I want to get rid of the 3 speed od in my 56 Vicky.I can get a 4 speed toploader for it.Will I need to get the 4 speed bell housing also? Thanks!
Use the Yblock bellhousing.. You will have to machine down the front bearing retainer a little bit to fit in the bellhousing. You will have to shorten the the input shaft a bit where it does int the pilot bushing around 3/8 of an inch (but measure this first to decide how much to remove). Depending on the toploader used, you may have to drill top holes in the bellhousing to match the holes on the trans. Regarding Top Loaders, the FE ones have a shorter input shaft than the small blocks..
The first year toploader had the small 4 11/16 OD on the front bearing retainer. I think David Kee still sells replacements. Just remove the four bolts and swap out the larger one for the smaller one. As Paul mentioned you'll probably also need to cut a little bit off the snout of the input shaft.
Some top loader cases have two bolt patterns where they bolt up to bellhousing, some don't. I was under the impression you needed the dual bolt pattern case to mount up to a Y-Block bellhousing? Never done it so just asking. Mark
The Y-Block will have the small bolt pattern like the toploader case on the right, the one on the left also has the small bolt pattern. Both of them will bolt onto the Y-Block bellhousing.
Toploaders have different shifter locations that fit the different ch***is’s they were used in. I don’t know which you one you will need, maybe someone will know which one you will need. Click on the link below, it shows many of the different shifter location, the tail shaft housing can be changed if you find one with the wrong housing. https://mustangponycars.com/transmissions/
Actually there is a third pattern.. It has only the wide pattern on the top, small pattern on the bottom. I have heard (no experience) that the small pattern on top can be drilled .
or instead of shortening the the input shaft make a spacer to go between the box and bellhousing....super simple
Actually, that's not a good idea. Ford used a 'standard' input shaft length of 6" for 'most' manual transmissions on all of their '50s era designed motors (there are a few odd-ball '49-53 flathead trans where that's not true). When Ford started phasing those motors out in the early '60s, they increased the length of the pilot bearing shaft by 1/2" except for the FE transmissions in cars. You generally need to clip about 3/8" off the pilot shaft to use the later non-FE trans to the earlier motors. Using a 3/8" spacer instead will pull the input bearing retainer out of the bellhousing, it will no longer be indexing to the bell, just to the spacer. If the retainer hole is the same size as the bell, you could 'pin' the spacer to the bell to prevent any movement, but that's a lot of extra work. Much easier to just shorten the pilot shaft.
David Kee has a tail housing that has different locations for the shifter, including one that is real close to the main case. This location was used in the 64 Fairlane and I think Falcon. This is the tail housing that my trans had (factory tail housing). He also had the Hurst shifter that worked with this location, which I could not find anywhere else.
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