Here are some video links if you are interested.

https://vimeo.com/263944152

https://vimeo.com/263944328

https://vimeo.com/263953373

there is a bunch more over at hotrodreverend.com

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Fellas,
It has been a long time since I have posted anything to this thread... I did want to let you know that I began my own website, www.hotrodreverend.com. Much of that was due to the issues with photobucket and not being able to have third party hosting for the media I had saved and posted on three different websites. Making my own gave me liberty and license to design what I wanted. With over 26,000 views on this forum alone, I would imagine that some of you would like to continue to follow the action on the 55 Fairlane. 

Simply go to this address to view the blog:
https://www.hotrodreverend.com/in-progress

and if you want to subscribe to get automatic updates to your e-mail address you can go here:
https://www.hotrodreverend.com/blog-subscribe

Your personal information will be kept secure - this is a website built through Wix.com

thanks!

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I'm using internet explorer and cant see the pictures.


Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Thanks Daniel, that fix for FireFox works.   

For those of you that cannot view these photos in your browse, I did find a fix for Mozilla and Google Chrome browsers. Please read this post from the HAMB...

"I found these links posted over at T.R.A.K last week by Bernard Kron. The Mozilla link worked for me.
Post by Bernard Kron on Aug 27, 2017 at 4:41pm An add-on (plug-in) has been developed, originally for Chrome and now ported over to Mozilla Firefox, that re-establishes the links to all Photobucket images that have been blocked with the Photobucket "Logo of Death" (see below. So far it's available only for Firefox & Google Chrome browsers. I will update this post if it emerges for Microsoft Internet Explorer, Edge or other popular browsers. 
For Google Chrome users open Chrome and navigate here: github.com/kzahel/photobucket-embed-fix ; or here: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj?hl=en 
For Mozilla Firefox users open Firefox (v. 48 and above) and go here: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/?src=ss
end quote"



Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Holy Cow! What a fun time my 14 year old son and I had last night - the best example of which was when mama came into the garage and said, "What is going on in here?"

My son replied, "Ummm, Dad just almost killed himself when that bellhousing came close to falling on his head..."

Really, you can't make this stuff up! Here's the story:

With the transmission all buttoned up and ready to go, it was time to reattach the bellhousing and get the whole works in position to be reinstalled. First I removed the housing from where it sat bolted to the engine block.



Once it was removed I briefly inspected it, making sure the fork looked good and the clutch release bearing was in place.



While inspecting the housing and considering the plan to hoist back up into position with the transmission, I thought of a good idea - make a couple of pins, or studs, that will help locate the bellhousing to the block when we are reinstalling everything back into the car. Here is a photo of the original 2.5" bolt (7/16, 14 threads per inch) lined up with a 3" bolt that I found in my stash. The four bolts that mate the transmission to the bell, and the four bolts that mate the bell to the engine block all have a 5/8" hex head.




I cut the heads off of two of these bolts and then made a slot for a screwdriver.



So far so good. Next was to bolt the bell to the trans while both units were resting on the workbench.



One note we will give here, I did take another look at everything before putting it down on the floor and noticed that the overdrive lockout lever was flipped the wrong way. The 90 degree was supposed to face in, not out, so we took care of that pretty quickly.


Down to the floor gently went the whole works, and the transmission was placed on sheet of thick cardboard to help it slide into position.



There is a crossmember towards the rear that must be cleared first, so essentially the tailhousing must be lifted up first and slid backwards in order for the bell to clear the clutch/flywheel.





This is where it got really sticky. Tried as we might, there was no way for the bell to clear the clutch pressure plate assembly as it was jacked into position. The more I think about it now, it may just be that the replacement clutch, though working normally, is much taller (in essence thicker) than the original 55/56 parts. (Remember two things here - I had no original assembly to compare because this was a switch from an automatic to a standard, and secondly I had installed the engine and transmission as a combination when they first went in together.)



I must have spent an hour with my son just trying to figure out how to clear, make more room, etc. There was no way it was going to work. My body went through several configurations as I went into Gumby mode. Often tied up like a pretzel, placing my arms and legs for leverage/power, smearing grease all over my body, on the creeper/off the creeper, charlie horses in my left leg, my son trying to operate the jack, and me wrestling with a stubborn assembly of cast iron. It was indeed a show - we could have sold tickets! So, we did the hard thing... the assembly was pulled back out, the bellhousing was unbolted from the transmission and we made plans to lift the two into position and then bolt the two together before sliding the final assembly forward. I am not so sure that is the way it is supposed to work but here is how we did it and where the bellhousing almost took my head off:

1. The transmission was jacked up into position, slid back as far as it would go against the permanent cross member.
2. The bellhousing was lifted up into position and held there using the pins I had made earlier - since they were so long, the bell had room to slide back and forth as needed.
3. The real issue is that at first I did not use the pins, just the shallow studs on the block itself that are used to orient the bell to the block. Big mistake. As I was trying to move a spark plug wire out of the way the bell came down pretty heavily while I was on the creeper and underneath of the whole works. I saw it in time so no injury and everything is ok but good grief it was getting ridiculous at this point. I would have paid good money to have a full size car lift Saturday night!
4. The transmission was inched forward and the bell moved backwards until the holes lined up. One by one the bolts were reinstalled, clearances checked, and back onto the block. The locator pins made it a breeze really. My big issue was getting the bell to clear.



