ok guys im gonna ask what seems to be a stupid question as i'm short on time anymore , and the search i was doing here has turned up nothing . simple , is a flathead bellhousing bolt pattern / for the block , the same as a yblock ? i have access to three of them but with my schedule and norms it's damn near impossiblr { these are off of 53-56 so they got the correct ears for mounts .} and i still got the pos one ton with an extremely rusted up y block in it and its bellhousing , but i dont know if it's got the ears / mounting tabs . welp later i gotta go back to the four letter word !!!!!!!!!!

 

Nah....it's not a stupid question........

I don't think a Y-block bell housing will bolt to ANY flat head (or vice-versa)

There's a lot of trans adapters for both. but they don't show the same one for both....

 

thanx , thats what i remembered from god knows where , but i wanted to make sure ! well time to go a diggin' in norms garage when we can get together ......... gotta go see the progress on the 70 challenger 'vert with the hemi anyway ........

 

I've been trying to figure this out for a while. I know that in 53 Ford changed the transmission bolt patterns and a bunch of different transmissions became available. Most interesting to me is the heavy duty overdrive five speed. There were bell housings made for the 53 flathead engines to mate to these new transmissions. I think, the rear engine mounts were changed to the sides of the bell housing instead of the transmission. So I am guessing it might be easy or not too difficult or not impossible to mate a Y block era transmission to a 53 flathead bell housing.

(edit) Whoops, misread the question, I thought you were asking about the transmission bolt pattern. Stupid answer.

 

Flatheads and Y blocks have different bolt patterns. If Ford made a bellhousing to mate a flathead to a later trans [T98] they are very rare, I've been lookin for one for years. Maybe one of the numbers guys can tell us. Good luck searchin. T/M

 

Flathead Parts Drawings-Transmissions There's drawings on the links from this page. I'm sure numberdummy can tell ya.

Here's Moe's and V8Bob's flathead bell ID pdf. www.flatheadv8.org/bellhousing.pdf

 

tinman i got one of your rare bellhousings in my 53 . its a 1/2 ton with the 8ba and a t-98 four gear with the mounting ears on it for our trucks . got it from jess on here but cant remember his user name . i think number dummy knows him . merc something .... i think he had one or two more , i dont remember . oh and i was trying to be " lazy " as i'm so dain short on time , and i didnt recall completely anyway , and hope that they were . like i said i got access to three of them all for the heavy four gears and y blocks , just have to find some way of me and mr. mopar being in the same time frame at the same time . and i also got the one in that early 60's 1 tom pos still out on the farm in athens , so i geuss i'll be doing some work !!!!

 

Good to know they exist, now I just have to find one. I want to put a T98 in my 52 F1 behind the flatty. It's on my list of projects.....pretty long list. Thanks, T/M

 

Here's a queer way to get there... believe it or not, with the exception of one bolt hole, a SBC bell will bolt to a flathead... so you buy a steel (Lakewood) SBC bell, cut and re-drill it at that one place, and do whatever you want on the tranny end. Unfortunately, it also leaves you figuring out how to do the clutch linkage, but clever folks have done it. There's more to it, like indexing the bell to the engine's crank centerline, but it's a relatively cheap way to get there because used steel SBC bells are plentiful. I've never done it, just heard of it being done...

 

Well, PM me when you want one. I have a nice condition T-98 complete with parking brake that I removed from my 55 F-600 so I could put the automatic in. If you were going to use a Y-block, I also have a new clutch, pressure plate, resurfaced flywheel, pilot and throw-out bearings.....I don't know what I'm going to do with them now that I'm not going to use them!

The T-98's are basically bullet proof and completely rebuildable. (the Jeep people ae scarfing them up to put in rock crawling Jeeps!)

More T-98 stuff

Cheers,


Rick

 

Jess: mrcman58, located in Los Banos, CA.

He bought all of San Jose based F100 Parts Unlimited's inventory several years ago.