I have a 34 five widow coupe hot rod I'm putting together. I'm getting a 49 Merc flathead for it. Will the banjo rear, 3 speed stick, & 1935 16" spoke wheels hold up to a little abuse. Dumping the clutch burnuots and such. Or should I just bite the bullet & put a T5 out of an S10 & an 8" Granada axle in it ? I won't pounding it in the ground but I won't be exactly babying it either. Some old timers say they used to drive them pretty hard and they held up ok. Gene
I never hurt the rear or the wheels with mine, but oh boy did I get good at changing and rebuilding transmissions! Spit those things out like teeth trying to beat on camaros with the '35 and 59A
As long as you are running skinny tires you will spin long before hooking up. Ran a 296 Flattie through a 39 box and A rear, blew up a few trans and never a bit of trouble with the rear.
Maybe the t5 trans is a worthy swap. I've heard the 3 speeds will break if you try to speed shift them. It would suck to shift slow. I have a open driveshaft conversion that was allready in my car. The spiders gears are welded in the banjo. I found adifferent replacment banjo rear for $125. So I will have spare axles & some spare rear end parts. I'll be taking the body off the frame for some frame repair. I figure it would be easyer to do driveline improvments at that time. For nosalgia and $ reasons I want to retain as much of the old girl as I can. thanks---- Gene
The flathead transmissions are VERY weak I broke a bunch of them Axle shafts are weak too I twisted off a driveshaft in my 1947 Mercury in 1969. I still use that shaft for a pry bar and I still have the Mercury
The stock trans. as many has said is very weak. I have retro fitted mid. '50's 3 speed gears into the early box and that eliminated the problem. The conversion though not difficult requires the the use of a machine shop. The '55 T-Bird gear set with 17 tooth input shaft yealds a very good close ratio box. The V-8 flatie that I vintage race has such a trans.
You will be happier on the road with the T5. Also consider a Hot Rod Works late axle conversion for your banjo.
All a great combo, but I learned as you will if you run it. Don't speed shift, preload the driveline and NEVER dump the clutch. you will chew through cluster gears and split cases. this is the most expensive part in the drivetrain and good early ones are pricey. Also either buy or make the set-up open drive. It makes changing the box alot faster and easier. that closed drive stuff is for the birds when the box breaks. But if you drive it easily they will take alot of abuse the early trans just hates the shockload of dumping the clutch and will shatter parts because Henry made 'em strong but not very maleable. They are heat treated to almost a brittle aspect and then put 50+ years of use and time it just amazes me mine all works still. You can heat treat the gears to soften 'em up a little for some give. But why go through the trouble and expense. I have a heavy foot with a Y-block in front of an open drive F-1 to a 48 Banjo. It's a great combo and puts out about as much power as a good Flathead. In all honesty though unless you are stuck with the early combo put the T-5 in it you'll have less headache in the long run. The wires are tough little buggers and you would have a hard time ruining those with your power output. Tim
Thanks for all the good input. I think I'll stay with the 37-40 rear with 35 ford 16" spoke wheels,3 speed trans & a 49 Merc flathead. I can always switch it later. I figure once it's updated it'll never get put back to like it was. That would be like putting a piper cub engine in the Wright Bros plane. I want my son to drive it & feel the way things were back in the 50s. I have a 67 396 Camaro if I need to smoke tires a bit. Thanks Gene
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