First off I'd like to say hello to everyone here as this is my first post. I'm finishing putting together a 51 F1 for a family member who has health problems and can't work on it anymore. I've been around a lot of old Mopar restorations but this is my first old Ford truck.

I've been reading/searching for several days regarding the toyota gear box swap. I'm a member on quite a few forums and I don't want to come in and ask something that get's asked once a week.

At first I was stuck on the manual gear box swap but after reading about the pitman arm issue I adopted the p/s gear box. After that I started reading that it can't be done with a column shifter. I found one or two posts with someone saying it could be done but never came back with any concrete information.

The owner of the truck is thinking about buying a rebuilt 51 box and be done with it because he doesn't want to loose his column shifter.

Can the yota box swap be done with three on the tree?

Thanks for any help. I will be posting pic's as I go. I have to completely wire the truck, battery, fuse block, body/engine harness, etc. Run a fuel system, windows/glass and who knows what else.


Thanks again.

Jason

 

Hey Jason,
Welcome Aboard! Nice looking truck. You look like you pretty much have it back together. Are you completing it this summer?

Sorry I have nothing to help you with on the Toyota swap issue.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

I have a nice original steering box and column for sale. I'll sell the box alone too. You can PM me if you're interested. Can't help you with the Toyota conversion. Sorry. And welcome to FTE

 

With the entire front suspension greased and in good shape, I can't see why PS would be needed. Even in tight parking situations, the stock system doesn't require a lot of effort. It does take a lot of turns but it's that way to reduce effort. I love my column shift, too, or I'd have gone to a 5-sp a long time ago.

 

Thanks Ben. That's how the truck was delivered. There's still a lot to do. He gave me boxes and boxes of parts. I don't know what he has, he doesn't know what he has.

I looked over the wiring harness tonight and it has a lot of stuff that's not needed. Power seats, A/C, etc. It would actually be easier for me to start from scratch than to modify what he has. I'm going to see if someone sells a more basic fuse block. I hope to have it done by the end of September. I have so many parts just getting started is the hard part. I am going to start with the fuel system and the wiring first. He bought a plastic gas tank that goes under the bed. It doesn't have a vent. Sitting in a hot barn for years has swollen the tank pretty bad. I don't think it has any baffles either. I'm trying to find out exactly what it is before I suggest finding something else.

Thanks. I will keep that in mind.


I agree with you that's why I was leaning towards the manual gear box first. I'm trying to help cure the "drunken monkey" syndrome more so than the steering effort required.

 

Hey Jay,
I wouldn't seat that old gas tank too much. They are pretty reasonable. We used a 22 gallon '70 Mustang tank mounted out back between the rails. Jniolin has a nice write up on this install. It's doable in a weekend or two.
We sourced our's from Rock Auto for around $120 plus the sender unit.

Good luck over there.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Years ago Dad and I had a 54 F-100. It had some pretty bad slop in the steering. We debated doing a swap and having PS but in the end packing the box with a quality grease did the trick.

It had a 302 bored .040 and a 4.11's in a 9 in rear end. I put some highway miles on it but Dad drove it back and forth to Arizona several times.