cruiseomatic bell housing

[gregz]

I was wondering if there is any differences between the bell housing on my '59 Tbird 352 cruisomatic and a '65 bell housing that used the later style starter

[jopizz]

There may be minor differences but it has nothing to do with the starter mounting. The big difference between the old and new starter is the flexplate. Either bell housing will work.

John

[gregz]

Thank you John for the info

[jopizz]

I'm not sure why you are asking but there is a modification so can use the later style starter on your '59.

John

[gregz]

Hi John, I was aware about the discussion about the update of using a newer style starter but was curious about any other differences in the bell housings. I was looking on Ebay and found someone selling bell housings that have the fe style bolt pattern but where they bolt up to the trans cases one had 5 5/8" between upper and lower holes and the other had 6 1/4" between upper and lower holes. I was wondering if this is the difference between pre '65 and '65 and later.

[jopizz]

There are many different variations of cruise-o-matics. Thunderbirds used the medium case version. Other Fords used different sizes which is why there's different bolt patterns. If it specifies Thunderbird it should have the same bolt pattern. 352 and 390 Thunderbirds used the same intermediate case from 1958-1968. Some other Ford models used a different case.

John

[gregz]

Thanks again John, did more research and found out that the fmx case has the bolt holes further apart and also used the fe bell housing