My '56 Mark II has a Turbo-Drive Automatic whichis a cousin to the Ford-O-Matic and Cruise-O-Matics. Mine works perfectly, but was wondering if there is a way to force the transmission to start in 1st gear. As designed, it only starts in first if you floor the accelerator pedal (triggers the kickdown) which turns the transmission into a 3 speed. I want to go with a taller rear gear, but would want the transmission to behave like a 3 speed, starting in low, all of the time. Is this possible?
I've heard of people taking a FMX and use the center section out of it with some of your trans and end up with a 3 speed. Might be worth some researching.
sounds like the trans governor is not operating correctly,u can do pressure checks with vehicle operating at specified speeds to check operation of governor. but if it were mine,off comes the tail shaft and free up those governor fly weights.
Many years ago I had the Ford-O-Matic (POS-O-Matic) behind a 215 six. If my memory is correct, if you manually shift into low, it will start in first gear, then upshift will make it shift to second and then will go into third automatically when the rpms and governor let it. I used to hate that starting in second.
yeah, did you try starting with the lever in L, then move it to D after the trans shifts? works on the 50s ford o matics
Yep, I can manually start in low by putting the shifter in L, but I'd really like to put it in drive. Is there a later 3 speed automatic that will bolt up to the Lincoln 368? C-6 maybe?
C6 was introduced in 1966, the older Y block style engines were gone by then. And Ford had a bad habit of using different bellhousing patterns on all their engine series.
Clean the governer, that year might even have a 2 bolt plate on the side of the extention housing for access to the gov. Should start off in first gear now.If it happens again come to a stop and hold the brake padel firmly leaving the shifter still in drive and give it some gas and you'll feel it being forced back into 1st with a thud. You have to have good motor mounts to do this cause the engine will jump if the mount is broken and may cause damage but if you feel it jump back into 1st gear then you may have metal particle coming from something internal hanging the gov. again, maybe converter. Good luck.
As you've noted, it is operating correctly. There's no easy way to just put it into D & get all three speeds without some h***le. You have a couple of options. The first, which you've probably figured out already, is to start in L...when it's time, move the shifter to D & immediately go back to L. The trans should shift into Second; then move to D when it's time for Third. This takes a bit of practice to get the Mickey-Mouse shifting right, but at least you don't have to floor it. Option 2 is to convert your original trans to a FMX. The FMX is a direct descendant of the Ford-O-Matic et al. and the internal parts are more or less a direct bolt-in. It's the "more-or-less" that will do you in and it takes patience as well, though it is usually possible. Option 3, mentioned above, is to actually use a FMX, along with certain pieces of your trans, to solve the problem. There are a number of details involved & I don't have time to type it right now, but I've posted it before, or, if you PM me, I'll post it tonight after work. This is probably the best overall solution if you don't want to modify the car very much from original. Option 4 is to use an adapter to run a completely different transmission. Wilcap makes one that will allow most Chevrolet automatics, including OD; Bendtsen makes one that will allow Chevy units or the Ford AOD. This will require a lot of work and some modification and it may not be wise to do this to a Mark II from a value standpoint...I can't say. If you did this I would guess that you would want to pick a smaller trans that won't require tunnel mods.
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