looking to do a 4-speed swap in my 1960 ford truck with a 292 and Original 3-speed. However, I want some hot rod gears, none of that granny low bullsh**, if you know what I mean. Who has some good info on a proper trans with a true set of 4 speeds that I can actually find a bell housing for? I was looking into top loaders and I'm just not sure. Any input will be appreciated!
Am I wrong again. Couldn't you buy a new '57 Tbird with a BW 4 speed. With the same bolt pattern that carried over to the top loaders. Pre '63 bearing retainer dia hole. But it is no big deal to turn the OD on the later trans bearing retainer pilot hole. Top loaders I have seen have the early smaller and the later larger bolt pattern. Need to be sure about the input shaft length.
I know 4 speeds became available in late '57 for Corvettes, but I never heard of one in a Tbird. From what I know, all Ford manual transmissions had the same bolt pattern from '49 to '64, so there should be something out there. Might be getting a tad expensive, though.
87-91 mustang WC t-5 is an easy swap - one more gear than you want though - check mumerts site for details....
As far as I know the birds only came with a 3 sp trans with o/d, or an automatic. not sure when Ford started offering 4 spds. early 60'sI think as there were 4 sp 406's and 390's. I am sure some one will correct me if I am wrong.
I can remember my buddy's uncle had a '57 'bird with a 3 speed. He let us take it out once. I believe it was a 292 not 312. I thought I was disappointed that it was not a 4 speed. But that was a really long time ago. Lots of things i remember from the 50s never happened.
In the early 70's a friend of mine had a 55 T-bird that had been an original 3 speed car. I had always heard they were fairly rare, most were autos. It had a hot 312 and a 4 speed, really a fun car to drive.
Ford didn't offer 4 speeds until the T10 in '62 behind the 406, and only the 406. Prior to that, the top manual choice was a T85 with a R11 overdrive behind it. '63 saw them available in all car lines if equipped with a V8 (except for the 221). The toploader appeared in '64, so there is a fair number of the early '62-64, narrow-pattern transmissions in both T10 and toploader flavors still out there. They're not all that popular because of the difficulty of adapting them to the later '65-up motors. You do need to pay attention to trans input length and bellhousing pattern as I believe the truck trans/bells aren't all the same as cars, so you may need to find a car bellhousing.
Are you gonna change the rear end ratio? Maybe with that setup 35 mph will happen rightdammnow, but that's where it will end. I have a friend who was all hot and smarmy about a 460 in his 61 F-100, it wound up tight, fast.
Rear end will definitely be changed out with a lsd and decent set of gears. I put a 429 and c6 in my last 59' 4x4 and that cruised comfortably at 60mph. I'm trying to get a list together of needed parts for the 4 speed before I go messing with the rear and. Will be doing new driveshaft and read gears at the same time. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'm not positive, but I think the trucks used a longer input shaft. The truck bell has the motors mounts, the car bell doesn't. Mummert sells a modified truck bell for the T-5, and you don't need to shorten the T-5 input shaft. On the car bell, with the adaptor, you need to shorten the input or it bottoms in the crank. I'd run a search here, or run over to the Ford Barn if you don't get an answer here. Lots of truck guys at yblocksforever, too.
Check out the YBlocksforever site. You will find out everything you need to know on the swap. GoodLuck.
I put a 1964 T-10 out of a Failane [small car] in my 52 MERCURY with a 292 Y block!Everything fit,but I did need to shorten the input 3/8" at the small part [smooth] where it goes into the pilot bushing!I agree too that you need to check out the Y-block forum and/or Mummerts site!!
The later "toploader"4 speeds had a dual pattern to work with the older bellhousings. I'm not that knowledgeable on Y-blocks, but I think at least some Y-block bells used that pattern. Not sure if the pilot is correct. The big block (1-3/8" input) pilot is shorter than the small block one. There are close-ratio with 2.32 first gear and wide-ratio with 2.78 first versions. The wide ratio is much more common.
I've done a couple top loader swaps to Y blocks. They will bolt to a car bellhousing if the transmission has the duel pattern, last one I swapped didn't and I had to drill it, wasn't a big deal. I did have to turn the imput shaft retainer down slightly to fit the bell opening and cut about 3/8" off the imput shaft. The first one I did was 20+ years ago and I don't remember modifying anything but.... I've slept since then. Just gather up the parts and start measuring, it'll all go together pretty easy.
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