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Thank you! I appreciate it!

Yeah I think Ford left an entire half an inch between the exhaust manifold and the shock tower, not a lot of room!

@@michaelmaher4328 I will keep this in mind when I start penning the Transmission Chronicles lol, thanks for watching!

@@AngellsGarage I’m looking forward to your next video, I appreciate your expertise doing what I need to get done as well, my 1966 mustangs 3rd gear isn’t working so I need to go thru the c4 cruise o matic .

@@bricecenter For my rebuild, I will be using Type F to fill the transmission. The main concern with the fluid for these transmissions is the clutch plates. Originally, these transmissions used bronze clutch plates. These clutch plates need a “grippy” transmission fluid so that they do not slip, which is what Type F works perfectly for. That being said though, if the old bronze clutch plates have been replaced with the newer fiber ones, then technically you can use either Type F or Dexron/Mercon. Dexron and Mercon allow the clutches to slip more, which provides a smoother transmission shift. In general though, the less the clutches slip, the better it is for them and the longer they’ll last, so I opted for Type F. Also, something interesting I found online said the closest replacement for Type A is actually a 50/50 mix of Dexron and Type F. Might be interesting to try, but I usually don’t like mixing different fluids together, so I’ll stick to Type F only lol

Thank you sir! So you are right, the manual does say to loosen the screw 1 full turn after the 10 in-lb adjustment with the quarter inch block. I had read through somebody's rebuild of a small case Cruise-O-Matic where they had problems with their rebuild about a year later. Their problem was that the front band began slipping after they had followed the shop manual's adjustment instructions to loosen the full turn. To make a long story short, someone with many years of experience rebuilding the Cruise-O-Matics and even some old shop manuals from the 70's said to actually tighten the adjusting screw 3/4 - 1 additional turn after reaching the 10 in-lbs. After he made the adjustments, his Cruise-O worked great! While that rebuild was for a small case Cruise-O-Matic, I believe the adjustment process is the same for a medium case (I can't find anything specifying a difference between a medium case and small case adjustment). In general, if you look online through forums and other videos about the band adjustment, I've found that there are two prevailing methods for adjusting these bands: The first is to tighten the adjusting screw to 10 in-lbs with the quarter inch block, then tighten the lock nut down (so no additional turning of the screw). The second is to tighten the adjusting screw to 10 in-lbs with the quarter inch block, then tighten the screw 3/4 - 1 additional turn, then tighten the lock nut. I decided to go with the tighten method just because I found that recommended more often. I did check the band after the adjustment and found that it was not dragging and that the clutch drum could spin freely. If the adjustment was too tight, the band would drag and the drum would not spin freely, which would cause the band to burn out. Likewise, if a band adjustment is too loose, then the front servo may not be able to fully apply pressure to the band, which could cause slipping and burning later in the transmission's life. So what I would recommend is to either follow the method of using the quarter inch block, tightening to 10 in-lbs, then making no further adjustments, or the method of using the quarter inch block, tightening to 10 in-lbs, then tighten the addition 3/4 - 1 turn. Please do take my recommendation with a grain of salt though because I have not testing my transmission yet so I can't comment on how my adjustment did. That being said, I do think there is some wiggle room in this adjustment. Several people have used both of the adjustments I have recommended above with success, so I think either one would be fine. Good luck with your adjustment sir, I hope all goes well with it and feel free to post an update on how it goes!

Thank you for your quick answer Angell. I searched for hours in different videos and forums to get the right method for the adjustment. And i got nearly the same information as you. The one thightend the screw only with the quarter spacer and some other people added the extra thightend turn. I only was confused because the shop manual says a different way about a few years. I will test it with the 3/4 additional turn and will post my update. But it will need some time because the half of my Motor is disassembled. When i got my new timing chain and the gaskets, i will inform you.

@@miwa134 Awesome, sounds good! I hope it works out and good luck on your rebuild!

Thank you for the kind comment sir and thanks for subscribing!

Aside from a few small random pinholes, the trunk was actually very solid, lucky me! The same can't be said about my 64' though, that one will need a new pan welded in part of it it. Thanks for watching!

Thank you! I really appreciate the kind comment sir!

The best place to get new sheet metal is from Ecklers, they have a good selection of sheet metal for these birds, including floor pans, rockers, lower fenders, and quarter panels. Unfortunately if you need anything like a fender, door skin, hood, cowl, or deck lid, those are not remanufactured and will have to be sourced from a parts car. There are a few classic car junkyards that have these cars in them, my favorite being Browne Auto Salvage. They are located in Sunset, TX and can pull whatever part you want and ship it to you. They have 3 bullet birds right now, a 61, a 62, and a 63. The 62 and 63 are very complete and have lots of good metal on them. Good luck on your search!

