What is the prefered tailshaft case for a 57 with a bench seat? As I understand it there is a different tailshaft housing used on the 70's Torino's and Ranchero's than what was used on Mustangs. Is that correct? Or is it just different shifters used to position the stick different for the various cars?
Maybe you can find the info here.
http://www.davidkeetoploaders.com/idchart1.htm
I have a DOZR-7A040-A, see below
http://www.davidkeetoploaders.com/tailhousingid.htm
The important thing is the location of the 3 holes that are tapped for the shifter adapter.
Next you will need a Ford adapter plate like this....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-1970-Mustang-Original-SB-Hurst-4-Speed-Shifter-Adapter-Plate-Good-Condition-/162684333985?epid=1034369277&hash=item25e0bdefa1:g:zOkAAOSw44BYPwpi&vxp=mtr
I used a Hurst 3913180 Comp Plus Shifter at first. The issue with that one was the shifter handle cannot be changed and it is offset required a bigger hole in the floor.
I discovered that Hurst made (makes) the same shifter (with the offset reverse arm) that fits a 63-64 Corvette, Hurst 3915405. It has a replaceable stick.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hurst-4-Speed-Shifter-Mechanism-Corvette-1963-1967-MUNCIE-451-BW-T10-1980-1981-/301440225650?epid=1354402520&hash=item462f3cd172:g:hEQAAOSwnHZYfQMt&vxp=mtr
I used a 538 7236 Hurst stick. PM me if you want more details.
More info...
A 17" tail shaft can be used. It has the speedometer drive in the same place, it bolts up better to the cross member, early ones require a different shifter and adapter. Harder to find.
A 15 1/2" is very hard to find.
Below are pics of my set up
Thanks guys! I spent almost an hour on the phone with the guy I bought the transmission from on ebay, and he's shipping me a rebuilt Mustang 390 unit and bellhousing and some other bits I'll need. Really nice guy. I plan on working with him for the shifter (with bolt on lever) and clutch later when I have saved up enough money again.
The best setup is a 64-up Galaxie box. The shifter is located all the way forward on the tailhousing
and the mount is in the correct location.
Mustangs have the shifter at the back end of the trans putting the stick thru the seat!
Also they have the short length tailhousing which makes you use a very long driveshaft.
The speedo is on the wrong side also. This the worst one to use in a 57, you can spend more money
trying to adapt it than buying a Galaxie output shaft and tailhousing and converting the Mustang box over.
The 390 box will probably be a close ratio when a wide ratio is better for our heavier 57's.
Torino boxes are better than the Mustang on the shifter location and length.
Goodluck,
Ron.
There is an aftermarket toploader tailhousing with three shifter locations. I also think the Mustang version would not be the best choice due to the length and shifter location plus if it says Mustang on it...it costs more. The close/wide ratio thing must be a personal issue. I really liked all the close ratio transmissions that I've driven and raced. Close ratio transmissions were used in fewer and usually high performance applications.
I have a small input, wide ratio Toploader in my 59 2 door sedan, with a Hurst Super/Shifter 3 shifter, and the stock bench seat. The shifter has a short, straight stick, and clears the bench seat, unless the seat is all the way foreward.y trans was origionally from a 66 Fairlane 289,, the tailhousing has 5 holes drilled and tapped for the shifter, so it fits both the Mustang (rear pattern), and Fairlane shifter locations. As mentioned, the Mustang shifter location is too far back for the bench seat, the Fairlane location works great. As for close vs wide ratio, I can not think of any situation where I would prefer a close ratio, that 2.32 1rst gear is a real performance killer! All the 427 & 428CJ cars with 4 speeds had close ratio transmissions, and even with 4.30 gears, the close ratio is a handicap for acceleration. Years ago, I swapped a buddys big spline, 2.78 low gear custom Toploader into my 70 R code Mach 1(with 4.30 gears), and the acceleration improvement was startling. I never got a dragstrip timeslip with the wide ratio trans, but I would have been suprised if the ET improvement was not at least 2 -2 1/2 tenths.
Who sells the aftermarket tailhousing and how long is it? Is there a shaft to go with it?
P.O. Put a Mustang box in my 61 Starliner and I had to change it over.
Anyone who has driven a wide box on the street will prefer it over a close.
