Universal Baseline Reference - Smok'em if you got'em

[thomasso]

I also broke innumerable tranys with my 50 Ford Interceptor.  The later T86 trans no better.  Wish i had known about T85s back then.

[Tom S]

      Tom...When in doubt,  it's always best to blame the big kids. 

I'm not blaming them, Jay. I'd thank them for teaching me that but I don't really how I learned to do that anyway.
Also used to just rev the thing up & slam it into gear.
I think my family had that car for almost 10 years & I don't think it ever have any service done to the trans.
About 8 years after we got it I was a senior in high school & helped an uncle rebuilt the 312.  Or maybe the idea was supposed to be him helping me. ??  Nevertheless he was the one that had the mechanical experience & know-how that I didn't have yet.

   

[mustang6984]

No chance in Hell you will smoke that rubber with 3:10's and an automatic. You will however manage to put a LOT of strain on the transmission, and eventually blow it up. Then you can drop a a stick in it and burn those tires all day long. I have an old T-85 under my work bench...

[Ecode70D]

I was forever blowing blowing up those early Ford transmissions until I accidentally found a T85 in a Merc, and
that was the end of my blowing up transmissions.     

[mustang6984]

I was forever blowing blowing up those early Ford transmissions until I accidentally found a T85 in a Merc, and
that was the end of my blowing up transmissions.     

I seemed to blow up a lot of them...although I was sticking them behind a 352 which I was pretty rough on. U-joints and trannies...left and right. Went to a top-loader 4-speed...never broke another transmission...still went through u-joints though until some dolt wrecked my car by blowing a stop sign.

[Tom S]

I can't figure out why or how you guys kept blowing up transmissions!

[mustang6984]

I can't figure out why or how you guys kept blowing up transmissions!

Racing is hard on equipment. The weakest link is gonna go first. I also went through a set of 411's in my white Courier. It was a race car from the beginning of my time owning it. It has 9 leafs on each side which made for a pretty stout grip on the road, I suspect (since I know more now than I did then) that was just too much for a 3-speed and 411's...no spinning of tires...just gripped and launched.
Between the two Couriers I ate one rear end gear set, 4 transmissions and more u-joints than I can count. At least one clutch set too in the white car.
Eventually I quit using 3-speeds behind FE motors, went to 4 speeds on each of them and never broke another transmission. Never broke another tranny, or ate anymore clutches. Sadly the white car was damaged severely and is still waiting for me to resurrect it. The brown Courier was never a race car, but it saw it's share of street running, and that was fixed with the top loader. The T-85's in the brown car were behind a 352 running a set of 330 something gears...it had been built for long distance driving by a previous owner...and my driving was pretty hard on the tranny with those gears. U-joints took a beating too.
The brown Courier is the one I am currently looking to put back on the street...and it will be driven by a wiser and older person...who will not be trying to launch it for road racing from stop light to stoplight to stop light or on make-shift back country road race venues. It is being built to tour.
The white Courier will however...probably go back to being a bit of a racer, and a bit of a driver...but with a 4-speed. It will also be getting a little warmer 390 this time than the what the brown one is getting. I have this 406 solid lifter cam...

[Swank]

No chance in Hell you will smoke that rubber with 3:10's and an automatic.

I'm going with that.  Just wanted to make sure I wasn't supposed to be able to burn'em.    The advise i got when i got my first car,  "dont floor it in neutral and dump it in drive, youll be buying a transmission".  So, ive never done that.  Never broke a trans yet.  Floored them from a dead stop while in drive plenty though.  Good times, ....at least it was back then.   Burned a couple clutch plates in sticks shifts, but thats probably just more from bad form than anything else.

[mustang6984]

Yea...you can get away with the neutral to drive trick a few times...but not many. There used to be clutch kits made by b & M for automatics that would spool it up faster and allow peel-outs...but I always thought all that did was postpone the inevitable. Today guys use different types of torque converters. But I have always just preferred sticks. Even my 2 Explorers have sticks...and both...will leave rubber just fine...even with 4.0 V-6 engines! LOL!!! (don't tell my wife! Although hers has 311,000 miles on the original clutch and tranny!)