Shocking Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[whpaul]

some good progress...

Hi Wolfgang,

I am going to give you some information that might be helpful to you and others regarding that transmission case. I just talked with Don at Bird Nest. He said the COM transmission cases for the '58-'62 trannys were notorious for breaking at the point of that bolt in your picture. It was/is a very common thing to happen. He said that Ford eventually realized they had a problem there and fixed that problem by building a more sturdier case in that area in the '63 COM and up. If you are not shooting for a numbers matching car, you are probably better off with a reinforced case from a '63 or up.

He said he can get you another original COM case if you would want one, for $650, plus shipping. They are hard to come by, but he can find one. However, for $350, plus shipping, he has plenty of the reinforced '63 and up COM cases that will work on your '61 COM. I am assuming that is what you have in your Tbird. This case will be off one of their donor cars and will not be cracked. He said you will have to know if your case is a Small, Medium or Large case. He said it is probably a Medium case.

Now, for $850, plus shipping, he can ship you a 1961 core transmission with case. It will not be overhauled. It will come off one of their donor cars as is. For $650, plus shipping, he can send you a 1963 or up, core transmission, as is, with case. They might work as is, or you might have to have it overhauled. In fact, it probably should be.I asked him why the the '63 is cheaper and he said because on the '61's he has to inspect any he wants to pull and make sure the case is not cracked. On most of them they are, he said. It is time consuming and time is money. On a '63 and up, he does not have that concern, though, of course, he will check it.

If you need to talk with Don you can reach him at 800-232-6378. His email is don@tbirdparts.com Now, you might want to contact Bob at Bob's Bird House, 302-449-1966 email bobtbird@ix.netcom.com or John Draxler at Tbird Ranch to see if they can help. jdrax@tds.net 715-884-6546. John is hard to get sometimes. They also have a lot of parts off donor cars.

I hope this helps you! Before you do anything, you might want to talk with Don via the phone or email and confirm everything that I said, to make sure I have this right!

The other thing I should ask here is: Does anyone have a good Medium COM case or COM they are willing to part with? If so, please let Wolfgang know.

Hello Ray,

thank You very much for this detailed information. I already phoned with Don, because I am customer at TBird Nest it is easy to do busyness with them. They now check for transportation costs. The idea is to buy a 1963 transmission not repaired with a not cracked body.
We will take it apart and uses the new parts from my cracked transmission, Don confirms that the parts will fit, and make one out of two. On my transmission is the id-tag missing but the body is lettered with DIF 19, C1AP 7086B and on the other side 1822 19.
As I understood this is although Your recommendation.

All that gives me hope to get out of the mess I stumbled in.

Again Thank you and I keep you informed.

whpaul

[YellowRose]

Shocking Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Wolfgang!

I am glad that Don will be able to take care of you! That is great! You will be getting a tranny with an improved case on it and that should end any cracking problems. I hope you will be able to find someone, other than who did your last one, to go through it and fix one or the other for you.

I am very pleased to be able to help you, as so many on here, have helped me! Good luck with it when you get it and yes, please do keep us advised to how it is going once you get it.

[fomoco59]

Always come to a complete stop before shifting to Reverse or Drive. That will crack the COM case. Words of wisdom from Alexander I've always heeded.

[ozbird]

Good Luck

Hi Wolf,

thank you for posting your sad saga, I know it must be difficult for you but hang in there!

For us over the other side of the world (me in Australia) your build is like a train wreck...waiting for the next installment, but we hope for the best!!

Graeme

[whpaul]

keeping on .....

Hi Wolf,

thank you for posting your sad saga, I know it must be difficult for you but hang in there!

For us over the other side of the world (me in Australia) your build is like a train wreck...waiting for the next installment, but we hope for the best!!

Graeme

Hello Graeme,

yes it is kind of frustrating! Every day a new problem with exploding costs.

And to it comes that here in Germany that car is very exotic and therefor you can get only very little knowledge and nearly zero parts.

But I have gone so far, now I will keep on fighting and with the help of this forum I can win, and may be in summer I am back on the road. Next week we bring the car after that welding to the paint shop, and then I need the transmission.

What will not brake us it makes us even harder!

whpaul

[scumdog]

Hello Graeme,

yes it is kind of frustrating! Every day a new problem with exploding costs.

And to it comes that here in Germany that car is very exotic and therefor you can get only very little knowledge and nearly zero parts.

But I have gone so far, now I will keep on fighting and with the help of this forum I can win, and may be in summer I am back on the road. Next week we bring the car after that welding to the paint shop, and then I need the transmission.

What will not brake us it makes us even harder!

whpaul

Hi Wolf, I know what you're talking about - over here in New Zealand we are in the same situation with distance and to a certain degree part supplies however with the American car culture being so strong we have a reasonable amount of knowledgable people and parts suppliers, probably a bit better than in Germany.