I got my rebuild kit from Concours Parts and Accessories. Most Thunderbird parts suppliers and some transmission parts suppliers carry at least two kinds of kits, a "gasket" kit which has all the seals needed for a rebuild, and a standard rebuild, or "master" kit that also includes the frictions & steels for the clutch packs. I would highly recommend getting a kit that comes with the clutches because it is getting very hard to find places that sell just the clutches only. As far as bushings are concerned, bushings typically do not come in the kits and will need to be purchased separately. The only two bushings that are readily available are the tail shaft bushings that the drive shaft rides on and the front pump bushing that the torque convertor rides on. The other bushings are typically much harder to find because they are no longer remanufactured. Occasionally, some OEM bushings will pop up on eBay, so that is worth a check if you needed a specific bushing. In general, plan on reusing most of your original bushings. Also some parts, like the filter and the vacuum modulator, usually do not come in the kits, so keep that in mind if you are wanting to replace those too.

My first place to check is always the Birds Nest, they got a ton of parts, including OEM stuff, you can try giving them a call and see if they have anything. If not, you can also check Thunderbird Headquarters or Larry’s Thunderbird & Mustang, they also got a lot of stuff. You can also check eBay, sometimes people list OEM parts on there for our Thunderbirds, just got to be lucky!

I would call the Bird's Nest first and see if they have any in stock. They have a lot of OEM and used parts, so you might be in luck. If not, my second suggestion would be Browne Auto Salvage in Sunset, TX. They have a couple of Thunderbirds and I am willing to bet most, if not all of them still have the Cruise-O's in them. They will pull the parts for you and can ship, I have gotten some parts for my 63 from them, very fair prices! You can call or text Browne's at (940) 393-2469

@@AngellsGarage Thanks! The birds nest is going to check if they have one. Mine is 16.5 inches. they wanted a casting number and the length, but i see nothing on mine and it's been painted black which makes it even harder to see. Going to try and pull it out today or tomorrow without removing anything! Well, i removed the drive shaft. if i just let the exhaust hang a bit i thing there is room. Luckily the underside of my car is very clean.

Got it out the back. I just loosened the exhaust. easy peezy. I'm going to keep welding as my last resort. It's not that hard to remove, but i'll be sick if it breaks while i'm driving and i dump 10 quarts of transmission fluid out the back.

@@mooosestang Awesome! Glad you were able to get it out without any hassles! Now just hopefully Birds Nest can find you a tail shaft, then life will be good

@@AngellsGarage i can't post a link to a picture, thanks youtube!. The crack is not on the threads and didn't crack all the way through🤣 if birds nest or browne auto doesn't come through i look into a local welding shop. I'd always be nervous about it breaking though. Mine didn't have that rubber seal on the splines, just a seal inside the end of the housing.

So you should be able to pull the tail housing out without pulling the transmission, I am not sure about the exhaust, but my guess is that you might have to move it. You'll need to slide the tail shaft back about 2 feet to clear the output shaft and pull it from the car. The tail housings are cast aluminum, which are generally considered weldable, so repairing it might be possible. I have never welded cast aluminum, so I really can't provide much input on how to do it, although some quick research shows that TIG welding is the most common method for repairing cast aluminum. Best of luck on your transmission!

I will be using Type F in the transmission. I did some research and arrived at the conclusion that as long as the clutches had been replaced with newer ones, that either Type F or Dexron/Mercon will work. That being said though, I decided to go with Type F because it prevents slippage in the clutches, which will provide firmer shifts. An old transmission rebuilder I knew told me that the firmer the shift, the better it is for clutch life. Also since I’ve already soaked the clutches, bands, and seals in Type F, I don’t want to cross contaminate it with a different fluid. I’ve heard mixed opinions about Type F compatibility with Dexron/Mercon, so I don’t want to take any chances.

@@AngellsGarage thanks. That is what im leaning toward as well. Actually now that i think about i did soak the clutches in type F and use it for assembly.. so i guess im committed.

Yep, it’s amazing what purely mechanical items were able to accomplish before the rise of computers and circuits! Thanks for watching!

Thank you sir! The valve body pulls out as one unit, so nothing should fall out. Just pull out the three bolts holding it to the case, loosen the front servo so you can wiggle the tubes out, then you should be golden! In the whole valve body, I only found one check ball, and that’s behind a clip so it will be fine. The only thing that may slide out is the gear selector valve, but that can easily be slid back into place.

