T86?

[Hot Rod Reverend]

I talked to a gentleman the other day who kindly told me that 55/56 Fords did not use a T86 with a sideload cover (although that is what we always called those transmissions in the cars that had an R10 overdrive). Is a T86 ONLY topload?

I have a 55 Ford passenger car 3 speed manual transmission that has the R10 overdrive. The main case is different from the regular Ford transmissions we used to call the "paper trans" because it would break so much under any kind of horsepower.

Can any Ford owners out there shed any light on this?

The reason I ask is that this has caused quite a bit of confusion when I research for internal parts for this transmission, and I am not sure what nomenclature to use to identify the 3 speed from 55/56 that had the overdrive in a SIDELOAD main case.

Even the 1949-59 parts diagrams I have DO NOT SHOW the transmission and overdrive I have mated together. It does show the main case and parts, but the overdrive tailshaft attached to it in the diagram looks very different.