what kind of adapters and 5speed transmissions are avalible to put behind an FE?

 

Muscle, you don't need an adapter. You need the correct 5 speed. If you are going to drive the truck like its a car, have fun on the street and commute or something, then you want a normal bellhousing and a tremec TKO 500 or 600. The T5 and its derivatives can be made to fit, but they won't last at anything past idle power. The new trannies are not even close to strong enough for an FE.


If you are going to do truckish things, like push snow piles or pull trailers and such, you should seriously consider the Clark 280 series trannies. They cam in 1 & 1/2 ton and heavier trucks with the FT engine. It will bolt right on to your FE. You need to rebalance the flywheel and use the FT bell. A small amount of fussing needed, but easy. Lots of them available cheap in scrap yards that have the bigger trucks. DinosaurFan, at his Dad's house

 

NV4500:

High Impact - NV4500 5spd

From 'Article/Specs' at the top of the page:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...nsmission.html

As to a Clark from behind an FT, perhaps some information on input shaft length and diameter, and what to do about the pilot bushing/bearing would be in order. Also what input spline is involved.

 

The Clark is better than the NV4500, IMO. The NV isn't really a bad trans, but the gear spread is not good. It is something like 6.6/3.5/1.67/1.00/.75, which amounts to something like a NP435 with overdrive, which is exactly what it is.
You'll get overdrive, if thats what you want, but you still have the same huge rpm drops between gears. And they are exspensive, something like 2-3K to do the swap.
The Clark is available, and usually cheap. The Clarks came in lots of heavy and medium trucks, from Ford, GMC, IHC and others. The Clark 5 speed is also produced new, under the Eaton name, so IF you should ever break anything, parts are available. What I like about the Clarks is what I believe to be a much better gear spread. My 285V has the following-6.99/4.09/2.35/1.45/1.00 or something really close to that, my memory isn't perfect anymore. The rpm drop between shifts is much less. That makes the truck nicer to drive. No, you won't have overdrive, but if you choose tires and axle gears carefully, you won't miss it. If you have 3.5 axles and 35 inch tires instead of 33 inchers and 4.11 or 4.56s.....the straight through top gear does fine on the freeway, and the 6.99 first gear is actually useable and at more than 24 to 1 ( 6.99 x 3.5 axle ) is enough to get started with almost any load.
But the very best thing about the Clarks is they're usually cheap. I found a place that was cutting up old trucks for scrap and got, from an F6 or 700 powered by an FT, everything for 250$. I got the trans, the FT bell, the FT flywheel, 13 inch clutch and press plate, and the starter. The Clarks usually have, like mine, a 1&3/8thhs input with 10 splines. I don't know how long the input was, never measured. If you use the FT bell and flywheel, everything bolts right on to the back of your FE. There are a few details to watch, however. The FT 'wheel is HEAVY like 48 lbs. My 390 weighed 18 lbs. So you will need to machine away the FT wheels counterweight, ( they aren't zero balance ) and you will probably want to take off some weight. I think I trimmed down to about 27 lbs. The FT wheel bolts right on your FE cast crank. You'll need a new pilot bearing, the one you want is from the cast crank 330MD, IIRC, it fits the cast crank like your 390 on one side, and has a big hole for the Clarks big shaft on the other side. You can keep the big 13 inch clutch and you will use the FT fork, and the FT bell. The Clark has its own pattern on the front and will not fit your FE pickuptruck bell. I used the FT starter, but it doesn't look any differant from the FE manual trans starter to my eye at least. You need to do something at the back of the Clark as well, the U joints they come with are HUGE. I got abount 2 feet of driveshaft with mine and had custom short shaft made that has the big clark output yoke on one end and a normal 1350 joint on the other end. Problem solved. And for ALOT less money than one of the NV swaps. If you thihk you absolutely have to have overdrive, how about adding a GearVendors planetary behind the Clark, and then you have overdrive AND you can split gears and have 10 forward speeds, and you have still spent less than the NV costs. Whats not to like ?

DinosaurFan

 

the nv4500 sounds good. im building a 2wd street truck with palns of drag racing. it has short shifter throws and is fairly lightwieght. i just have to get the cash to buy one.

 

While it does have a pretty good shifter for the type of trans it is, I would not recommend it for drag racing. TKO or other closer ratio box would work better, or an automatic. JMO, YMMV.

 

Since we're talking (Truck) MANUAL trannies. The 64' F100 came with a 292/Warner T-98. 292 was swapped for a 352. How does the Warner T-98 weigh in ?

 

Muscle, the NV4500 is by no means light. And suitable for drag racing it ain't. You might like to consider a toploader 4 spd or a TKO. DF

 

For drag racing? A T-98 would be a seriously slow shifting transmission.
OP has "Truckin' " in mind, not "trucking".

 

I meant weigh in as a durable (truck) tranny. It's a work truck. I read plenty about NP435 etc. and hardly hear this T-98 tranny mentioned.

 

nv4500 transmissions are strong. my brothers 79 flatbed has a cummins and a nv4500 and hes had no problems. plus 500hp cummins drag trucks have also used nv4500s with no problems while running in the mid 12s. i considered a toploader but want overdrive and i dont know much about the TKO other than people say it wont hold up behind a 390. any info on the TKO?

 

Some TKO info:

Modern Driveline, Inc. - Transmission

Some more, including claim of 500 or 600 lb/ft capacity:

TTC: TREMEC Transmissions

Note ratios given so you can compare vs. NV4500 or other.

T98: Yes, a good trans, my point was: try to shift one fast

NV4500 behind a 390: Probably shifts fast enough, probably, maybe, probably doesn't shift as fast as a TKO.

As for TKO not standing up behind a 390, the comments may have been directed at the T5 as found in Mustangs etc. A T5 would not be good behind a 390...

 

with all this being said about tranys.i seen some one said put the overdrive kit behind the clark.is that avaliable for my 68 f350,with 390 on my top loader 4?

 

I have no idea about drag racing, but for the street I use a Richmond Gear 5-speed (Doug Nash) with a Lakewood scattershield. Off the shelf items. Tranny is supposed to be good for 600Hp.

 

AFAIK, there is no "overdrive kit". The overdrive refered to in the previous Clark post by Dino is the Gearvendors OD:

Gear Vendors under/overdrive auxiliary transmissions, Ford 2-Wheel Drive 4, 5 and 6 Speed Manual Transmissions.

It can be bolted to the trans, as shown in this link for the toploader, or can be remote located, as explained elsewhere on their site. $3000 or so, so you might save some gas, but it's hard to save money this way.