Once we were lined up, I pulled the two access grommets inside the car just below the firewall and installed the two bolts up top:



Now to get everything else where it needs to be. How I can turn a 1 hour project into 3 hours I have no idea, but I am becoming an expert!

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Next up is to raise the countershaft assembly into position, checking your dummy shaft reference to the pilot holes on either end at front and rear, and checking your washer locations. It is tight for sure but still doable. Once you are in position, you can begin tapping the metal shaft entering the main case at the rear like so.



As the shaft goes into the case it will push the dummy shaft out:



Along the way as you get ready to flush up the shaft with the case, you will want to pay attention to the rear of the shaft and the small hole seen here:



This will need to align with the pilot hole in the main case that traverses the case perpendicular to the countershaft (remember the photo from before where this pin was not flush with main case, causing a leak?). If this small hole is not lined up properly you will never get the pin to go through.



As you can see above that pilot hole for the pin traverses the length of the case from side to side so that when you full seat the axle for the countershaft you can make sure it is oriented correctly.

Fully seated and ready to go!



From the rear you can tell that I had to use some washers to help keep enough pressure on the adapter so that the gasket and sealer would keep things tight. Obviously this was removed when the tail housing was installed. You can tell from this picture though that the axle shaft can be seen/accessed here at the rear of the case even with the OD adapter installed.

We are almost done - I have not alluded to the main case cover that seals up the gears and orients your shifter forks but this should be pretty standard I would imagine. Just make sure that pin is driven flush, or below, the main case pilot hole.

From here I decided to put the transmission on end so that we could place the tail shaft and tail housing on without much issue. The old Black & Decker Workmate came into play here. Once the transmission was in position we went in reverse order of disassembly and installed the pawl and its mechanism and the large clip. From there we put the sun gear assembly back on with the lockout slide/stud in position too. Don't forget the U clip that keeps the assembly on the main shaft! Also, I elected to use a copious amount of bearing grease to keep all of the rollers in position. Some fellas use rubber bands to keep them in position.



I double checked all of the work leading up to the installation of the tail shaft and housing and prepared a gasket. From there it was simply a question of how to get that large clip to expand enough for the housing to slide over the tail shaft.



I probably should have taken a few more photos but I would imagine that good manuals show the same idea. The best thing to do is to take the tail shaft out of the housing, install on the sun gear full seated, and then take your tailhousing and slide that on the whole works. You will need to work with the large clip that is basically a keeper for the tail shaft itself. The clip can be accessed by removing a small rectangular plate on top of the housing. Spread the clip and the housing will go the rest of the way. The clip basically surrounds that main bearing on the tail shaft and is kept in a small groove on the bearing's circumference. Once that was sealed up, I reinstalled the lockout lever on the exterior of the tailhousing. While I did not refer to it, the small shaft here needs to meet up with the cutout that is on that lockout lever slide on the inside of the transmission. This is key. there is also a spring in the tailshaft that you need to make sure is oriented correctly because it is used to help with this slide. Once the lockout lever shaft was seated back into the housing, I tapped the small pin back in and attached the lever correctly.

Here she is, ready to be re-installed. And this time hopefully without leaks!



I did blast the brackets for the Hurst Mystery Shifter and painted them too.



Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

continuing with this transmission assembly, the next item up was to remove the small stud - it is a press fit - and then remove the large metal spring clip that keeps the pawl assembly in the adapter. Of course the actual pawl must be remove as well. Once you remove the U shaped clip from the end of the shaft, the sun gear assembly just slides right off....



Next up is to drive out the shaft that the countershaft gears ride on. You drive it out from the front of the case here:



note the hole at the lower left - it is 3/4".

After the countershaft drops to the bottom of the case (and your needle bearings - keep track of those!), the rest of the gears can be removed by simply unbolting the adapters and sliding the particular assembly out. The snout will have a number of rollers inside of it - keep track of those too!

Everything but the reverse idler gear was removed.



We will take some time out here and just note that for this refresh I used better gasket material than what came in the kits. It was not too difficult to cut my own and the bolt holes were punched with an old socket.



