I have a 8ba flathead and trying to get a tranny on it...i have the stock bell housing...i think...i have located a tranny from a 1940 ford pickup....i have not seen it yet and i will have to get a clutch and pressure plate...any ideas on the size of the clutch and pressure plate i need to have...not sure of spline size either....any experts out there....im pretty goood with the meatl and motor work..im kind of clueless on the tranny side of things....i am also intrested in a used clutch and pressure plate if anyone has one...atleast a used pressure plate to save a few bucks....i also have a bellhousing that will accept a ford modern..well atleast 70's style 3 on the tree and 4 speed trannys ....any clue what clutch and pressure plate to use on this application.....what is the best application i can get either tranny for cheap it is just the 250 bucks i gotta spend on the clutch and pressure plate that is a bit of a bummer so i want to make the right choice..thanks
you can use the 40 trans if you use the "round" style bellhousing. you cant use the bell that the bottom ubolts from and has a modern looking clutch fork. the clutch depends on what you have for a flywheel. you need an 8ba flywheel and they came drilled for several differnt clutches
What driveline are you planning on running? A '40 transmission will be setup to run a torque tube, is this your goal? The '40 trans has part of the bell cast on the front of it. To run this trans on the 8BA you need a "bell" from a '48-'50 truck with a matching starter plate. Fortyfordguy has a really good website that you can use to get a ton of transmission information on it may have the specs you are looking for: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_home.htm
Thats what Im running. Yeah you need that bell housing they mentioned, they come up on ebay and here once in a while for about $40 or so. I think my clutch was 11" and Im using the stock flywheel. The 39 style trans bolts right up and you can use the torque tube set up or theres an open drive conversion kit too.
If you look on this page you will see how many combinations were available. http://cid-4fc3316b3cbdca99.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.res/4FC3316B3CBDCA99!3634/ Very confusing.
lots to think about with your decision. sounds like you aren't very sure of yourself when if comes to tranny work?? The problem with the 40 truck trans (along with all early for trannies) is they tend to need alot of work. they've been hanging around getting beat on for the last 70 years so you can't just expect to drop it in your go wagon and cruize the scene. You'll need to rebuild it, hoping that your gears themselves are good. replacement gear sets aren't cheap. like a couple people mentioned, what are you planning for a driveline?? if you are going to run a closed drive banjo rear, the early ford tranny is pretty much your best bet just for the fact that everything is a bolt together (besides cutting the torque tube and driveshaft to length) if you are looking to run a later open drive rear, don't even consider the early ford trans. It's fragile and not particularly user friendly. is the belhousing you have the stock ford bellhousing for the flathead or an aftermarket piece?? there are lots of threads on using the stock ford bellhousing with later ford trannies. they work with little or no modification but the trannies themselves can be a little difficult to find. the "round" bellhousing from a truck (I beleive there is a later mercury application as well) will be needed to run the early trans. nothing complicated about it. in 99.9% of cases, there are only 2 versions of this bellhousing. one is cast, the other is stamped steel. both will work fine, but the stamped version is signifcantly lighter which is always good. if you are going to leave the flathead basically stock ANY early ford clutch/pressure plate combo will work. there are 9" 10" and 11" versions. For modded motor or racing use stick with the 10 or 11. one thing I'm not sure of myself is bolt patterns on the flywheel. I know it's been mentioned in this thread about different bolt patterns for different pressure plates, but I'm not 100% sure that's the case. other things to consider are your intended use. if this is an around town driver an early ford driveline is great the way it is. if you intend to hit the highway you may not be so happy with it. 1:1 final drive and the standard 3.78 gears limit you on comfortable cruising speed. 3.54 "high speed" gears help a bit. is this setup going in the truck in your avy?? if so i'm guessing on the open drive which would make another tranny choice make more sense
The steel bell is Merc, and fits 9--10 inch plates. Iron one is truck, fits all sizes. Buy one that comes with starter plate from same source...lots of confusing problems here! Your engine with passenger '49 up bellhousing is about 99% likely to have 9 1/2" Long, unless it is a '51-53 Merc. The 9 1/2" plate will not work with early trans because it is for a smaller throwout setup...10" was available but rare, can be swapped for 10" early Ford PP with right fingers for early bearing. If Ford, your wheel is drilled for Long clutch, 3 pairs of holes. If Merc, it has six holes evenly spaced and can be fitted with 1949-50 (NOT the later one) Merc PP and go right into place. If Long 9 1/2, best bet is likely to have it redrilled at a machine shop for 9 0r 10" Long and use early Ford PP. Other than the Merc, only direct swap flywheel is the 11" truck '49-53 truck one, which uses same plate and disc as early Ford. I consider this easy but undesireable as this rig is quite heavy. A possible other route would be 9 1/2" '49 pressure plate rebuilt with fingers for early Ford. So--swap is somewhat harder than it looks unless you have the semi rare right parts.
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