Jeff —

What you said makes sense. Good to know pulling the tail shaft is not necessary. Didn’t think I’d be able to do it in this car anyway.

You are correct that this is a water-cooled ‘57 Fordomatic I believe to be original to the car. Can’t find much online info regarding these so that’s why I referenced the cruise-o-matic. Much different animal obviously.

I have a NOS governor on order and am planning to use just the top valve assembly and reinstall on my existing gov body.

The knowledge being gained here is invaluable. Will post my findings.

PM sent.

Thanks again,
Kent

Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

I'm assuming you have a 57 FOM.  The trans governor pictured in your last post is a 2 stage gov. as used on a cruise o matic. FOM is different and is installed with cover plate facing forward as shown in the pictures I'll try posting.  Also, it's difficult for me to see for sure but the phantom spring shown with your 57 governor appears to be broken. All springs in these transmissions have the ends finished by winding the end coils together to form a square so uniform/equal force is applied around the entire circumference. I don't know where that spring came from but it may be part of another spring. Therefore, the rebuilder may of had an "extra" spring and it looked logical to install it in the governor????  The pics I'll try sending are true 56/57 Ford illustrations. I'm never very good using descriptive text so hope this makes sense. Otherwise, send me a PM with contact number and we can discuss this in real time. It's been eons since I last rebuilt one of these but the information here is in referenced to 57 published material. Hope this helps, JEFF.........


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

I think I might be onto something here. After watching a ton of tear-down/rebuild videos and looking at diagrams, I think the governor was installed backwards at the time of rebuild.

Here's a link to the video I made. Apologies on the quality. Working under a '57 bird without a lift is no picnic. I pulled the top part of the governor off previously to check the piston operation.



This is from someone else's youtube account on reassembling a cruise-o-matic with a similar style governor — in the opposite orientation.


If anyone can confirm that the governor is indeed on backwards, that would really help! Also if anyone has ever pulled a fordomatic tail shaft on a 55-57 thunderbird in the car — that would be good to know if it's even possible.

Thanks for all the help!
Kent

Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

If you determined that spring does not belong in the governor, then more than likely it belongs somewhere in the valve body.  Keep us posted.................


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Jeff --

Thanks for chiming in. This is my first time inside this thing. The shop that supposedly rebuilt it must've done that. I found an NOS governor and bought it. Was concerned about the small amount of side-to-side slack the piston had. 
Will be interesting to see if the NOS one has the spring. All I'm using is the top piece so will be sure to post my findings.

Bought a gauge to pressure test and will also get some #'s posted as well.

Thanks again!
Kent

Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

Yblock57, I don't remember a spring being part of the early FOM governor assembly. Checking the 56 - 57 FOM shop manual shows an exploded view with no spring and no spring is mentioned in the text. You might try installing it with out the spring and see what it does. Also, a line pressure test would be very helpful.  Hope this helps, JEFF.............edit:  This also raises another question, like, where did this spring come from?


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Removed the governor. Appears to have been installed correctly. Valve moves freely. Has a very light spring that doesn't require much effort to move the valve. Everything appears to be in good shape. There is a very slight amount of side-to-side play in the piston. Is that normal or should I be concerned?

Any recommendations on where to go from here? I'm at a loss as how to solve this late-shifting issue.




Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

DryLakesRacer —

Thanks for the tip! I'm pretty green messing with these things but not afraid to get my hands dirty. Maybe watching some of the youtube videos of a few tear-downs might have made me a little overconfident. ha

They don't seem too complicated, so this has to be something that can be remedied without too much trouble — at least that's what I keep telling myself.

The shop that did this changed ownership during the 'rebuild' and all actions where taken short of legal to get them to make it right. At this point I'd just like to learn how to overhaul these things myself and take all swindlers and amateurs out of the equation in the future.

Thanks,
Kent

Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

John —
I was looking at that plate and thinking there had to be a reason they put it there. Appreciate the information very much! This will really help me out in the cramped quarters of the infamous 'X' member. 

If the shop put it on the wrong way (highly possible), would it be obvious in how the passages line up in the governor halves? Anything else you'd recommend looking at?

I was planning on getting a pressure gauge to see what the thing is doing when it shifts. I suspect it's getting pretty high but would like to know for sure. Any recommendations on decent gauges?

Thanks again!
Kent

Kent — Round Rock, TX
'56 F-100  | '56 Crown Vic  |  '57 Fairlaine 500  |  '57 Thunderbird

This note isn't likely to fix your problem, but has come up before. Ford originally specified Type "A" fluid. It's in the manual, not type F. It has morphed into Dexron II etc.. Good luck with your problem.    


Paul