timkingsbury

Well I am sorry to hear of all your work and efforts only to have them not work out. While I am far from a fan of the t5 transmission conversion I do know those who made it work for them and were happy with the end results. Lol or at least they were not prepared to admit that it wasn't the best idea. We are all often guilty of doing something and then believing it is the only possible answer to a problem or that others are crazy to do anything else. I too can be guilty of that I am sure. As by Grandfather used to say there is a reason they make Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry IceCream. If you then pushed and said, so are you saying Chevy's are great car, you might be surprised by his response. It was one that my Dad often gave - "I love Chevy's and I am glad people buy them, because if they didn't I could not have made a great living beating them and fixing them!". I will send you a detailed email to you with a chart of all of the T5 transmissions, covering the gear splits and overdrives available. For the blog, I will say if I already went to all the work you have, so it is really the splits and lack of a decent overdrive ratio, you may wish to consider finding a better suited t5. There are definitely t5's with much better overdrive ratios, and there are some with slightly better gear ratio splits. The t5 was designed for engines with way less torque than a flathead mopar, and in many cases engines with far less horsepower. So it is a compromise. That being said, everything other than the mopar overdrive which was designed for the vehicle, is going to be. With a $1k budget, unless you find a 52-56 Plymouth overdrive in a scrap yard and can get it out with the wiring, kick down switch, relay etc cheap, your going to have a hard time getting into that snack bracket. With all the work you have already completed. Here are some examples: TAG # VEHICLE APPLICATION REV 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 1352-065 Ford 1984 Mustang/Capri 5.0 V8 2.76 2.95 1.94 1.34 1.00 0.63 1352-035 AMC 1983 Jeep CJ 2.1 L4 Diesel 2.2 2.76 2.95 1.94 1.34 1.00 0.73 That is not a definitive list, that I will send to you. I also want to say I am no expert on these transmissions, so you will need to do some research to see if they can be a direct replacement for the one you pulled out. But for example the Jeep (aka soon to be a Mopar) has a 2.95 1st, and a .73 5th so that may achieve . Your stock transmission has a 1st of 2.57, 2nd of 1.83 3rd of 1.0 and reverse of 3.48 Sorry if I am sounding like the t5 transmission conversion fan here, because I am definitely not that, but when you have already put all the time, effort and money into a conversion the cheapest solution may just be to find a better t5 to suit your application. Now on to your other part of your post and what is really what you were looking for from me; another option. So once upon a time I would have went down the road of a floor shift. The trucks I love and learned to drive in, the car I drive every day, and even the 1st car I purchased were all floor shift models. That means I am predisposed to floor shift. I have a 1948 Plymouth Club Coupe as well as a 1949 Plymouth Business Coupe and if it was 30 years ago I would guarantee I would only be interested in a floor shift. lol but today, my 49 is still a column shift and I could have made it a floor shift. Even with the 1952-56 r10 in it, I have a shifter my Dad made/modified to allow for the R10 to be a floor shift. I just didn't want to loose the "floor real estate" that the floor shift took up. That being said, I know many still want a floor shift and while its not clear if that was in your motivation, my next solution would be floor shift. Also likely not surprising it is not a Chevy or T5 solution. My suggestion would be to use a 1975-85 Mopar (aluminum case) A833 4speed transmission. It has gear splits of 1st: 3.09:1, 2nd: 1.67:1 3rd: 1:1 4th: 0.73:1 (Trucks used a 0.71:1 fourth) The high level of doing the conversion is this. You will need an adapter plate and screws to connect the A833 4 speed to your stock bell housing. You will not need to grind and modify your bell housing. You will need to change your clutch to fine spline although everything else works, even the pilot bushing is the same. On the back of the transmission you will need to change the yoke of the tranny and modify the drive shaft to accommodate the modern yoke. Or you can change the rear end to a more modern rear end which would give you bigger brakes and an easier solution for the parking brake. As I know you will have had to deal with when your did the t5 conversion, when you loose your original Plymouth 3 speed, you loose your brake drum on the back of the transmission for the parking brake. There is the Coles Note version of an A833 4 speed with overdrive conversion. Depending on the model of Plymouth and year, you may need to modify the shifter leaver coming up through the floor. We have already assisted in one project that put the A833 into a 1937 Plymouth. Yes, that car has the X-Frame with the loop and yes he was able to deal with that added challenge. He had to modify the shifter so it bent left (towards the passenger side) and then again forward (toward the fire wall) so it came up the original floor shift position in the 1937. But it fit in perfectly and to quote him - "it shifts like a dream". Keep in mind the A833 4 speed I am referring to is the aluminum cased model that came out with overdrive in 1975 and not the earlier Cast Iron model that is highly sought after by the Mopar Big Block folks. That earlier transmission would give you the floor shift, but is 1.1 in 4th, so you get no overdrive. I will do a blog at some point on a "A833 4speed with overdrive Primer" but for now, if you or anyone else is interested you can always send me a not and we will be happy to help. Tim

I just added another great picture of the Rare Canadian 25 1/2" Big Block - " Dual-Power" intake with Carbs courtesy of http://p15-d24.com/u...4-scotia-steve/ He currently has the complete setup for sale in the classified section of the forum http://p15-d24.com/classifieds/item/858-ellis-intake/ With a number of different carb variations used on these intakes I contacted Steve to get pictures for the blog and thanks Steve for sending in some great pics. Tim

Lol.. I hadn't thought about the home made or lesser known intake blog. I have seen dozen and dozens of them. I am not sure I have taken a lot of pictures of them, but if you have any or if guys have any, and maybe some stories behind them, I will definitely put them up in a blog. On the AoK intakes, well I have really covered them elsewhere on the blog under the new development of the new AoK dual carb intake for the 23 1/2" Plymouth and Dodge motor. Here are those entries.. maybe I will do an AoK blog later in the year when we have the dual out on the street. Tim http://p15-d24.com/blog/17/entry-75-jan-8-update-aok-new-dual-carb-intake-for-the-usa-flathead-6/ http://p15-d24.com/blog/17/entry-63-dec-20th-update-to-aok-announcement-on-a-new-dual-carb-intake-for-the-usa-flathead-6/ http://p15-d24.com/blog/17/entry-60-aok-announcement-on-a-new-dual-carb-intake-for-the-usa-flathead-6/

well for the flathead ford your dealing with a much different head chamber that a flathead mopar. In fact some of the aftermarket flathead ford heads changed the head chambers. So yes you can use a piston which elevates above the block deck. The traditional "dome" pistons don't work, as you need more of a side dome, which yes I know you can have made. Ive seen many use chevy pistons and put part of the piston that would hit the head and that can be successful. You will also find in both the usa small block and the Canadian big block that there are different heads right from the factory which had higher compression to them. That is also a great and inexpensive method, verses the new piston route. Still tough to beat the significant gain in compression by shaving the head which is fairly inexpensive way to gain power. Tim

If I were you, I would talk to my Daughter as you never know what she might think. And what if she has your grandson .. maybe he would love to have Grandpa's car !

yes, 1939 is a year on to its own so you could have the top load or floor shift and you could have column shift which was done with a cable. It is the only year tranny I know of that you can do that. Not in trucks, but in Chryslers /Desotos 1939 also saw Overdrive and the first use of the solenoid so it would electrically kick it out of overdrive. Prior to that you have to go down to about 25-35 mph to get it out of overdrive