I had one of those Ford built overdrive toploaders stored in my garage
from a 1977 Mercury Monarch that I drove in the early 1990s. When this
subject was last brought up on the list, I took John Crawly's offer for
more information. After talking to John, I decided to try it. I bought a
toploader rebuild kit and using a shop manual, I first rebuilt the
transmission. While I had it apart, I compared the parts to a Tiger
transmission to see if I could just swap gears and keep the Tiger case,
like the internet article below stated. It did not look possible to me.
The overdrive gears did not look like they would fit on the Tiger
tailshaft and there was a small bump out in the case to allow for a
larger diameter gear in the overdrive. Since this was my first time
inside a transmission, I did not try swapping parts. The shifter was my
biggest problem. John used a Ford linkage and I used a Hurst unit. I had
to make an adapter plate to locate the Hurst linkage in the proper
location. The overdrive transmission is almost 2 inches shorter than the
Tigers, so I had a new driveshaft built. Otherwise it all bolted in
just like stock.
How do I like it? As others have stated, there is a gap between 1^st and
2nd. If most of my driving was in town, I may not like it as much. But
then, why bother with overdrive? As it is, most of my time is on the
highway and I love the overdrive.
If anyone would like more information, please ask.
Tom Jeffers
I happened to run across an interesting statement at
http://www.5speeds.com/toploader.html.
This has probably been common knowledge on the list for many years, but it
is news to me and I thought I would throw it out.
This gentlemen states that Ford built overdrive toploaders in 1977-1979 and
installed them in vehicles such as the Granada. He says they made third gear
the overdrive gear and flipped the third-fourth shift lever so that shifting
into "third" actually put you into fourth and shifting into "fourth" put you
into overdrive, giving ratios of 3.29, 1.84, 1.00 and .81. He also says the
parts can be retrofitted into older toploaders.
That looks like a big gap between 1st and 2nd, but maybe the earlier 1st
gears could be used?
At any rate, I'm just curious if any one has tried this modification on
their Tiger.
A. C. Tynes
New Orleans
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