59 Plymouth auto trans to 50 Plymouth

[belvedere666]

I have access to a transmission from a 6 cylinder 1959 Plymouth Savoy.

im interested in hearing from anyone who’s adapted this to fit a 1950 Plymouth with a column shift three speed, or similar.

what kind of hurdles will i have to jump?

advantages/disadvantages?

I’m not super concerned with power loss.

its a low speed, around town cruiser anyway.

heres a few pics of the trans.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

If all you have is the transmission...and not access to the car for the linkage and such to support the install....finding or making these will be probably a bit of a challenge....as for the transmission...nuts and bolts.....but again...you need them nuts and bolts from the donor car.....majority of folks do not pull these parts for retrofit but for folks to swap model year for model year to repair a bad element....thus the lack of ancillary parts.

[belvedere666]

2 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

If all you have is the transmission...and not access to the car for the linkage and such to support the install....finding or making these will be probably a bit of a challenge....as for the transmission...nuts and bolts.....but again...you need them nuts and bolts from the donor car.....majority of folks do not pull these parts for retrofit but for folks to swap model year for model year to repair a bad element....thus the lack of ancillary parts.

The guy with the transmission only bought the motor/trans combo to use the motor.

its pretty much a boat anchor without the proper linkage and push button controls?

[Plymouthy Adams]

as he bought the combo..take a look see as he may have some of the stuff needed....

[kencombs]

A couple of control options.  Shouldn't be too hard to find a pushbutton setup.  56-64 would work.  I've done a couple of swaps using those trans, or the torqueflite cousins, into pickups years ago.  Harder to find but maybe an easier solution would be a 65 column shift cable control.  Only year with the cable controlled trans and column shift.  Lots of companies made after market shifters for the 3sp TF's, maybe one of those could be adapted.  I seem to recall the trans end of the TF and PF being near identical.

 

The Powerflite isn't a hot rod trans being two speed.  But it is fairly light weight and durable.  Only weak point I remember is the reverse band apply link.  The could be broken by misuse of reverse and accelerator.  But can be changed without pulling the trans.  Ask me about pulling stumps with my 354 hemi Ford PU and P/F.  That'll explain how I know about the link breakage.

[Loren]

The good news is if you have to change  steering columns you get much nicer looking shifter and turn signals. I would not adapt the push buttons, they are way out of place in a 1950, in my humble opinion. At the same time you might consider power steering. There's a Toyota unit the 1952-56 Ford F100 guys are using to good advantage.

[Andydodge]

Dunno if this info helps but I have the Oz 1961/62 318 Poly and cast iron push button torqueflite in my 40 Dodge and had a new shorter cable made(the original cable was way too long) so that I could use the late 60's Valiant console.....I used the shifter to work out the throws needed for shifting the cable thru the gears and made a quadrant for the shifter to move thru and the cable to fit into, then welded a lug onto the shifter for the inner cable to attach to and the shifter works the push button trans so anything is possible if you want it enough.........lol..........the shifter indicator is still the original valiant one so it shows the "P" which the trans doesn't have and confuses people but I can live with it...........so in theory it would be possible to adapt the cable to a column shifter assembly in some fashion but it would be a fiddly job..............andyd 

[1951plymouth]

The 59 Savoy had a cable control to push bottons on the dash.  There was no linkage rods on the 59 if this helps.

[Sniper]

You might talk to A&A transmissions, they do a bit of that for the later cable shifted Torqueflites and might have some insight.

[Andydodge]

Belvedere666.........couple of questions.........can you confirm that this is a 3 speed Torqueflite, it certainly looks like one......lol........next.....did you get any of the kickdown linkage?.......I can see you got the shifter cable.........I originally used the stock 4-5 foot long cable when I had the stock shift button assembly that I mounted under the dash in a small box I made but when I installed the bucket seats and console I was able to get the cable remade by a local business that specialised in making various cables etc.......I had one made about 2-3 foot long with the stock style ends........anyway did you get any of the stock kickdown linkage?...........it clamps onto the 1/4 - 5/16th diameter shaft that sticks straight up near where the control cable enters the gearbox.......andyd 

[dpollo]

if your 50 still has the 218 it has a 4 bolt crankshaft flange.  The powerflite has 8.   pretty much end of story.  You would be better to look up companies that make adaptors for the later aluminum torqueflite or a GM 350.  also, have you considered how you are going to support the back of the engine.?  The transmission you are considering, and the two I mentioned all have a single rear mount .   It is too much of a stretch to go from the 50's front mount all the way to the back of the trans and with no widely spaced mounts to handle the torque.