XF Bellhousings Revisited

A

Anonymous

Guest
Hello All,
I'm needing all of ya'lls expertise again. This time I would like to know all there is to know about the different bells that came on the carburated XF engines and which transmisions would bolt up to them. For instance... I know there was a bell designed for the the C4 automatic, but I don't know about the other automatic bells and which transmisions bolted up to them. I also know there is a bell for manual transmisions and several trannys will bolt up to it, but is there more than one bell designed for manual transmisions and which trannys mount to which bell? Also, is there a bell that an AOD auto will bolt up to? Maybe the C4 bell... Any help in this is appreciated and will go towards helping me plant a XF in my '71 Comet.
Dave
 
Hi Dave in Dallas,
I am also going through the process of sorting out the different trans/bell housing combinations. I have a carby 250 x-flow and am working towards bolting an AOD to it. With the help from a member in NZ I have some parts on order from overseas that will allow me to make this happen. In the mean time I have a couple of bell housings being shipped to me. One is for an auto and the other is for a manual gear box. I am going to experiment with those and see what US gear boxes will fit. p.m. or e-mail me so we can share info and possibly work together on this to save time and money.
Dave in Dayton, TX just north east of Houston
 
Hello Dave,
In fact I believe those bells are going to be shipped along with my engine. We will be getting together. I'm just hoping the bell I get will have a C4 bolt pattern. If not I'm going to have to play the mill the bell game. Either that or the make a plate game. Yea, I've already heard about you and hopefully we will be getting together soon. Till then...
Dave
 
Point of order:

"XF" refers to a series of the Falcon, made between 1986 (late) and 1988 or so. It is the last of the cam-in-block motors here. Production continued in utes and vans for quite some years after. If you mean crossflow, you are better off saying so, to avoid confusion.

Bellhousings: Block patterns were the same from 1966 through to the end of the crossflow. Bells exist for:
  1. Borg Warner Model 35 and 40, also Ford C4 autos
  2. Three speed crashbox, three speed all synchro, BW 4-speed, Toploader. (All factory)
  3. T-5 of all types and clutch systems, Tremec, most Toyota manual, other commercial/4WD conversions. (Aftermarket)

The AOD thing is, I believe, in need of just a little tweaking and proving. Then it should be a good option for mileage.

Regards, Adam.
 
Ah, Dave!

That member is me!

Dave has been a saint. I cashed his check over a month ago. He has prepaid and supplied some important pieces. It's taken an extra 6 months on what I've said. Main issue for me was getting the stock bits to fit, like flexplate, starter and the gearshift sorted.

I have almost fitted the X flow 6-cyl to V8 trans swap into my XC Falcon. It's very simple, and soon will have the pictures and a video. Once I've got proof positive, it'll be packaged, and given to Dave via airfreight. Although its taken longer, it's cheaper than I expected, and the cost of the parts is less than I quoted. Hope to give you a rebate on the cost, Dave.

The kit is being covered in the Drivetrain, Suspension, and Brakes forum.

This is the key to getting Aussie sixes running in American vehicles. No-one should ever have to be stuck with the old fashoned transmissions the pre 1992 auto Falcons had.
 
Thanks for the reply Adam. I've got a question though.

You have three bullets in your reply. In bullet # 1 you say "Borg Warner Model 35 and 40, also Ford C4 autos". Are you saying the Ford C4 transmision fits the same bell housing as the Borg Warner Model 35 and 40?, or would this be, there is a bell for the Borg Warners and a bell for the C4? Making up a total of 4 different bell housings for these engines.

You've got me on bullets # 2 and 3 as well. I was thinking if I wanted to mount a tremec, I would use the same bell housing as the one that works with the toploader. Making up a total of 3 different bell housings.

What I had pictured just based on what I have read was that there were three different bell housings.

1. A bell for the Borg Warner 35's and 40's.
2. A bell for the C4's.
3 A bell for manual transmisions.

Am I off base here?
Dave
 
Slightly.

