I own a 1963 Ford Falcon convertible that is very nice condition. It is from Virginia and is solid. My question is would it be expensive to change out the original 2 speed fordomatic auto transmission to a 4 speed. It has the 170 cu. in. 6 cylinder engine. I really like the car an plan on keeping it due to its nice condtion but would prefer tht floor mounted 4 speed transmission.. Please advise if this is feasible . . .thanks

Hi,

You have probably already taken care of this and/or given up on doing it, but I'm going to reply anyway for the sake of anyone else that attempts to do this on any car.

On cars that have automatic transmissions the Torque Converter is bolted directly to the Flywheel which in turn in bolted to the end of the engine's crankshaft. The input shaft of the transmission is located inside of the Torque converter and never actually touches the engine's crankshaft (this is important, more in a moment). Flywheels on these engines are thin-ish sheet metal with the ring gear around the edge for the starter to mate with.

On cars that have manual transmissions all of the clutch parts are bolted to the flywheel which is bolted to the crankshaft, the flywheels are very thick in comparison to automatic transmission flywheels, they also have the starter gear around the edge. The input shaft goes through all the clutch parts and is machined to fit into a bearing that fits into a drilled out hole in the end of the crankshaft (this is what is important).

So, if you try to mate a manual transmission with an engine that was setup for an automatic transmission the input shaft will bump up against a flat piece of steel and nothing will bolt together. If you want to do this you will need to have the crankshaft machined and have a pilot bearing installed, it may be easier and cheaper to find an engine and manual transmission that are already mated together.

If you decide to do this anyway do not rely on word of month from friends, etc. that engine A will bolt onto transmission B, sometimes weird things happen from year to year and the tranny that year used six bolts instead of five the previous year to bolt it to the engine, ask a transmission shop what you plan on doing they can tell you if it is possible or not.