New to H.A.M.B and looking for information swapping 302/AOD for 24 Bolt Flathead & 3 Spd Tranny.

I have a 1939 Ford Standard Tudor purchased two years ago. It has a good looking 221ci 24 bolt Flathead w/Offenhauser aluminum finned heads, Edmunds twin 94 intake manifold and Sanderson headers backed by the standard running gear all the way back, original front & read suspension except a front disc brake kit was installed. I love the car but have had issues with the motor and made the decision to update the drive train. We pulled the motor & transmission out yesterday - sat down for a while today staring at the shaft, etc. in the middle of the X-frame wondering what to do???
Might be easier but I do not want a chevy motor in my car. I read a 2008 post from Squiggy asking questions and a reply from dolsen37 who had actually done the swap.... dolsen 37 wrote "Not a really big deal and you won't have to change the x-member much at all (a little trimming and welding is required). I welded in plates to strengthen the small area that I trimmed to get the tranny pan past the x-member rail" about modifying the center of the Xframe". I read somewhere that Chassis Engineering has the Motor Mounts and probably the Transmission mounts BUT
I would like to know how much a "little trimming' is.
Did you retain the original rear-end and is there an adapter or easy way to couple the AOD to the original read-end?
Did you retain the original steering box?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

 

I helped a friend with the rear end and I have a 47' myself. We went with a 9" Ranger rear end and he went with posie twin leaf springs but I'm not sure if that was out of necessity but wasn't too expensive either as I recall. She handles great and he has a 302 Boss in his. I'll see if I can still get in touch with him a d get more info. I'm still on a learning curve myself with these older cars. I'm used to building mud national and rock climbers. Best of luck and I'll see if I can track him down.

 

One thing to consider, the AOD is much larger than the C4. I'm in the middle of putting a 302/AOD in my 47 Lincoln, different horse, but same principal, and the larger trans case and pan take up a lot of space. My car had a 350/350 Chevy combo in it, but I prefer Ford in a Ford, so when my trans went out, I decided to make the change. The Chevy trans fit farther back in the factory crossmember than the AOD does, the AOD pan won't go through the opening. On my car, this crossmember also holds the wishbone mount for the front axle, so I didn't want to do major surgery on it with the possibility of weakening it too much. I think a C4 would slide into the opening without as much trouble. It is a much smaller case transmission. Only thing, it doesn't have overdrive, but we ran them for years before the AOD's came out and didn't think a thing about it.

I changed my car out to a GM Saginaw power box from a mid sized car, Monte Carlo, S10, Camaro, etc. I also used a GM steering column for the tilt and the column shift. You could adapt a original column to a power box if you wanted. The main reason I changed mine was that it was worn out, and good replacements are hard to find for my car, and expensive when you do. I also wanted my wife to be able to drive it with ease. If yours steers good, I wouldn't change it unless I wanted power. And if you need a little extra space between the exhaust and steering box, 96-01 Explorer 5.0 manifolds work good.

As to the rear end, my car has a 8" out of a 66 Fairlane on a set of unknown origin parallel leaf springs. There are a lot of possibilities for rear end choice, just measure drum face to drum face and go shopping at the yards. Speedway as well as others sell the parallel spring conversion kits, or you could use the cross spring and some sort of four link or ladder bars to locate the housing.

I realize my 47 Lincoln is a different car than your 47 Ford, but there are many things in common with them and their design. Changing things has a snowball effect, the more you change, the more you have to change to make everything work out. If that's what you want, go for it, or you'll never be happy with it. Just think it out before you start, ask questions if you don't know, and have fun!

 

Welcome! I dont mean to be rude but wouldnt it be easier and likely cheaper (depending on what "issues" may mean) to rebuild the flathead?