a 53 motor in a 41 truck

[crockette1]

A friend is installing a 53 flathead in a 41 Ford truck, or should I say trying to. He is having a problem installing a transmission. He tried to install the original 41 transmission in an attempt to keep the closed drive line. It appears the 41 transmission will not bolt up to the 53 bell housing. Furthermore, it looks like the clutch release is in the bell hosing on the 53 and on the transmission on the 41.
Should he abandon the closed drive train, modify the read end springs, go to an open drive shaft, and install a 53 transmission? Or is there a way to marry the 41 transmission to the 53 flathead?

[tubman]

He needs a '49-early '51 Mercury half bell or one from a '48-'52 pickup, along with a matching starter plate. This will allow the transmission to attached to the engine. A set of late model truck water pumps will be required for the front motor mounts.There are several other details to be taken care of, but everything has been documented on this forum many times. The "Search" function is your friend.

[19Fordy]

crockette1: Read all the info in this Google search.
https://www.google.com/search?ei=z-w...T4hBdMQ4dUDCAs

When I installed my 8BA in my 40 Ford coupe using the stock 1940 Ford transmission (enclosed drive shaft) I used a 1949-51 Mercury stamped steel bell housing with matching starter plate, and 10 Mercury pressure plate and clutch. Merc flywheel and the 40 Ford throw out bearing and early Ford pick up water pumps. He can do the same with his 41 transmission. There is also a cast bell housing and starter plate for the 11 inch clutch that will work with the 10 in. clutch.

Oh, be sure to read ALL of this including the links: VERY HELPFUL TECH INFO.
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...0+merc+36+ford

[51504bat]

I've installed several 8ba's in 1939 and 1940 trucks. I'm currently running one in my '39 p/u. Simple install with either the stamped steel Merc 1/2 bell or the cast iron truck 1/2 bell. One thing to remember is that you must use the truck cast iron 1/2 bell if you are going to use an 11 inch clutch. Truck pumps are wide belt so if you have a car engine you'll either have to convert to wide belts or run hard to find and not reproduced Merc narrow belt pumps. The Merc pumps have a different mounting pad height so you'll need to use the Merc U shaped spacers between the pump mounting surface and the rubber motor mount so everything will line up.

[19Fordy]

The Ford pickup cast bellhousing that will work looks like this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Flathe...sAAOSwn~td3SIl

[19Fordy]

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crockette1: Be sure to peruse this info:
https://www.google.com/search?q=inst...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Also, when I installed a 53 8BA in my 40 Ford car I needed to use a rear sump oil pan.
I used the 49-51 Merc oil pan. However, I think the Ford pick up rear sump oil pan will also work. Do your homework.

[crockette1]

Thanks for all the help!

[tubman]

One last tip : Don't buy a bellhousing without the matching starter plate; they are much harder to find.

[V8COOPMAN]

Here's a FordBarn guy that has one in the Swap Meet ads right now! Click the link below!! DD


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275054

[rotorwrench]

Bell housings and oil pans are inter related on the 8BA family. Merc pan with Merc half bell (1949 thru early 51) and 8RT pan with 8RT cast iron half bell plus the starter plates as was mentioned. The 8RT truck set up has an extra aluminum seal piece that installs between the half bell and the pan.

The 1953 F100/truck bell is a monster and doesn't fit anything else well. The 53 car bell only fits the later 4-bolt Borg Warner transmission pattern and it uses a fulcrum arm for the clutch instead of the rotator type fork for the earlier throw out.

[19Fordy]

Like I said previously, when mating the 1940 Ford to the 8BA and 1949-53 Merc block the full 1949-50 stamped steel Merc bell housing with matching starter plate is needed. Early 51 Mercs also had the stamped steel bell housing. The half bell housings were begun in later 1951.

The Merc stamped steel bell housing looks like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-1953-F...sAAOSwc5JdqPeC
The matching starter plate looks like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-50-51-...QAAOSwM4heDfzj

[rotorwrench]

The late 1951 Mercury with the T-259 type transmission has a full cast iron bell housing with the removable cover on the bottom but it was the only one to still use the rotating fork type throw out control. The earlier ones had half the bell on the transmission housing like the early Fords had and the half bell stamped steel clutch housing.

In 1952 Ford & Mercury finally started using the same cast iron full bell housing but the Mercury still used a Borg & Beck clutch. The 49 thru early 51 Mercury transmission will bolt right up to a 59A and even has the right spline for the Long style 10-inch clutch. The only problem is that it won't fit an early or a late 1/2-ton 1941 pickup frame very well.