transmisson

[bonanza7369]

what was the model no. of the standard 3 speed transmission on a 56 fairlane with 292 engine?

[rotorwrench]

There were three in use at the time. The T85 with the R11 is the best of the three and is a heavy duty unit. The light duty 259 series with R10 overdrive was still around but getting shorter in the tooth in the later 50s. The T86 R10 unit was also a light duty unit but it was the first of Ford's top loader transmissions so it can be ID'd easily. It is a side shift 3-speed like the others.

[Mac VP]

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If it’s a regular standard (non overdrive) transmission, it would be Ford’s own design. The transmission would have a rectangular side cover, secured with 9 bolts. In later Ford parts books they referred to it as a L/D or light duty type and also you could see a reference to it as a 2-15/16” type……this refers to the centerline spacing between the input shaft and the counter shaft.

In the replacement gear aftermarket (led by Borg Warner) they referred to the 1951-62 versions of this type as the 259 series. For example, the part number for a 1951 cluster gear was WT259-8…….. the main drive gear was WT259-16…..and so on. Of course there were many variations of the gears through the 1951-62 types, depending on the tooth counts and other differences.