I am going to ask a ? of you guys, because it is very cold here and I don't want to walk over to my shop and look in my interchange book. Is the 3 speed with OD in a 56 ford the same as the one in a 57. The reason I ask is a guy wants to sell me a 56 that has a 312 with OD trans for very little money. It also has electric seats and windows. It's not a runner but thought I may be able to part it out and make a few $. If the trans if different than the ones used in the 57s I will pass it up.
I believe the transmission are interchangable 55thru 59. Ford used a number of trans in those years. T90 types were used in 6 cyl cars, side load. Most V8 trans were T86, top load. 57 312 wagons and I believe rancheros plus E and f code cars used T85s and I think they were all OD. T85s are side load with curved bottom plate and R11 OD. T85s were first used in 55 T birds. These are just facts from memory, Memory is far from perfect. Ford used at least 7 different cluster gears in 57 and for some reason I have most of them if anyone is needing.
A friend put my '51 trans in his '56 so he could get home 130 miles away. I don't know how things looked underneath because I didn't help with the install. He did use the og '56 driveline/yolk.
Thanks, when I was in my shop this morning I looked it up in my interchange book, and it is like you said, they are interchangable. So I guess I will see if I can this bought.
'56 and '57 used different spline counts on the input and output shafts. You may have to change clutch disc and/or driveshaft yoke to match the transmission you are using. By the way, T-85s were produced without OD.
The 56 o/d trans is the same as the 57, 6 cyl, 272, and 292 , the 57 312 o/d trans is a different unit.