Ron.
recently browsing the Mac's catalog and saw it. I never had one...just saw it in the catalog.
Wide/close thing must be just me. I loved running through the gears in every close ratio, performance car...Mustangs, Fairlanes, Corvettes, GTOs. My first new car was a '69 Mach I, 428CJ Ram Air, last engine was 427 SO 2X4 and the '66 Fairlane GT with 428CJ both were big input close ratios. Both cars had 4.11 rears and changed to 4.56 when the slicks came out. Anybody wants to trade their close for a wide, I'd do it in a heart beat. The '57 Custom has TKO600 with the close ratio (road race option). Like I said, must just be me...they make automatics if I ever get tired of shifting.
Quote from: billd5string on 2017-10-05 19:33
Thanks guys! I spent almost an hour on the phone with the guy I bought the transmission from on ebay, and he's shipping me a rebuilt Mustang 390 unit and bellhousing and some other bits I'll need. Really nice guy. I plan on working with him for the shifter (with bolt on lever) and clutch later when I have saved up enough money again.
We put a '68 Mustang RUG-E2 toploader in my Dad's '57 a couple years ago. There was a 3-speed toploader/column shift in the car when he bought it. The Mustang transmission was chosen simply because it was available on relatively short notice when we decided to do the swap. As has been mentioned here, the new transmission has the speedo output on the passenger side of the transmission as compared to the driver's side of the 3-speed that was in there. We didn't know it or think about it at the time, but, if you switch sides of the transmission, you also need to swap driven gears (even if you're not changing the axle or tweaking the speedo) so they mesh correctly. Might be obvious to some people. It's certainly obvious to me, now! :) Lots of time spent trying to figure out why the speedometer only intermittently worked. And, if it did move, it would jump around pretty badly. Having two gears that don't mesh together tends to do that....
I'll second (or third or whatever) the suggestion to swap out the tailshaft that puts the shifter as far forward as possible. I machined an offset adapter that moved the shifter forward on the existing tailshaft. In another, "should have thought of that before" moment, we should have done a more thorough mock-up of the seat position vs. shifter mount location. Since this is my Dad's car and he's the one driving 99% of the time, we had him sit in the bench seat where he normally has it positioned and figured out where the shifter would need to be located given the shift mechanism/handle we had (from a 2nd gen Firebird). Everything went in and works beautifully when he's driving (and the seat is positioned all the way "back"). But, if someone much shorter wants to drive, they'd better be wearing stilts or platform shoes so they can reach the pedals... In hindsight, and it was entirely possible for us to do had we thought that far ahead, we should have positioned the shifter another six inches forward and swapped out the shift handle to get things positioned the way we wanted. Or, as been suggested here, get a tail housing with the better shifter location.
We specifically chose a wide-ratio transmission so we could get a "deeper" 1st gear ratio. In an effort to find a happy medium between city and highway driving, we swapped the original rear end with a 3.0 unit. It takes some experience/practice to get the car to launch smoothly even with the higher ratio.
QuoteThe '57 Custom has TKO600 with the close ratio (road race option).
I have a TKO600 in my 78 TA (with the .64 overdrive). I really like the transmission. Unfortunately, those things are a little pricey. I think I'm going to try getting one of the late 70's overdrive toploaders to see if it can fill in the performance gaps. I think those transmissions have something like a 3.3 1st gear ratio and a .8-ish overdrive ratio (like your TKO). Ideally, this will allow better launches and lower cruise RPM. Plus, it will give me an opportunity to "fix" the shifter location problem while everything is out of the car! :)
If your car hooks a wide box will cut your 60 foot times.
Jerico recommends a first gear around 3.00 for max acceleration.
A wide box is 2.78, close is 2.32
Ron.
Yeah, thats a nice thing about Jericos a vast selection of gear ratios. I used to have a 2.96 1rst gear in my Jerico behind my 428FE in my Fairmont, and later converted it to a 3.19 1rst when I put it behind my 302 in my 85 Mustang. When I bought a 2nd Jerico, it also came with a 3.19 low, which seemed to work just great with the Fairmonts 428 and later 427, as well as with my 331 SB Ford, both in the Fairmont (with 5.13 rear gears), and the Mustang (with 4.88s).