School me on my '63 Mercury Marauder 390 Engine and Transmission

I recently picked up a really nice '63 Mercury Marauder with a 390 and auto transmission, the drive train is completely stock and has been well maintained. I don't have much knowledge about Ford products and just wanted to get some information on what type transmission it is and best practices to keep it maintained (i.e. fluid/oil type, frequency of fluid/oil changes and such).

We plan to take it on a cross country Route 66 trip in March so any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

cruise o matic, most likely. You could probably change the fluid every 10k miles to make yourself feel good, you can drop the pan and clean it and the filter. Also adjust the bands, and the throttle linkage and shift linkage. I think you can still find type F fluid at walmart?

Get the factory shop manual to learn all about it.

 

Thanks, also the shift pattern on the column reads P R N D2 D1 L. the manual states the car should be driven in D1? Does this sound right, what's the difference?

 

D1 gets you first gear, D2 only gives you second and high...I think....but you should play with it and see what happens.

 

Yes that is a cruise a matic. If you change the fluid and filter in the transmission I would probably not disturb the bands by adjusting them. If you tighten them up to much you are gonna have problems.. I would just do the filter and fluid and not take a chance opening up a can of worms.. You could just screw up a perfectly good transmission by trying to adjust them.
Just my opinion.

 

I am putting a '64 390/COM in my '59 Edsel wagon.

We are also doing a caravan down Route 66 to Viva in April.
We are going to do something like we did last year, and open to others joining us.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=581231

Good Luck, you will have a blast!

 

Yea, I've been talking to TTM about it, I hope we can meet up around Amarillo.

 

I've got a 63 Monterey wagon with the 390/cruise-o-matic, and yep, you drive it in D1 if you want all 3 gears. My advise is to be gentile with the cruise-o-matic. If you have a lead foot, swap in a C6.

 

Damn, that is clean!

 

that thing is sweet, perfect stance, dig the scallops. 390/cruise o matic is a good combo. i didnt know about the d2 d1( or white dot/green dot)thing on my 61 at first and couldnt figure out why the car was gutless off the line and only shifted once.