Toploader To T5 Installation Issues

[Paul Greilich]

My friend has a 66 Mustang with a six cylinder 200 and toploader 4 speed. He purchased another Ford 200 with some kind of hot rod package on it called "Clifford 6=8". Anyway, it came with the motor, bell housing, adapter plate and T5 transmission and yolk all connected. We pulled the old one out which was all working the motor smoked and the tranny gears stuck at various times.

The guy he bought it from said that it would drop right in. Said he had it in a vintage mustang. We encountered a few problems trying to install this combo.

1. It does not line up. When the motor mounts are resting on the mounting brackets connected to the frame, the transmission does not connect to the aftermarket cross-member that is suppose to work for this application. The shifter/trans is pushed hard to the passenger side. We forced the trans over to connect it to the cross-member but that put a lot of pressure on everything and the shift was pushed hard against the floor toward the passenger side.

We decided to try it another way and lifted the motor mounts out of the mounting brackets so it could move left to right. That allowed us to move the transmission over and connect it to the cross-member. But when we lowered the motor down into the brackets, the passenger side motor mount would not drop back down into the bracket all the way. In fact, it is probably 1.0 to 1.5 inch to high.

What in the world is going hear? What are we missing? The motor and transmission must be fully align and I have a hard time believing that the frame could be bent enough to have this problem given the one we just pulled out had not issues? We were told this should drop right in but maybe a T5 conversion is more complicated? We were not able to connect the drive shaft at any point to see if the drive train was aligned at any point as a result of the next issue.

2. The yoke that fits into the T5 will not attach to the drive shaft in the car. Does this require another drive shaft or do I just need some kind of conversion kit?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

 

[woodsnake]

There is a lot going on here, and I have never owned a mustang with a 6. However, I have done the T5 swap, so I have some small input. Now, a few obvious questions. Have you got any pictures of these pieces? The seller "said", but he may not remember exactly. I do know that some Ford 6 cylinder engines are taller than others. The U-joints are often a problem when doing the swap, that can be fixed at a drive shaft shop. I'm not sure about the engine upgrades, but I know Clifford's is famous for 6 cylinder performance parts.

 

[Paul Greilich]

No pictures of the real problem. After speaking with another mechanic friend of mine, learned that since the 4 speed toploader shifter is on the passenger side, the way it comes up through the floor might be different than the T5. Here a pic from the internet of a toploader.

At this point, it seems like I'm going to need to modify my motor mounts to make it work.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

It sounds like you might have the wrong crossmember for the car. They are apparently different between '65-66 and '67-70 generations.

Modern Driveline has some info that might help.
http://www.moderndriveline.com/Tech..._Housing-Flywheel-Starter-Clutch_Match-up.htm

The U-joints are often a problem when doing the swap, that can be fixed at a drive shaft shop.

If you're talking about the sizes, then getting combination u-joints is a lot easier and cheaper than getting a driveshaft modified. I have 1310/1330 combination joints in both of my cars.