Hi,
I have an '82 F150 with the 4.9 motor in it. It currently has a four speed transmission (the one with the granny gear, not the overdrive). I was wondering if there is a five-speed transmission that will work with this motor. Not much of a mechanic yet, so a bolt-in or an adapter plate would be cool. Anyone know?

Thanks,
Mark

 

There are a couple, depending on what you want.

First, what gear and tire are you running?

How to you use the truck? Heavy hauling, towing? Or just a driver? Or a bit of both?

Budget?

T5: Works best if you have short gears as the OD is a bit long. Light duty, for a driver. Bolts up with an adapter. Some fiddling may be required with shifter. Driveshaft work.

Mazda M5OD; Integral bell, requires hydraulic clutch, driveshaft work. Short but not granny first. Light to moderate duty.

ZF: Granny first, heavier duty. Integral bell, requires hydraulic clutch.

 

Hello Tmarkh, the biggest issue you're going to run into is the hydraulic clutch. The transmissions will bolt right up to the engine like it was made for it, but your '82 has a mechanical clutch whereas the 5 speeds use hydraulic clutches. Converting from a mechanical to a hydraulic clutch requires a bit of work and, most of all, precision.

Do you have 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive?

 

I've often wondered if it would be possible to rework the granny gear setup into an OD.
Anyone thought of trying it?

 

You can get close....but unless you have a huge pile of cash, nothing but time, and sheer determination, it'll never be.
A fella could swap a close ratio t19 in. All 4 useable gears, all synchronized too. Theres also the aftermarket overdrive units to be had from gear vendors and the like. They are pricey though.
Using off the shelf parts to build an overdive 4 speed would be impossible. All of them, as far as i know have 1:1, direct drive ratios in 4th. The final gear would have to be custom machined....which, again, is big bucks.
An old doug nash trans out of a vette would be cool. Pretty much a splitter, so you had a high and low for each gear...almost like a two speed rear end. Would require some custom parts too.

 

Is your truck 4x4 or 4x2? Do you haul heavy or tow with it? Tires and gear? We ask this as with a granny first you can run a pretty tall rear axle if the rest of your usage will tolerate it.

And no, you can't make a OD out of your trans. Ford did offer a 4 speed OD but it's a pretty light duty job and no granny first, big gap 2nd to 3rd.

 

There is another option, albeit from another era, but it gives a three speed with gear splitting, and manual clutch, and a .72:1 over-drive. It is the T85 with an R11 O.D. Ford put them in many vehicles from the late 1930's to the early 1970's. They put them behind big Block FE's too.

I had one, but lack of parts availability turned me away. However, I wish I'd kept it for the O.D. section. The guy who bought it was only interested in that. He was going to detach it and use it like an auxilary trans, like a Brownie. He didn't tell me about that until we were strapping it down in his truck.

Borg-Warner Overdrive - Hot Rod Network

Google brownie auxilary trans. There is some fantastic reading on the forums about loggers and rednecks who mounted dual trans in normal trucks and got crazy results. However, how much of it is urban myth, and how much is fact, is anyone's guess. If you have deep pockets and heaps of time, you can try your own experimental trans projects.

Edit: Found this. Of course it probably costs more than a standard 5 speed install.

 

Part of the issue with both the Ranger and Gear Vender OD units and splitting gears is some of the splits are too close to be of any good.
I had a Toyota LC that had a spliter and that was how it was, good for OD but not great for splitting the rest.
Even with that said there could be times a split is needed when pulling heavy loads.
Dave - - - -

 

all valid points. thanks for the post f250. that brownie sounds pretty cool. i'll have to add it to the wish list.
I've looked into the ranger and gear vendor units. read some forums where some guys complain that they don't hold up to heavy loads. who knows? seems like most of what folks take the time to post is nightmare stories when it comes to products like these.
I'd imagine, as long as they are installed as directed, maintained properly, and not abused...they'd probably handle just about anything an average guy would haul.
this would probably be super useful with a wide ratio t19. sorry...I know I'm biased. I just prefer all synchro'd gears.