Hey guys. I know I haven't been on the forum much lately but between the cancer and other bull shit in my life right now, I have been kinda busy. My AOD tranny in my 1967 Falcon Futura wagon literally exploded in a huge ball of flame and sent a few pieces of shrapnel up through the floor and into my right leg. The metal went right thru the tranny blanket too!! Yes! I had my foot in the throttle at the time but I had spent a great deal of money in this tranny and didn't figure it would let go the way it did. Anyway, I am OK and after a couple of stitches in my calf, I decided to get rid of the automatic and find myself a manual trans to put in my wagon. Finding the tranny was not a problem as I have a friend who works in a tranny shop and he hooked me up with a nice late model world class 5 speed. Its got all the heavy duty internals and I feel pretty confident that it'll do the job. The hard part was finding the rest of the parts for my project. IE,.. Pedals and linkage. "Z" bar and bell housing. That took over two months, but after wheeling and dealing and some fabrication of a few parts, I finally manage to have everything I need to make the changeover. I found a scatter shield at my local junk yard and my friend George Helms who happens to be a great auto restorer, found me the correct pedals and linkage for the brakes and clutch. George really came thru for me as I saw a set of the same pedals and linkage on EBay with a starting bid price of over $500.00 dollars. George got the set for me for just over $125.00 bucks. So I am about halfway into installing the 5 speed and things are actually going well. The bell housing did not require any mods to the transmission tunnel and the shifter will sit very nicely just ahead of the bench seat which is going back in the car until I can find a nice set of buckets that I can live with. The console is going to be one from a 67 Fairlane I found at a swapmeet for $45.00. But for now, The bench seat will do just fine. I even found a Hurst shifter handle and ball that will bolt right onto the shifter in the trans. Sorry for not posting any photos, but I will et some on the site just as soon as I can. Now all I have to worry about is keeping my "8" inch differential from grenading. My buddy Bob has a 9 inch he might be willing to part with for a small fee, but that's another story altogether. Wish me luck and photos to come. Cockroach Dave
Damnation! You are so lucky to have only had the minor injuries to your leg; I've read about guys who really get injured, even with a safety blanket. Using a WC trans will be interesting for the car's performance; what ratio does the axle have, and if you went to a 9", what ratio would you like in it?
Silver, I have some 4:10's in an 8 inch diff. That has become the weak spot and I'm looking into a 9 inch from a friend. I'm sure the posi in the 8 inch will fit in it as they came out of a 9 in. Though I may be mistaken on that. Thanks for the concerns and wish me luck. The Roach PS. Does anyone know the ratios for a 92 world class T5?
It depends on what Make (GM or Ford) Model (car or truck) and engine (4, 6, or 8 Cylinder) it was originally installed in. The GM Car V-8 Trans Spec's are 89-92 V8 T5 (World Class) Borg Warner T5 WC Gear Ratios : 2.95, 1.94, 1.34, 1.00, .62 Spline : 26 input/27 output Dimensions : Torque Rating : 305 lb-ft Here is a link to all the Ford Variations http://www.pro-forceperformance.com/t-5_history.htm
With your question about which way you want the car to go, having a deep set of ratios in First and Second plus an OD with a fairly tall gear ratio will give you excellent off-the line performance whilst still giving you good to excellent MPG numbers at cruise. I'll be putting a set of 3.50 gears into the axle on Babe when I put an AOD or 4R70W in, replacing the 2.47 ratio highway gears it has now.
I have a set of 4:10-1 gears in my current diff and with the AOD I could cruise all day long going 70 mph and revving 2500 rpm