Ok, so back to the gears. The first thing I needed to do was secure a 3/4" dummy shaft of wood to use for the countershaft assembly. This was installed in the sleeve, the sleeve and dummy shaft were placed in the countershaft assembly, and both sides received the 22 needle bearings. Do not forget to put your small washers on either end!



Next up was to prep the snout by putting all of the rollers back in. A "little" grease helps with this because you don't want anything falling out while you are sliding it back onto the main shaft.



Then I checked to make sure it would slide on like normal...



Now back to the main case. The countershaft was placed inside first, with the one large washer at the front and two large washers at the rear. For now we just let them slide into position and sit there. Later on when we raise the countershaft to meet the main shaft we will make sure the washers are lined up to pilot holes.



After that we fit the main shaft and adapter assembly to the main case, making sure the gasket was sealing nicely. Then the snout and its adapter (with a good gasket and sealer) were slid into position and bolted down.



Next up we will show you why we need that dummy shaft sitting in the countershaft assembly...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

After I removed the cover plate that hides the shifter forks, I saw this:



The oil was already puddling down near the lower corner and was ready to give way. At first I wondered why that was the only area showing oil on the gasket. Once I removed the gasket though I noticed that the pin that secures the countershaft in place WAS NOT DRIVEN FLUSH with the case. Therefore the cover could never fully meet the surface of the case itself and a good seal just would not happen. MISTAKE TWO in this process! The picture below shows the pin driven below flush so as not to cause further issues.



We turn our attention next to the rear of the transmission and the OD adapter case. This is held to the transmission in four places and they all have 5/8" heads - eazy breezy. However, before you fully disengage keep in mind two things.

1. There is a pin that must be removed - if you don't do this you will never get the case to separate completely. The pin is this small:



and it is placed here, driven in from the top of the casing. The picture from the bottom:



and from the top:



The pictures above show the boss for the lever/shaft that operates your engagement of the Sun Gear (well, provided the pawl from your solenoid engages also, but we will talk about that more later). At any rate, once the pin is removed, you need to pull the shaft out as far as it will go. (Don't worry, it won't completely fall out - it is actually inserted from inside the case.) Ok, so that is number one.

2. Once you remove the rear casing there are a number of small rollers that will drop out and you will hear them plunking all over the place. Don't lose them! You need each one and they are a specific size, etc. Look at these two photos below. One shows the small rollers on the circumference of the shaft, sitting in their bosses. The other shows how a few of the rollers have already dropped into the tailhousing.



There is a large clip that keeps the rear shaft in place in the tailhousing, but we will talk more about that later - for now, just know that the clip is secure - it ain't coming out. Later on for final reassembly you will find that it is a real pest.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Disaster struck again...

While getting things together for the OD cable I happened to notice serious oil leaks at the transmission. The small seal for the solenoid was actually torn and would not hold its seal, and the the OD adapter on the case was leaking at two separate places, and the cover plate for the shifter forks was also barely seeping. :mad:

More on this later but for now let's look at the OD cable. (yep, you can tell from the photos that I pulled the shifter and brackets that attach to the transmission) These photos show me trying to make sure the lever works appropriately with the cable pull and that there is little to no play with the movement.

Overdrive engaged: well, kind of - it won't actually engage unless you are above 28 mph, but at any rate this position means that it is ready to engage.



Overdrive lockout: it will not engage for anything, and for all practical purposes you only have a standard transmission with regular gearing.



Of course at this point for me, this is all sheer conjecture because I have never driven the car while having the OD hooked up and ready to go. The standard transmission did shift just fine and worked well the summer I installed it in 2015 and moved the car around quite a bit in a very large parking lot.

Before we start looking at this transmission (again) let's take a look at this:



YES! Color on the hood! Can't wait to shoot some clear coat.

Ok, now on to the transmission :confused:. First I had to drain it. I filtered the old oil since it was basically unused, and I stored it in a clean jug marked appropriately:



Then I got my jack, unscrewed a "few" fasteners and bolts (don't you like the one bolt/nut combo at the crossmember where the bracket for the E-brake attaches to the frame??? Aaaaaarrgghhhh!), and dropped her down gently to the floor:





Once it was on the bench it was time to pull that pesky seal and install a new one:





I will have to say that after wrestling with all of the hardware to remove the transmission, messing with the oil, etc, I was not looking forward to knowing that it was indeed tear down time - AGAIN. I guess this is the way you learn and in the future make sure you concentrate and do right the first time. But, the shifter brackets did need to come out because they had to be painted, the cable routing was done (pics on that later) so it was time to pull some stuff back, I wanted to trim some of that sheet metal around the shifter to ensure a good fit, blah, blah, blah. All of that still did not help my attitude. :eek:

Ok, game on! There is a job to do, so let's get to it.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com