Decision time!

This week the clutch fork bent on the Falcon. The clutch now completely disengages about 1/4" below the floor board. I have exactly Saturday day to fix it and the growling throwout bearing so if the old 2.77 trans is coming out it sure as hell ain't going back in.

The options

A Ford T170FS single rail overdrive 4 speed out of a F100. foreground of the pic. The positives are that it should slide into place requiring only a hole in the floor for the shifter to poke through. Negatives? Not the greatest of ratios. Not known to be a very good transmission

In the back is a WC T-5 out of a 2.3 Mustang bolted to a small six bellhousing via a CPC adapter plate. The positives here are.... Well it is a T-5. A pretty modern box with a strong aftermarket if anything goes wrong. The negatives are it will require cutting away a major structural member and then somehow reinforcing that area. It will require a much larger hole in the floor for the shift box to poke through and a custom rear mount. Probably a good deal of tunnel massaging with a hammer for clearance around the larger case and oh yeah I will have to shorten the driveshaft too.

I might be selling this car in a month or two. From what it seems the kind of people who are interested in this type of vehicle would prefer an automatic anyway, so I doubt a modern 5 speed would add to the appeal or sale price over the 4. But then again I might not sell it and then.....

I only want to cut one hole in the floor and brand new carpet so going 4 and then upgrading later isn't in the cards.

Don't want to mess that up with ugly hacked holes

The current ratios of the 2.77

3.29, 1.75, 1.00

The SROD

3.25, 1.92, 1.00, 0.78

The T5

3.97, 2.34, 1.46, 1.00, 0.79

I probably would't notice any difference in the SROD. It would just be like the old trans but with an OD 4th. That could be good OR bad

The T5 could feel really short for one and two..... or it could give the car some much needed pep.

Obviously I really want to do the five speed but I don't know if I could do it in just one day solo.

I will be punishing myself over this decision all night.

Car's gone in a couple months? SROD. I know nothing of the trans but it sounds like basically as drop-in as it gets and the ratios don't look bad when compared to the 2.77 (interesting name for a trans, Ford was always so creative...).

if the car is gone soon.. why not be a total blasphemer and convert to an auto?

4 speed and sell it. You have cooler cars to worry about.

mad_machine wrote: if the car is gone soon.. why not be a total blasphemer and convert to an auto?

Eewww.

And I am not going to buy yet another transmission for this thing.

Agreed. Put in the four speed.

And sell it to me in a few months.

Once the 2.77 was out it was apparent that it would require all the same work as the t5. If I had the 3.03 3 speed the four would have dropped right in.

So there is a T5 in the car now. Almost complete. Sundays plans have been cancelled aand I will finish it up in the morning.

more here

Very nice.