Bell Housings For Manual Transmission

woodsnake

15 Year Member

Jan 16, 2007

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Hicksville, NY

Sep 11, 2012

#1

• Sep 11, 2012

• #1

I'm getting ready to rebuild my 351W, and do a T5 transmission swap.
I have an early bell, as well as the T5 bell. Is there a material difference between the early bell housings? Do I need to try and find a 351W specific one?
On the one hand, I'm pretty sure any V8 car application would work, but on the other hand, I want to get as good a set up as possible, and minimize the "cobbled together" aspect of doing this...

 

horse sence

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Sep 11, 2012

#2

• Sep 11, 2012

• #2

actualy the 4 speed bell housing will not work without an addapter, i got mine from national parts, the t5 housing will work .there is a kit to convert the fulcrum over to the early through out arm

 

rbohm

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Apr 12, 2002

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tucson,az

Sep 11, 2012

#3

• Sep 11, 2012

• #3

horse sence hit it. do yourself a favor and find a 5.0 T5 bell housing. they interchange as all small block 6 bolt bells do.

 

woodsnake

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Sep 12, 2012

#4

• Sep 12, 2012

• #4

Does the T5 allow for a large, 11 inch clutch set up? Like I said, I can go either way, I just want to make sure and get the BEST set up, out of all the stuff I have.

 

Hack

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Mar 23, 2004

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Sep 12, 2012

#5

• Sep 12, 2012

• #5

woodsnake said:

Does the T5 allow for a large, 11 inch clutch set up? Like I said, I can go either way, I just want to make sure and get the BEST set up, out of all the stuff I have.

Click to expand...

Yes you can put an 11 inch clutch into a T5 bell. The Fox Mustangs started with 10.5 and then went to 11 inch. The flywheel is 157 tooth. Fox flywheels were 50 oz imbalance and you want a 28 oz for an early 351W, so you can't use a stock Fox flywheel.

 

woodsnake

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Sep 13, 2012

#6

• Sep 13, 2012

• #6

Is there any way to identify a flywheel by weight? Or, if you have two unknown fly wheels side by side, how do you identify them?

 

horse sence

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Sep 13, 2012

#7

• Sep 13, 2012

• #7

i would look at the casting #.prefix #of -C9 would be 1969 #Do would be 1970
not sure exactly what year the weight change is ,but i would assume C9zz -D9 should work. should be cast near the counter weight. any thing with a zz in the casting is usualy mustang

 

pocketlint

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Jul 29, 2012

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Georgia

Sep 15, 2012

#8

• Sep 15, 2012

• #8

It's really obvious the difference between a 50oz and a 280z. Here's a pic of two I had in the garage.

The left one came out of an 87 Fox 302. Its a 50 oz. The right one is a flexplate that came off an 84 Bronco 351w. It's a 28 oz. The difference in the balance weight is pretty substantial.

Also, the T5 I got had a 10.5" Centerforce II clutch in it. So I know at least that will fit.

 

woodsnake

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Sep 15, 2012

#9

• Sep 15, 2012

• #9

Flex plate, like for an auto trans?

 

horse sence

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#10

• Sep 15, 2012

• #10

here are a couple of pics. of were the part # is located. this is a 65 fly wheel, as you as you can see by the C5 at the start of the part #. the 351 fly wheel is larger than the early wheels. they can have either the 10 1/2 inch pattern or 11 inch pattern so watch for that. some have both but are only threaded in one set of holes.

 

pocketlint

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Jul 29, 2012

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Georgia

Sep 15, 2012

#11

• Sep 15, 2012

• #11

woodsnake said:

Flex plate, like for an auto trans?

Click to expand...

Yeah it's what was easy to access. Still shows the difference in the weight. And that's what I was going for. If you want a better comparison, compare horse sense's pic of a 28 oz to the 50 oz on the left of my picture.

 

Hack

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Sep 16, 2012

#12

• Sep 16, 2012

• #12

I could swear that the early Ford flywheels had more teeth than those from the 80s. I'm not sure whether an early flywheel will work with an early starter in a T5 bell and I'm pretty sure you can't use a newer starter with the old 164 tooth flywheel. That's why I specifically said 157 tooth. Then you can get a mid 90s gear reduction starter as well. Way nicer than the old crap starters Ford used prior to that. The car starts much easier with the faster starter. That's the way I would do it, anyway. I've put together a few cars with the newer gear reduction starters and I won't settle for the older style anymore. I don't think Ford ever used the 157 tooth flywheel with 28 oz balance in a car so it needs to be an aftermarket part. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here. It's been years since I did the research on this and maybe I'm miss-remembering.

 

horse sence

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#13

• Sep 16, 2012

• #13

you could be right. the t 5 in my 35 truck is behind a 68 302 4v and i used an addapter
plate with the old bell housing. i do know from my 351 that i just built. the 4 speed starter is different than the early 4 speed starters. the early starter will not work with the larger 351 fly wheel and the 351 fly wheel will eat the end off the older starter.