Looking for an \"easy\" A/T swap. 240 I6

Two things: Why would you do something like this, there are many reasons a manual set-up is better. Starting from the fact that an I-6 is not over imbued with a bunch of "extra" horsepower in the first place. Adding a power robbing auto to the mix is not going to help. The manual pedals, linkage is probably worth more, to some rodders, than most would give for the entire car. [no disrepect meant to straight six, they are a great engine, will run forever and have a lot going for them in performance too.]

On to your question. Pickup a passenger car C-4, it'll solve most of your problems.

There are more than one kind of manual transmissions that have been put into Fords. Since you have a Floor shifter, non-stock - Ford didn't put floor shifters behind I-6 passenger cars, at least not to my knowledge. So there are a few reasons to suspect the install will not fall into the bolt-on R&R catagory. You need to do some measureing...at least from the engine to the transmission mount pad and from the engine to the end of the transmission, those measurements will give you the info to compare to the same distances on an Automatic.

The C-4 has been pretty much the same, externally, in length and mounting point, forever. They started messing with things when the made it into C-5, AOD and AOD-e. But given what is possible,... anything from a passenger car, sbf/I-6 until some where in the mid to late 80's should fit easily, in the same place...no changes needed. The yoke spline count might be at issue, but easily swapped with the one from the donor vehicle.

Your job, if you choose to accept it (a little IM force flash back), is to check, by measuring what you have then compare that against the specs...you can find C-4 dimensions on the net. (see first link below)

http://super-store.stores.yahoo.com/trandim.html
http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2000/09/t5swap/index.php
http://www.mustangsandmore.com/ubb/DanJonesC4AODswap.html
http://64.226.206.184/tech_info/trans_dims.htm
http://www.autotran.us/fmABpg21.htm

_________________
"They that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety"-- Benjamin Franklin

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Beoweolf on 3/25/06 6:49am ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Beoweolf on 3/25/06 10:42am ]</font>

Thank you for the excellent responses.

I'm glad there is an online resource of knowledgable people for this car, I'm obviously going to need a lot of help.

As to me having sort of an anomolous car, it never occured to me that it did not come from the factory with a manual. I just assumed it did. Shows how much I know. Whoever performed it did a pretty good job of it.

One of the main reasons I want to perform an A/T swap is because this car will be a commuter for the time being. In a metropolitan area, the current gearing on the car is pretty worthless. I have a pretty short 1st and 2nd, shift into 3rd at about 40 and just wind her out from there. Stop and go traffic isn't that much fun

The things is pretty damn hard to shift as well, I think the linkage could stand a rebuild and some new gear oil put in the box, it just got me thinking, if I had to replace the tranny, why not go with an A/T while I'm at it. I had visions of this thing being a cruiser, not a hot rod.

I'll do some measuring tomorrow, and see where I stand.

As to the "mystery" 3-speed tranny, anyone care to hazard a guess what it came off of? Is there a resale market out there for a this rig?

Thanks so much for your time, I really do like this car, and would like to bring her back to at least some of her past self.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Goatzilla on 3/25/06 8:40am ]</font>