopped using them in all Avanti's due to 100% failure
Yup; If taken care of, fluids changed, screen cleaned, not overheated, driven sanely, (& all rarely - if ever, done) they'd last near forever. A few "shots" of applied "hot-rodding", & trans went away, real quick-like. FWIW. Marcus...
Yes, the FMX Ford trans had a cast iron main case. The all aluminum 2 speed FordOMatic was used in 6 cylinder cars, like the Falcon and Comet, but they also had versions for full sized Fords with V8s. My unmolested 1959 Ford 2 door sedan still has its origional 332 FE V8 and all aluminum FordOMatic, which was the vase automatic. An optional 3 speed "Dual Range" was optional, and looked very similar to a FMX.
The bW35 and BW40 Trans were used by Ford Australia and New Zealand in falcons ( 6 Cylinder models ) of the '70s and '80s . Very reliable and would go forever . They were also quite commonly adapted in behind Flathead Ford V8's down here . As a kid I had one behind a 99a in a '28 Roadster . .
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