What all do I have to change to install a '65 cruise-o-matic in place of a 57 ford-o-matic? I need to use the ford-o-matic converter & bell housing, right? what about the front pump? what about the input shaft?  this is behind a 292 Y block.Thanks

I'm going to make two assumptions here to answer your question. If your '57 Fordomatic is a small case and your '65 Cruiseomatic is a medium case, these are the parts you will need to install this. You will have to use a '57 bellhousing and a medium case torque converter (T-Bird or Mercury) from a water cooled transmission (late '56 or '57). The pump will have to be from the medium case transmission. The input shaft on the Fordomatic small case trans is too small in diameter to work with the medium case converter. You will have to change the speedometer cable and gear to the later style cruisomatic. You will have to run a vacuum hose to the modulator. You will have to fabricate a kickdown rod or cable as your original Fordomatic kickdown rod moves with the accelerator linkage and it will not shift properly. You will have to change the yoke on the driveshaft as the cruisomatic uses a larger diameter yoke than the Fordomatic does. Then the next thing that will be an issue is you have 3 forward drive positions with the cruisomatic and 2 with the Fordomatic, so you will not be able to get your detents on the instrument panel to line up with the cruisomatic. But there is a cure for that. Use a '58 or '59 steering gear and column for a cruisomatic equipped car (the '58 & '59 steering gear is a recirculating ball steering gear which is much better than the worm & sector gear that was used in the '57), then your detents will line up. But then your horn will not work. What is required then is the horn wire that goes through the turn signal switch wiring, you will have to hook it to the horn relay. I'm a little vague on this about the horn, because it's been a long time since I did this, but if you use a shop manual wiring schematic from a '58 or '59 Ford, you should be able to figure it out. This is not a real hard installation, but you have to use the right combination of parts to make it work.

Before you get too far into this do a WIKI search of Cruise O Matic/ Ford O Matic to see which animal you are dealing with. The 3 speed FOM became the 3 speed ( IRON CASE ) COM in 1958. Then there is the MX and the FX which became the FMX. Try to get a 1958 COM FLYWHEEL and T/Q and the IMPUT SHAFT. Graft onto a FMX and you GOT IT. Pete
edit after 1958 the FOM became called the CRUISE O MATIC and in 1959 Ford offered the ALUMINUM case two speed FOM

Montyray, thanks for the detail but this is going in a '30 Model A with a homemade floor shifter, so I don't have to worry about the shifter stuff, sorry.
This is what I have heard that can be done, use the 57 ford-o-matic bellhousing, converter front pump and input shaft. Now, out back, use the 57 FOM output /tailshaft and tail shaft housing, but use the 65 ccruise-o-matis governor. Of course I will have to make the shifter work with one more poistion and the kickdowm linkage.
Just to make clear, The FOM is the small case and the COM is the mediun case.
Let me know what you think, thanks