A while back I picked up a 4 bolt cover toploader 3 speed i believe is from a early 60s Falcon but i noticed it had a metal plate riveted to the side saying "donated for advancement of technical education." i took the top cover of and everything looked clean and in good shape and it bench shifted fine; It also has the slip yoke too. I was looking to sell it to clear up a little room in my shop but I dont really know what to price it for. Thanks.
Its something that likely was given to a school auto shop or votech ect. Being donated doesn't really add any value. however its for all practical purposes the same as a NOS if it has never been used in any vehicle.
not worth a lot imho , but pass it on to others to learn from , worth a lot to us all like that , help keep the fire burning .
No added value, I have a nine inch rear axle housing with that same tag that I kept from when I was teaching high school Automechanics. Ford donated a 289 and the rear and we had the 289 in a test stand for the kids to work with. The third member got torn apart and put back together who knows how many times over the years and the threads are probably worn out in it. Could be that they never tore into that 4 speed because it wasn't on the instructors lesson plan and it got stuck in a storeroom and forgotten until it got surplussed..
Thanks guys for the replies thats what I needed to know. Kinda sucks about the no added value but I dig the little bit of rarity and history with it. Thanks guys!
It might technically be NOS but it's probably been taken apart and put back together a million times by kids who might not know the proper procedures for pressing bearings, etc. Often times lots of damage is done by ham fisted mechanics doing a "rebuild" Someone will be able to use it but I don't think it necessarily has any added value.
Those Falcon trans were weak even behind the 144/170 sixes. I swear that Ford made the gears out of plastic wood or silly putty. As far as any donated item from a vocational class goes, they usually were torn apart and reassembled far too many times and not by skills individuals for the most part. I was a vocational auto shop instructor for 15 years. I got many donations but few survived well in the long run. These were learning tools, so price it accordingly. I would never compare one to nos no matter how clean it looked. I remember when I was in high school (right after electricity and indoor plumbing was invented). Ford donated 2 new full syncro 3 speeds to our auto shop. One lasted 3 years until I graduated and the other was assassinated during it's first tear down!
Find a Falcon/Mustang-Comet/Cougar type of online forum/site, and see what it might be worth, then post an ad there. In high school auto shop, we had equipment and various parts donated also. Hard to find that today, let alone an auto shop class. I really know what you mean about making room; every time I sell one thing, I buy something else that takes up the same place. And the darn city won't let me enlarge my backyard garage/shop. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Well it might be better suited for shop art. Maybe a fresh coat of paint, a stand, and a plexiglass top cover haha.
Any complete tranny has gotta be worth $100. That was the OP's question, right? The guys have a good point re: student labor. Bridgeport mills from the '50s were sturdy. That's what we learned on in HS machine shop, early '80s.
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