I have a 1973 mercury comet gt with a 200 cubic inch six cylinder and a 3 speed manual on the floor. I am planning a 302 swap and I was wondering if someone knew the technical name for that transmission or what it's called. I would like to see if I could find a bell housing for that swap. I know it's a long shot but does the bell housing that is already on there with the six cylinder work with the 302? If anyone could provide information for any of the questions I asked I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Trans is known a 3.03(or sometimes toploader 3 speed)... No you cannot use the bellhousing, if you had a 250 you'd be good to go... Has same bolt pattern as 4-speeds of era so requires same bellhousing, clutch, etc... It's basically same trans used behind 302, even ratios are same...
True, but... The big blocks use a shorter input shaft and versions for full size usually have longer tailshaft than the ones used in intermediates & compacts... For '69 Fairlane/Torino/Cyclone etc and probably other years, there was a required at extra cost HD version if one opted for 390... The 170 version has lower gear ratios(meaning additional teeth on gears that will be thinner), so likely isn't as robust as the 200-up units... Probably be fine with a 200 or maybe 250, dunno how one would hold up behind a v8...
So the "3.03" denotes the first gear ratio, how can a trans with lower ratios (170 version) be considered a 3.03? (Nothing Ford does would surprise me though...)
3.03 is the actual distance between the centerlines of the countershaft and input shaft. It has nothing to do with gear ratio.
Ford Master Parts lists five different cluster gear tooth counts so there will be that many different ratios... The ones with 28 on 1st gear were used in Maverick(P designation) apparently that's a 2.99 ratio... The 2.42 ratio with only 25 teeth, generally behind larger engines, while 170 used a cluster with 31 teeth...
Early Mustang 3.03 Toploader with floor shifter lugs on tailshaft and 3.03 Maverick tranny with none for Column shifter. Last of the 3-OTT trannys in domestic cars, strong tranny useable with engine mods, virtually unbreakable behind Sixes and SBF's . Uses same 28 spline yoke as C4 and T5 haev fun
Pontiac bought these from Ford(known as the Dearborn transmission)& I've heard a few were in Chevys as well... For a year or two were the base transmission in Firebird, LeMans, GTO...
That's only partially correct. The 390's used a small input shaft like the small blocks, but with a shorter pilot bearing portion ( in the midsize cars, I.E. Mustangs and Fairlanes) . The bigger engines used a bigger input/output on the 4 speed Toploaders in those cars. The pickups used the normal length input shafts but with a shorter output shaft with no provision for a floor shifter.
With the different diameter shafts, all the gears and such that are mounted on the shafts would be different, but I'm not 100% on this. As I recall the main shaft is pretty beefy where the gears are mounted, even on the small output shafts. The counter gear cluster could have been the same, provided the ratios were the same between two transmissions with different shafts. I'm not aware of any big in/big out three speeds. Just know that the pickup versions are different than the car versions with the shorter outputs. The car versions in the Mustang/Fairlanes are the same overall length as the 4 speeds, so they're a direct swap. No difference in driveshaft length.
