New baby 1953 Merc

[rotorwrench]

When I went looking for replacement fluids and lubricants for my 1956 Ford 850 tractor some years ago, I ran in to the same thing. Lots of difference from on person to the other. I've been doing my own research ever since.

Any fluid or lubricant is better than none at all. The days of the old whale oil ATF, GL-3 gear lube, and easily sourced single viscosity motor oils are long gone.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by bigd1101

LOL! I ran into this same confusion on the Model A here on all kinds of subjects. I always take advice with a grain of salt anyway. I take a "poll" from you all and which ever product/repair/maintenance subject gets the most thumbs up, I usually go with that.

This subject......I'm going with the Dex/Merc stuff, draining the tranny/torque converter, putting in the new stuff, driving away into the sunset.

BTW, the 80 year old former owner said the tranny "was gone over entirely" and by the looks of the car, I believe him.

Don

I will be interested to know, if you notice any difference, in shifting and performance, after changing the fluid.

[Merc Cruzer]

When did they start putting filters in transmissions? The Merc-O-Matic, doesn't have a filter in the transmission.

[KULTULZ]

Originally Posted by Merc Cruzer

When did they start putting filters in transmissions? The Merc-O-Matic, doesn't have a filter in the transmission.

You mean your MERC-O-MATIC doesn't have one?

B9MP on the below chart is for a mid-case.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


NOTE (Fr. for NOT) -

Incorrect entry- B9MP is for the 1955/ mid-case.

B9AP 7A098-B Is for the 1951/59 F/M (3S)

(Above shown in ILL below - 1949-1959 FORD PASS CAR MPC - Also used in 55/57 BIRD and FORD HP)

BASIC PN 7A098 replaces earlier BASIC PN 77488 used in the earlier MERC and LINC Chassis Catalogs.

... whew ...

Glad I finally figured all that out. I need a beer.

[rotorwrench]

They are a cleanable screen, they didn't have replaceable filters like they do in the more modern era. If a lot of metal gets generated due to a clutch or bearing failure then they get all kinds of crap past the screen and into the system. Cleaning all that out of a valve body is not an easy task.

[KULTULZ]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

You don't clean them, you replace them. No way to get all the crud out.

Shown below -

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by KULTULZ

You mean your MERC-O-MATIC doesn't have one?

B9MP on the below chart is for a mid-case,

Thank you, I wasn't coming up with a number for the filter only the gasket. They are still available on e-bay, as a kit with "O" rings the pan gasket.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15437105901...733b00e67b8533

[KULTULZ]

Originally Posted by Merc Cruzer

I wasn't coming up with a number for the filter only the gasket. They are still available on e-bay, as a kit with "O" rings the pan gasket.

Exactly what model year is your MERC?

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by kultulz

exactly what model year is your merc?

1953 - Her birthday was, Wednesday, August 26, she was the 149th car for that day, in LA, California.

[KULTULZ]

Originally Posted by Merc Cruzer

1953 - Her birthday was, Wednesday, August 26, she was the 149th car for that day, in LA, California.

THANX for that. I guess what I really need to know is if the power-train is original? Is it a flatty and AT?

For some reason I had 56 MERC caught in my mind. Don't order the filter kit yet.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by KULTULZ

THANX for that. I guess what I really need to know is if the power-train is original? Is it a flatty and AT?

For some reason I had 56 MERC caught in my mind. Don't order the filter kit yet.

Completely original Flathead and Merc-O-Matic.

I will wait to hear back from you, before I order the kit.

Thanks

[rotorwrench]

Lycoming engines have come with oil screens for years. Clean them every 25-hours & no problems. Replace if you want but it's not absolutely necessary as long as a person knows how to clean them. What ever gets through a screen will come back out.

[KULTULZ]

Originally Posted by Merc Cruzer

Completely original Flathead and Merc-O-Matic.

OK, I got nervous and jerky thinking you went to a later drive-train. Old Man Jitters.

Any-who, the actual mid-case was not introduced until the 1955 model run. The trans MERC used before was the small case but was named the MERC-O-MATIC for their advertising reasons.

The ad you showed threw me also as it says 1952-53 and 56. I see where a small case may have been used in some 56 MERC's. Let's just hope the kit it is quality.

I was never really interested in anything much before 1957 so bear with me.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by KULTULZ

OK, I got nervous and jerky thinking you went to a later drive-train. Old Man Jitters.

Any-who, the actual mid-case was not introduced until the 1955 model run. The trans MERC used before was the small case but was named the MERC-O-MATIC for their advertising reasons.

The ad you showed threw me also as it says 1952-53 and 56. I see where a small case may have been used in some 56 MERC's. Let's just hope the kit it is quality.

I was never really interested in anything much before 1957 so bear with me.

Thanks for the update.

Now I remember why I was having an issue with the screen filter. The book assigns it a number (77488) but when to go to look up the number, it doesn't exist, it jumps right over the number. I have had that issue with other parts too.

[KULTULZ]

LINC-MERC used basically the same PN SYSTEM during this period as FORD. Some BASIC PN's were the same as FORD, some were unique to the LM car lines. FORD began the P&A SYSTEM in 1959 and LM was brought into FORD after the demise of the EDSEL (1960) (MEL).

