37 Ford build--IE: old Header issues thread /37 Ford/5.0/GT40P heads

[34_40]

Ok fellas, I made a decision.....I'm going with the T5. In fact I bought one this week. It's freshly rebuilt by a reputable shop (have receipt), came with brand new clutch, new pressure plate, new flywheel and new Hurst billet short throw shifter, plus throwout bearing & pilot beariing. It was a package deal from a guy who put it together for his V8 Pinto but he sold the car before he got this installed. All I need are the pedals and a slave cylinder. I posted my C4 on Craigslist & and sold it in an hour. A guy is coming to buy my Lokar C4 shifter in the morning so it's been pretty smooth transistioning so far. Of course, I don't have it installed in the car yet either....LOL!

It'll be a little extra work but I'm excited about it. Dave, as for driving a stick in LA traffic, I'm used to it...my daily driver Mazda pickup is a stick. As long as it's an easy clutch, I don't mind.

That's Great! Sounds like a heckuvadeal too! Isn't it funny how a "deal" motivates us? I never planned on a 34 3 window. Then a chassis became available & the rest is history,LOL. While you won't need it, Good Luck with the swap! Keep us up to date when possible.

[bluestang67]

Yep Randy post up some pics when you get them . The more I see of a 37 the more familiar I will get . Carnut says there where over 800K of the 37s made but you sure don't see many build threads on them .

Also you can shrink the tunnel since your choice of a T5 to gain some pedal room .

[randyr]

Yep Randy post up some pics when you get them . The more I see of a 37 the more familiar I will get . Carnut says there where over 800K of the 37s made but you sure don't see many build threads on them .

Also you can shrink the tunnel since your choice of a T5 to gain some pedal room .

Hey Bobby, after a trip to the salvage yard I learned that pedals are bent into all kinds of configurations to make them work. I hate to start hacking up my new floorboards. I think I can just bend the brake pedal around the steering column a bit and get the clearance I need.

Does your chassis still have the original x-member in it? Has the center section been modified yet? If you use something like the Chassis Engineering C4 trans mount kit, the top hat section is going to be right about where the T5 shifter needs to be. I have to get the body lifted up before I can be completely sure about that. If I wanted to switch to the S-10 tailhousing, that would eliminate that problem but then I think the shifter might be too far forward for bucket seats unless I went with a really long shifter. That would sorta defeat the purpose of the "short throw" shifter I suppose. Ideally, I want to get this thing designed so I can drop the trans out the bottom if necessary.

Are you doing anything on yours?

[randyr]

Hey guys, I'm making some progress on my transmission switch. I've made some initial mods to the Chassis Engineering x-member kit so I could fit the trans into the car. I'm now working on the clutch pedal. After a lot of google searches, I've decided to keep the brake/clutch under the floor instead of putting a Kugel assembly under the dash. It will be a lot less work to make the transition since I had already installed a pedal & power booster for the C4 trans.
One of my google searches led me to Jason Slover at Pete & Jakes streetrods. They have recently developed a clutch/brake pedal assembly to attach to the original x-member on 35-40 Fords. This could have been a bolt in fix for me except my big-block firewall presented some issues with pedal placement. I need the pedals to straddle the x-member as you'll see in my rough mock up pics. Jason totally went the extra mile to pull their 37 frame out of storage, bolt up their peddle assembly and take a bunch of pictures for me so we could detemine how to make this work for me. Ultimately we decided I should modify the bracket I have. He's sending me a couple of new pedals, a shaft and a clutch cable. I think it will be fairly simple as soon as I get the parts. I can't say enough good things about Jason's willingness to help figure this out! I've never done business with Pete & Jakes before but gotta say I'm thoroughly impressed with this experience! Check out these pedals if you're using original x-member http://www.peteandjakes.com/blog/index.html

So here are some pics of my rough mock up so far.....

Dave, I haven't heard from you in a while....you ok?

Later, guys...

[IC2]

Hi Randy,
Firstly, I've been kinda quiet here simply because we took some vacation time - 9 days, in Florida to warm up, though I did follow the forum on the hotel's lobby PC. Then, like every other air trip, my wife caught a mega bad cold/flu so I became a Mr Mom. Then there are the homeowner's usual winter inside projects, and me, being a tightwad, do everything myself!! I'm rearranging much of the basement incoming plumbing from the HW heater and main as all these pipes and the heat water pipes were all sitting tightly together and in a dropped ceiling and across a couple of partitions from an earlier owners lack of skills (brains?).

I still think you are creating a lot of work for yourself and need to make sure your clutch leg is ready for more use, I do like your progress. My preference is for a manual too, but in a '31 chassis - probably not easily accomplished

P&J are one of the premier places you can do business. A friend bought his '32 chassis and body through them and has had a very good experience. Any problems and they were overnight corrected or advice given. His chassis arrived with a bent 9" housing - P&J had it picked up, returned to their vendor and a replacement sent, all within a week.

As far as my car - it's still in the garage - and covered, waiting for a few 40* days that can be warmed (it's ~17* now with a 25+mph wind) which means my shop is maybe 32*(at the thermometer, not the floor)

[randyr]

I still think you are creating a lot of work for yourself and need to make sure your clutch leg is ready for more use, I do like your progress. My preference is for a manual too, but in a '31 chassis - probably not easily accomplished

P&J are one of the premier places you can do business. A friend bought his '32 chassis and body through them and has had a very good experience. Any problems and they were overnight corrected or advice given. His chassis arrived with a bent 9" housing - P&J had it picked up, returned to their vendor and a replacement sent, all within a week.

As far as my car - it's still in the garage - and covered, waiting for a few 40* days that can be warmed (it's ~17* now with a 25+mph wind) which means my shop is maybe 32*(at the thermometer, not the floor)

Hey Dave, good to hear from you! You're right, this is a little extra work but switching to an AOD was going to be extra work too. Even if I kept the C4, I was going to have to rework the brake pedal because my cutting & bending it was trial & error gone bad. It worked but looked like crap! LOL!

Expense wise, I think it's going to be a wash. I sold the C4 for a decent price and bought the T5, clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, TO bearing (all new or rebuilt) for a package price so the only extra expense has been the new pedals. If I had gone with the AOD I would still have similar modifications to the center x-member, extra parts to attach the TV cable to the holley carb, a high stall converter (recommended by my cam designer), changes to the shifter, etc. So the AOD could have easily been a lot more expensive.

I carefully considered the clutch vs auto before making the decision by observing how I feel about drivng my 5speed Mazda truck around LA. Sure, in bumper to bumper 2mph traffic on the freeway, it can be a bit of a pain but at that point an automatic is a pain too! LOL! The clutch is easy to push and it's just habit so I don't think it will be a big deal at all. Plus the "fun factor" of having the stick should out weigh those perceived negatives.

I want to get these pedals bent into position with the body on the car so I can get it right then I can raise it up and proceed with the other stuff. It's fun figuring this stuff out. Now if I only had more time & money to get it done more quickly cause the real fun will be cranking it up and roaring down the street!
Here's a couple more pics of the engine in place with the new trans and the new shifter....
Hope you get some spring weather soon!!!!

[bluestang67]

Randy glad to see the progress . Have to check out P&J on this pedal assy myself . Email me a pick if you have one . I am still knocking out some on the mustang . Also trying to sell the 31 for the funds , to scared of pulling out personal funds in these times . This is where the 37 is stashed another reason the 31 has to go so I can get it in the garage . This is sad the ole car is arthritic LOL I can hear it moaning on a noisy night .