Just curious if anyone had ever ran into a wilcap adapter for olds to ford 3speed Not drilled right? Or am i just an idiot. I bought a brand new adapter a few years ago. And its been sitting on the shelf in a box. Well i finally got around to the project . I wanted to mock the engine and trans up. Bolted the adapter to the bellhousing, then went to bolt the trans up and the dowel pins lined up but only 4 of the holes lined up to bolt the trans to. The block is a 56, early for 3speed open drive trans. Any help would be appreciated. Not against drilling and tapping this thing. Just curious whats going on.
Try calling Wilcap. They are still in business as far as I know. Patrick is welĺ versed with what Wilcap offers. He originally bought the company for the tooling and found out that there was still a market needing Wilcap equipment. He was a great help in supplying the correct items to bolt my Ford full syncro 3 speed to my 354 hemi.
all of the plate adapters made back in the 50s and 60s were drilled with two patterns, to fit the 49-up Olds engines as well as the early version of 331 Cadillac from 49 to 53. When you said only 4 bolt holes are correct, it made me remember the following info.. I am almost positive that yours is drilled for the Cadillac because I know that back in 2013, I put an original Olds standard shift cast iron bell housing onto an early Cadillac engine, and I am positive that only 4 bolt holes lined up. I know it was the bottom two holes, and I thought it was also the topmost two holes, but yours looks like the two holes down from the top holes. So my memory is off thinking it was the top pair. I have no idea why the modern company didn't drill the dual pattern for both engines like the old days. Anyways, do a web picture search for these older original plate adapters should show the dual pattern that you didn't get. You can drill and tap yours as needed.
just to confirm, it's the Ford pattern that's lacking? or both? I'd drill and tap the missing Ford holes. easy with the bell on and a centering punch to get good location then drill on the drill press. the Cadillac pattern's extra holes can be ignored
yes its the ford pattern thats off. I dont have a problem drilling and tapping the 4 extra holes. Must of been machined on a monday or friday lol. Thanks for the help
Both of you are correct, it's missing some of the trans pattern holes, not the so called dual pattern that I was thinking. How did they miss those is beyond my pay group.
I ended up with an unused Wilcap adapter as part of a package deal a few years ago. 60 Cad to GM automatic. Bolts all lined up, but engine dowel pin holes were 3/8" off. Called Patrick, sez made before his time but agreed to do repair no charge. It did cost shipping both ways. Me thinks an early Wilcap adapter is a crap shoot for fitting corectly.
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