Hello !Love the forum!. Its been very informative . I havent had to post anything on here yet due to so many questions I had already answered in previous posts. Great tool ! Anyway , I have a 64' toploader I picked up as a rebuilt unit. It has the 28 splines and the narrow bolt pattern . What Im wondering is , were the 64' bellhousings used on both the t10s AND the toploaders? I havent found one that has used a toploader behind it and I dont want to drill out my wide pattern bellhousing if I can help it . Where can I get a bell housing for this app without paying 300.00 for it? This is going behind my 65 galaxie with a 428 FE. THanks for any info provided. Im scratching my head on this. ALso , the wide bellhousing pattern I do have is C5TA-7505-B. is this a truck bell housing and if so why shouldnt I use it ? (According to David Kees website, you shouldnt use truck bellhousing. why?)

What is the tag number on the Toploader? This will help decide waht you have because a small block toploader has a longer input shaft that a toploader from a car powered by an FE engine. You can use your bellhousing with a small block toploader but not with a toploader from a FE car. The bellhousing was used with a 3 speed toploader meant for a truck. This input shaft was long enough. To confuse things you ca nuse the toploader you have and bellhousing on a 428 but use a special pilot bushing that Ford used back then. I may bea able to dig up tha tp/n but I think it may be obsolete?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Bender
1966 Fairlane 390/428CJ Heads, 4-Speed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I understand what you are saying . It is a wide ratio , and although I believe they were also on the 390's , I believe its probably from a small block by the tail housing length. No tag on it . Should I get an older style 64 bell housing for the fe? would that negate the need for the special pilot bushing? Thanks again , big help. Since I have a truck bellhousing (damnit!), your saying it'll work with my toploader if I drill out the close pattern holes and get a bushing , but is it going to be easier just getting the older , close pattern bell housing due to clutch pieces needed alighning better?
Thanks again

DO you have the pilot bushing P/N? It looks like im going to need it. talking to a machinist ,I guess it is easy to drill out the bell housing to except the narrow bolt pattern , but I guess Im going to need that pilot bushing . Can I use a typical clutch assembly? just dont want any snags or wasted buys on stuff I cant use . Im going to turkey rod run and hope to find some parts there to use.
Jason

C5TZ-7600-A and C5TZ-7600-D are the same.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Bender
1966 Fairlane 390/428CJ Heads, 4-Speed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks doug . Great photos! I went to turkey rod run and spent 4 hours friday looking for bushing . No luck. plenty of the small block bushings without the recessed side , but none like the one you have pictured . A few of the FE guys are saying im going to have trouble using the truck bellhousing because of the exra depth. Im thinking they may be trying to sell me their 300+ bellhousings , but cant be sure . I got a small block fork and I am going back for pedal assembly, and a few more parts to help with this swap on sunday. No Z bar though . maybe sunday will be a better hunting day for other parts I need. anything else I should know about this swap ? Im trying to find hurst handle and ball for the hurst linkage on the tranny,but most only come with linkage assembly included

i ran a short input RUG with the long pilot bushing and car bell, ended up rattling the input bearing and jazzing up the bearing retainer. i'd find the best deal on the right stuff.

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm" ~ James Madison

You would not need the long bushing using a car bell housing? Short input + long bushing + truck bell = fit.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Bender
1966 Fairlane 390/428CJ Heads, 4-Speed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have under every rock I could Find , DO you know where I could find this elusive Pilot bushing ? Or maybe you have an extra one you coud sell me? Please let me know . I called all of the site sponsers , they all know of bushing but dont sell it. grrrr.

...where to get one. This is probably one reason why the truck bell housings are cheap and the car bells not. If I come across one I'll let you know.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Bender
1966 Fairlane 390/428CJ Heads, 4-Speed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

C5TA-7505-B bellhousing... is that cast iron? I seem to recall that these have the bosses for the narrow bolt pattern cast in, just not drilled and tapped. This makes them much better for modifying than the aluminum car bellhousings as the latter would have very little thickness for thread engagement in the aluminum when redrilled and tapped. Aluminum isn't so hot at holding threads at the best of times.

You may also have a problem with the diameter of the bearing retainer hole in the bellhousing not corresponding with the retainer on the transmission. But a ring can be turned to fit, or the bellhousing bored as required.

Machine work is expensive though. It could use up the $300 pretty quickly.

It would be simpler if you could just trade for a wide pattern transmission. I bet there's someone out there who'd like to, especially if you've got a Fairlane/Tiger transmission, which used a unique tailshaft.

Well, the problem with trading this tranny to someone is that all the work is done . the internals have been went through , all parts have either been replaced or repaired, so I kind of want to keep transmission for that reason alone . I didnt know it would be such a hassle making combo work , or I would have started with different combo. For the record , its def a cast iron bellhousing. (although I was told is was from a car and not a truck when I bought it , buyer beware I guess) Is anyone interested in a close pattern rebuilt toploader for a wide bolt pattern swap? Let me know . This has a hurst shifter on it . If someone is interested I can get tail housing numbers up here as well . There is one area on the ear mounting tab that was broke on the end of ear where bolt went through , but was repaired professionally. Trans was rebuilt proffesionally as well . Not by yours truely. This swap is getting more troublesome by the day.

You might check into the cost of having your main case replaced with a good used wide pattern case by one of the toploader rebuilders, vs. the cost of getting the other swap over parts.

Well, from what Ive been told by Doug , who knows his stuff , is that all I need is this darn bushing. May be a lot cheaper than either buying an after market duel bolt bell housing or getting a car bellhousing instead of sticking with what I got . Still looking for that bushing.

the bell was believed to be original to a 72 Q code Torino, the trans was a large in/out from we don't know where, and had a shorter input than the small in/out trans that came in the trunk of the Torino. i ended up trading the large in/out trans for a box of parts to fix the small in/out trans, the deal was kinda hush hush, i have a feeling the trans i traded mighta been worth something?

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm" ~ James Madison