As most all of you know i am having a love hate realtionship with a 60 thunderbird. its started as a good driving rotten body bird. I had to removed the 352 to replaced the exhaust manifolds they were cracked. I had to drill and tap all of the bolt holes that mount the manifold. I welded and rebuilt the manifold. Anyone who has ever welded cast manifolds knows what a nightmare that is. Its done and they look sharp and are not cracked anymore. And are not going to crack. But when the motor when back in my trans started acting up soon after.It was not wanting to build pressure and engauging while in 1 and reverse. I checked the torque converter it was engauged and good. Everything pointed towards the governor. I dropped the heavy old cast tranmission. I replaced the governor and air tested the system. You could hear the bands grabbing and see everything working. i reinstalled the trans. This is harder then it sounds. The bird is low to the ground. The exhaust down pipes have to be removed to even get to the trans. Every extra cool guy part is right in the way to work on her. There is no room and the trans weights a ton and half. In the middle of the reinstall my coolguy lincoln transjack a will not pump up. I look at the jack and the piece that ties the hands to the pump is AWOL. So i slide a one ton trans to my cheast and over to another floor jack. Easier said then done. I replaced the 500 gallons of F type that she holds to find the pan gasket had a good leak, So i dropped the fluid pulled the pan to find one of the small spacers that ingauge the high band had fallen out of its place. So while standing on my head getting red fluid dripped all over me filling my eyes. i removed the small parts and pieces to reinstall the spacer. reinstalled the pan and parts with a new gasket i made. I ran her while she was on the stands it took off well shifter very well. I actully put a mile or two on her while she was on the stands just to make sure everything was A-ok. I thought that i was home free. I dropped her to the ground last night and took off around the block. She started acting up again. after i got to the end of the street. Not wanting to take off and pull her wieght in first gear. Stuttering and just being a *****. I get home and put her on a concrete pad out back and pulled her back and forth tring to pin point the problem. Checked the fluid and i was low. I figured it was just filling some areas and burping out some air. So i added more fluid. See how she went and pulled her back and forth some more. Same problem. I get out and look under the car and it looks like someone beached the e**on Valdieze under her. ,So to get my mind off it i shimmy under the tail of the car. My bird is so low you can even shove a drain pan under the car with out jacking her up. I was going check the rear end. i pop the old drain plug on the 9" and I noticed it was underpressure. I stuffed my finger in the drain hole to see what the fluid looked like and the level. The rear was full of copper. great, so i unwedge my stuck *** from under the car and shimmy my *** out from under the car So i head to the barn and get 5 gallons of Kerosen and a map torch with full intentions of burning her to the ground. I was stopped by the wife, being the rational one and all. So here i where i am. A cursed cruise-o-matic, with a serious leak. Now tell me if this sounds right. The leak i dont think is coming from the pan. I will hunt it down and repair it. Could be a cooler line or whatever. not the big deal. I am going to run a pressure test on the trans. Ford was kind enough to put a line with a tire valve attacked to the back of the engine block to the port where all my books say to test from. If the front band was out of adjustment could that cause the problem. What are some of the other problems i should look for. My tranmission warehouse/ Rebuilder in town has a drop in ready to go. a cool G, I lack the 1000 bones to shell out. The main reason why i started working on this cursed-o-matic myself. If that doesnt work anyone got a nice cruise o matic for cheap?
While I can not offer direct help, I can sympathise with the POS-O-Matic trans. I had one behind the 215 (early version of 223) in my old modified. I hated that trans. Also had one in my old daily driver 60 F-100, it ****ed too. Now, I think if you put the word out, sucjh as a HAMB cl***ified Wanted ad, you can probably find a trans someone has taken out that works. For next to nothing cost-wise. My understanding is the basic Ford-O-Matic, Merc-O-Matic and later years FMX are all very similar design. The removeable bellhousing makes them able to swap easily. They are 3-speed, even though the shift indicators only have D and L. If you get too frustrated, the best solution is to replace the trans with a C4 or C6, I think you can find both in the FE bellhousing pattern. Although C6 will be much easier to find.
I have found a 3 speed manual so far. I was planning on getting the want ad out today. I was pestering my sources first and wallowering in my sorrow.. i didnt find these A little more in the price side then i want to drop.. from http://www.transmissionadapters.com/ford_fe.htm
Get a FE C6 get rid of the Cruso they are a lot easier to find. You will be happy you did. The only problems you may run across is having to modify the rear crossmember and maybe the linkage. I am not sure what mods you may have to do but when I swap in something like that I do the cut to fit paint to match modifications. If you go that route get one from a 68 or newer full size the 67s had some differences (I am not sure what they are right now since that brain cell died from my last overindulgance of beer) get the driveshaft yoke from the doner car and crossmember if available. Ford never made a C4 for the FEs but there are some bells around for the conversion but they are a bit pricy. Dawg
Cool a C6 will work then. For some reason i thought early 352 style motors show them as the MEL style asopposed to the standard FE block in which aC6doesn't bolt up.
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