You will not find any references to that cataloging today as everything was superseded or changed.

Early Case MERC-O-MATIC Filter/Screen - 1P 77748-A

You will find BPN 77748 later in sequence as it is a five character BASIC PN (the 5th character being an expansion number) in the MERC-O-MATIC AT section. I doubt you would find a NOS and everything now is outside vendor

[rotorwrench]

Kultulz knows his Ford part numbers. I'm pretty sure the small case air cooled transmission was used up until early in 1959 for certain light duty applications while many of them were changed over to radiator cooling in 1956. The superseded number is dropped from the parts line if a new numbered part shows up.

Some of the numbers were Borg Warner numbers too so that can cloud the issue some. Fatsco and likely several other suppliers have the screens but I don't know what their part number may be.

The latest OEM part number I could find is B9AP7A098B but there a more in the aftermarket range that don't resemble any of the old OEM numbers.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

Kultulz knows his Ford part numbers. I'm pretty sure the small case air cooled transmission was used up until early in 1959 for certain light duty applications while many of them were changed over to radiator cooling in 1956. The superseded number is dropped from the parts line if a new numbered part shows up.

Some of the numbers were Borg Warner numbers too so that can cloud the issue some. Fatsco and likely several other suppliers have the screens but I don't know what their part number may be.

The latest OEM part number I could find is B9AP7A098B but there a more in the aftermarket range that don't resemble any of the old OEM numbers.

Thank you for the additional information.

[KULTULZ]

FORD-O-MATIC HISTORY - 1951-55 and 1955/

In 1948, Ford realized it was late in introducing a fully automatic transmission to its automobile lineup. Ford initially approached Studebaker to purchase rights to use the DG-series automatic developed by the Detroit Gear division of Borg-Warner. The Studebaker board of directors was agreeable, but stipulated that Studebaker would have one year exclusive use of the design before Ford could use it. Since the DG was available in Studebaker cars in mid-1950, this meant that Ford would have to wait until mid-1951 to introduce an automatic.

The wait was unacceptable, so Ford went a different direction. Ford Engineering Vice President Harold Youngren, recently hired away from Borg-Warner, recommended that Ford license and build a transmission using a design he was working on at his previous employer.

Ford and the Warner Gear division of Borg-Warner signed a contract in 1948 which entered B-W into a supply agreement wherein they would build half of Ford's transmissions for five years, with the other half either being built by Ford or by a different supplier. Because of this agreement, Ford licensed the design themselves and broke ground immediately on an assembly plant to build the remaining transmissions. The new plant, called Fairfax Transmission Plant, was dedicated in 1950.

The original Ford-O-Matic accomplished two things that Ford's two previous automatic transmissions failed to do. Through the use of an integrated torque converter and planetary gearset, Ford's automatic shifted smoothly without an interruption in torque from the engine. The other was the shifting pattern, revised from PNDLR to PRNDL, which served to reduce "shift shock" when changing gears and reduce "torque shock" when trying to rock a stuck car back and forth.

The original Ford-O-Matic, while capable of three forward speeds, started out in second and shifted to third, with first only being used when selecting L on the gear shift column.[4] However, if floored from a standing start, it would immediately shift from second to low then shift back to second and then third as the vehicle accelerated. The Ford-O-Matic was manufactured from 1951 until it was replaced by the C4 in 1964.[2]

Ultimately the transmission Ford licensed to build from Warner Gear/B-W was less expensive to build than the Detroit Gear/B-W unit that Ford had initially sought to license from Studebaker. When Studebaker ran into financial difficulty in the mid-1950s, Studebaker turned to Ford and licensed the less expensive Ford-O-Matic, rebranded it as the Flight-O-Matic, and dropped the DG transmission from its line-up.

SOURCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise-O-Matic

So there is the early history and explains the 1951-54 and 1955/ differences.

No BW vendor numbers as FORD actually owned the trans unlike the BW manual transmissions.

[Merc Cruzer]

KULTULZ,

Thanks, I am getting a better feel for the trans with each passing post. It appears, the Ford-O-Matic and the Merc-O-Matic were the same from 51'-53'. Later the Merc-O-Matic got a larger case and a different valve body, due to increased HP.

[KULTULZ]

Correct - 1955 the game changed somewhat. FORD was allowed to do its' own engineering at that point and I guess corrected some of the original BW design. I always thought the 1951-1960 F/M was the same basic unit. Like I said, I never really got into pre-1957 so this was a learning exercise for myself also.

- Any ID TAG beginning with 1P was the early F/M (MODEL YEAR 1951 THRU 1954).

- 1955/ ID began with a four character prefix, similar to a PART NO prefix.

- EDIT - Above not quite true/concise - Detail to follow.


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Now there is a continuation to this as FORD supposedly bought out the BW design and came out with the FMX for the 1968 model year.

OH! While you are under the car, can you try and measure just the main case length?

This will give me closure ...

EDIT -

Main Case Size Chart Shown Below (Hopefully)

...G-R-R-R-R

One of these days I may get my act together. Look for upcoming EDIT - PART 2