What manual transmission to pick?

[Trampus]

I am rebuilding my late brothers 67 swb. 300 6. It had the t-18 in it but I converted it to a c6 with a 351w 15 years ago. Now I'm trying to bring "the spirit of what my brother drove" back into the truck. I know next to nothing about transmissions. My question is what would be a great manual transmission to put back in it? My brother used to love to bounce my head off the rear window at stop lights in granny gear, but I won't be using the truck for hauling. Just for my commute to and from work (40 miles and a lot of freeway) I'm assuming the 4 speed wouldn't be best for all the highway miles with the lower rpm 300. I've heard of a Mazda 5 speed?!

any thoughts?

[eggman918]

Than's what I would use it's the M5odr2 it has ~4-1 first and a .76 5th it's a nice close ratio box that would play well with the 6's power band

[Trampus]

Thank you. I will look into it.

[eggman918]

It was the factory 5 speed in F-150's from 1988 through the mid to late 1990's the one I used in my '68 4BT swap was from a '90. The trans cross member will need to be moved to the rear 3 or 4 inches and the 2WD trans uses the same slip yoke as the C-4 so it's a pretty straight forward swap.
Look at this write up http://www.fordification.com/tech/M5R2_5spd-swap.htm

[Trampus]

Thank you very much eggman. I'm kinda shy about cutting into any part of my truck to make new parts fit. Not for lack of skill but because of what the truck means to me. I want it to look and feel just like it did. Guess I have some pros and cons to weigh.

Great write up by the way. Thank you for the time you put into it.

[HIO Silver]

Sometimes buying used doesn't make sense... figure how much it will cost to rebuild a M5OD.

Get a Tremec TKO-500....

[motzingg]

if you know somewhere you can get the TKO-500 for $150 bucks i'm all ears. Its pretty easy to find a used M5R2 for under $200 even if you have to go to a wrench apart or LKQ. Plus its using OEM ford parts... for whatever that is worth... you can get replacement stuff for it at any dealership. As far as rebuilding goes.. its mostly standard metric roller bearings, couple hundred bucks for a rebuild kit. Mine had 120+K miles on it and showed no signs whatsoever of wear. Fluid was bright red and probably the same stuff that came in it from the factory.

the only 'cutting' mine required is 2 holes drilled in the frame to relocate the x-member, a hole drilled in the firewall for the hydraulic slave, and cutting/flipping/rewelding the clutch linkage to act on the hydraulic MC. I still have to fabricate a hump into my existing trans tunnel cover, but once again nothing that will totally ruin the character of the truck.

I try to look at this stuff from 20 years into the future and say "would i be cursing the name of some idiot who did this 20 years ago" and in this case the change in character of the truck is pretty minimal for the huge benefit of a '3rd' and '5th' gear that you don't have with the 3-speed. My 11" sachs clutch and hydraulic pedal feels great as well, can't wait to put some hard towing miles on it. The direct shifting (no linkage) actually feels a lot more 'old truck' than the 3-on-the-tree did.

[HIO Silver]

the only 'cutting' mine required is 2 holes drilled in the frame to relocate the x-member, a hole drilled in the firewall for the hydraulic slave, and cutting/flipping/rewelding the clutch linkage to act on the hydraulic MC. I still have to fabricate a hump into my existing trans tunnel cover, but once again nothing that will totally ruin the character of the truck.

"Only..."?

I guess if one is restricted by a lack of budget then the M5OD is the way to go

I moved the crossmember back one inch and relocated the shifter hole on the trans tunnel cover.... that's all the mods that were required. Same bell, same linkage.

To each his own...

[Dalton Sexton]

T18

[tnab1970]

we used the 5 speed out of a '91 f150 it seems great so far. was not very difficult , did have to move the trans mount back some. Major difficulty was the hyd. clutch / pedal assembly. just took everything off of the truck we needed. the factory high hump worked , had to move the hole back a little in the hump.