The BW auto bells for 35 and 40 are not the same as each other. The C4 is different again. The Ford OEM Toploader bells are either cable (RHS) or hydro (LHS) actuation. Aftermarket ones can have either, on either side, to order. There are at least eight manual OEM bells:

Hydro crashbox
Hydro all synchro
Cable all synchro
Hydro single rail
Cable single rail
Hydro Toploader
Cable Toploader
Cable T-5

There may be more. I have had "humpback" bells for large and twin plate clutches. Not sure whether they are standard for various applications, or a different thing again.

That's why I was trying to keep it simple! ;)
 
Thanks again. I also just found a huge write up in the drivetrain section. I should have looked there first. Seems there are a couple folks trying to do the same thing as me. It looks like this swap thing is coming together. It makes it easier when some very motivated people are doing some of the home work. I was getting ready to go through the exact same steps. Still will in all likelyhood. Gotta get this aussie power under the hood. Talk to ya soon.
Dave
 
Dean,
Please accept my apology for not naming you in my previous post. I didn't want to commit you to answering a hundred and one questions before you had finished working out the details of the SB V8 trans to x-flow adaptor plate and associated hardware issues.

Dave in Dallas. That I am aware of, there are no easy bolt on US gear boxes for the auusie x-flow block bolt pattern . All of the US bells have a different bolt pattern for the block side of the bell. I am hoping to retrofit (mig weld and redrill) the bells I am getting from Phil to bolt up to a US gear box. Until I get them here and put a micrometer and tape measure to them, I can't do anything.

David in Dayton
 
I can comment on what I have used here.

I noticed one of the posts says T5 bells are aftermarket only. This is not true the late XF falcons had a T5 in them factory fitted.

They used a cast iron bellhousing with the clutch fork exiting on the passenger (left) side. The cable on aussie models ran around under the engine to the passenger side. The XF manual boxes were very weak and had poor ratios but all later model OHC bearbox will fit on the back of the XF bellhousing. I had a
modified XF flywheel redrilled and dowelled for a six bolt EF falcon XR6 pressure plate with a 3000lb pressure plate (revamped from 1800lb)

Aftermarket bells for the T5 were aluminium and usually come from Dellow. The Dellow bells are known to have poor alignment problems and can cause input bearing failure.

As far as C4 autos go these were fitted as an option from the factory. normally as part of the towing packs or as a heavy duty option on special request.

For those of your in the US using the aussie crossflow you should only need the bellhousing. The box I am using in my Cortina is a 302W C4 mated to the Crossflow bellhousing. The 302W boxes have the dipstick in the gearbox casing rather than in the gearbox pan.

The flex plate you need is a 302W 157 tooth item. You need to get one designed for internally weighted engines. The externally weighted ones have an extra weight welded on them. The tacks can be buzzed off easily if it is required to remove the weight.

I recently bought an SFI approved 302 windsor flex plate and I found that one of the six crankshaft bolt holes was slightly offset. I can only imagine the weighted flexplate has this bolts offset so the plate can only go on one way with the weight in the right place. I had to slightly file the hole into an slot, about 1mm of filing and it was only one of the six holes so not a problem.
 
Mark,
You bring up some points that I had no knowledge of before reading your post. Internally or externally balanced engines? I thought the weight on the flywheel was to balance only the flywheel/flexplate. I have encountered the only fits on the crank if you line up the offset bolt pattern, but had no idea why it was made that way. I guess I need to pay more attention to details, and question why someone would engineer a part in a specific manner.
David in Dayton
 
Ancient post, I know, but just to refresh some memories this is the cast iron bell from a Crossflow with a T5 adapter. I used this in the Crossflow Mustang years ago.

The bell trans pattern was for the Ford Toploader 3- and 4-speed which made it easy to use an off the shelf adapter.
 

Attachments

  • t5adapter.jpg
    t5adapter.jpg
    31.7 KB · Views: 27
Back
Top