Hi everyone, new guy here. I bought a 72 maverick last year and I'm just getting around to starting on it. The car has a 351w mated to a c4, but I'm wanting to swap to a manual. I went out and bought a 4 speed toploader, clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel off of CL a couple of weeks ago, but I think I may have jumped the gun. I'm hoping maybe someone can help me sort things out. I had the engine out for a rebuild and while it was out I went to test fit the trans to the engine and noticed several frustrating things: The flywheel is 157 tooth, and I'm pretty sure the bellhousing is for a 164 because the starter gear doesn't line up to engage the ring gear. The length of the c4 that I pulled out is about 31" from bellhousing face to the end of the output shaft and the toploader is like 34". So how much of an idiot am I, and what can be done to sort this out? On the bellhousing I know some top loaders had 157 tooth bells - can I just swap what I have for one of those? And on the length, do I need a custom driveshaft, or is there an easier way? Ugh, this has got me frustrated and PO'ed at myself. Thanks, Eric
Sounds like you have it figured out... A 164 tooth flywheel would allow usage of a 11" clutch, but is likely to cost more than a 157T bell... That's assuming you already have a good clutch, if not go for the larger stuff... For the trans you'll have to have your D/S shortened and maybe fab a rear trans mount, otherwise trade/sell your long trans(that were used in full size models and some Torinos) for the short version... If you shorten the D/S, likely the pinion angle to trans is going to be skewed...
Sell the toploaderror and purchase the correct one. You should get one for a mustang which will be the same length as the C4. The driveshaft should fit the toploader without mods.
Thanks guys, appreciate the confirmation. As you said John, I'd really like to have things fit up without a ton of custom stuff because then it becomes a nightmare trying to remember what came from where. -Eric
The input shaft is different between a big block and small block too. So watch for different shaft size when buying another transmission. The 390 cu used the same size as the small block
I have a 164 tooth flywheel, but I would also recommend just getting a 157 tooth bellhousing. I ran a toploader (RUG J1) with a 164 bell/flywheel, factory mechanical clutch linkage and factory power steering. Even getting the factory front exhaust pipe up to the driver's side exhaust manifold was a nightmare. I do not know how much bigger the 164 version stuff is to 157, but it seemed to make things very tight. Oh, and I used the factory driveshaft and C4 transmission cross member, no problems. Check out David Kee's website for a bunch of toploader info: http://www.4speedtoploaders.com/
I would also recommend the smaller bellhousing/flywheel. The larger f/w taKea an 11" clutch but you can get a 10.5" clutch for the smaller f/w.
Thanks guys. I've looked at Kee's Toploaders before. I'm going to give them a call soon. I wonder if I can send in my trans/bellhousing for some credit towards one that will fit my application....? -Eric
David does buy used Toploaders. I sold him two ten years ago. He drove 420 miles to pick em up at my house. Sounds like you bought a Toploader for a Galaxie, these had the longer output shafts. Really nice guy to deal with. You can swap to the smaller bell and you might be able to use the longer tail with a shortened D'shaft, not sure how that'll affect the geometry of the driveshaft in operation. If that transmission has the 1-1/6 input with a short pilot snout, it's out of a 390 car, you'll need a longer pilot bearing to work with a 157 tooth bell as the big block transmissions had shorter inputs (the pilot snout is the portion that's shortened) these shorter inputs combined with the small block bells leaves the input unsupported and you will break the front bearing in operation (ask me how I know this )
