49-50 & 51 Ford car Trans & Overdrive

[azandy]

Question - Are the transmission and overdrive assemblies (excluding internal parts) for the 49, 50 and 51 Ford car (not convertible) interchangeable?
Thanks for any input,
Azandy

[Mac VP]

The basic gears changed in 1951 from the earlier gearsets. If one was to swap the complete gears set from a 1951 Ford transmission into the 49-50 case, it's probably doable. Individual gears will NOT interchange from 1951 to 49-50.

As for the overdrive gears, most all of that is interchangeable.

The 1951 Ford rear housing has a different mounting flange for the rear support.

The 1951 shifter housing is also slightly different from the 49-50 Ford versions.

[Frank Miller]

For the record the 49 50 convertibles just had a rocker assembly to locate the solenoid under the transmission. It is a bolt on item and everything else is the same.

[Mike J. CT]

Mac,
I have rebuilt several 49-50 overdrives using the 51-54 gears by using the 51-54 mainshaft. The only mainshaft difference is the area that 2nd gear rides on is longer and the slider gear splines are slightly shorter. 51-54 gears are a lot cheaper.

[Mac VP]

Yes, that will work up through early 1955 Ford models......with the 9 bolt square side cover. The 52-55 overdrive transmissions had a longer output shaft and rear housing but otherwise were the same.

In late 55 Ford changed to the larger diameter countershaft and the gearset changed with it. None of these works in the earlier cases.

The passenger car overdrive transmissions (with the six or small V8's) changed in some 1955 models and thereafter all the rest also used the T-86 Borg Warner toploader OD transmissions as complete units.

[Cecil/WV]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

And the top loader was a lot harder to work on!