Thank you sir! I am glad you were able to get your steering gear box rebuilt! I will be tackling that very soon, I just finished reinstalling the rear axle so the brakes and steering system is up next. Thanks for watching and God bless!

Thank you sir! I got a lot more of them in the works!

Thank you sir! I actually got a few comments on the last video from folks saying that they were going to use my videos to help them on their rebuilds. So I definitely wanted to make this video clear and maybe a little more in depth than I normally would have done it so I could help those folks out! I love taking complicated subjects and trying to simplify them!

Thank you sir! The engineering behind these transmissions is amazing, that is actually the main reason I wanted to go through it, I wanted to really know what makes these things work. The nice thing is that once you understand one, you understand them all! I’ve also been inside automatics from the 90’s, and all the same basic rules apply, valve body is the brains, servos control bands, clutch packs control sun gears, and planetary gears get you your different gear ratios. It is definitely a lot, but once you’ve tackled a transmission, then you feel like there’s nothing that can stop you!

Thank you sir! Yeah I don’t blame you, even these old 3-speeds are quite involved to rebuild!

Thank you! I appreciate it!

Thank you sir! I appreciate it!

Thank you sir! I hope to have part 2 out within a week, I am just putting the final touches on it now in the video editor!

Thank you sir! I will be sure to keep you in mind as I start putting things back together, especially if I find anything missing or broken!

I am hoping to have the next video up in a week or two! It’s going to be a long one, about 45 minutes, I didn’t realize how much work it took to rebuild the transmission!

Thank you sir, I really appreciate it! I hope these videos give you a better understanding of your Thunderbird, definitely one of the coolest classic cars to own!

Yes sir they certainly do!

Thank you sir! That was definitely the goal, I know transmissions can be very daunting to many folks, so I wanted to spend a little more time explaining things on this video to hopefully help people work on them!

Thank you for the very kind comment sir! While I would love to do this full time, I am afraid that won’t pay the bills (maybe one day though!). But you are absolutely right, I need to get more videos up more regularly! I am starting to get more serious about doing these videos, seeing that so many people like them, so I have begun devoting at least an hour of my time each day to video creation. Between filming the actual restoration process, creating a script, doing the voice over, and then assembling the video, it takes a lot of time to create one of these videos, so hopefully the extra time I put into these can help churn them out faster!

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Hi there, I do not work at the the yard so I am afraid I can not help you, but when I visited there the yard does have a couple of Mustang's so you might be in luck! To contact the yard, call or text (940) 393-2469 and they should be able to help you

Thank you sir! I've heard a lot of good things about those toploaders, very popular transmissions! I am getting ready to rebuild the less popular successor to the toploader, the SROD from my dad's 81' Mustang, much lighter and smaller than the Cruise-O-Matic that's for sure, good luck on your rebuild!

@@AngellsGarage thanks Angel! You are killing it. Hope eveything is good for you.

Yeah no kidding! I guess the motto when they were building this car was "The heavier the better!"

Thank you sir, I appreciate the comment! I should hopefully have the next video up in less than a month, which should have a lot of good information to help you on your rebuild!

Thank you sir! These are definitely a bit intimidating to rebuild so I don't blame you! I will say though that this was certainly a fun experience, I actually feel like I understand how these transmissions work now which is pretty cool!

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Thank you sir! That is quite interesting, I actually never heard of that particular issue before, I’ll have to definitely look out for that when I begin testing the transmission out! I wish I could have tested this transmission out, but after going through it there was definitely no way it was going to work. Both of the clutch pack pistons literally fell out as soon as I took them apart, and as it turns out the seals on the pistons were totally petrified. I actually had to bust the seals off with a hammer because they were so rock hard! As odd as it sounds it made me feel good finding those bad seals and the burned up band, at least it let me know I did the right thing rebuilding it because I was worried about taking it all apart only to find nothing wrong!

@@AngellsGarage What about that drum that got chewed up by the band? Did you find a replacement?

@@vintagethunderbirdrepair9426 So no I sadly did not find a replacement, I checked eBay for almost a month straight and all I could ever find was a FMX drum, which although similar, did have some differences. I thankfully though have a machine shop at the company I work at, so I was able to borrow the engine lathe for a few hours and get some help from an experienced machinist. While I couldn’t completely remove all those deep groves, I was able to smooth everything else out and remove all those burn marks, so other than a couple of groves the drum otherwise looks brand new, so it should (hopefully) work just fine. If not I’ll be back on the hunt again, but I am feel pretty confident the repaired drum should do good!

@@AngellsGarage Okay, You do know there are Thunderbird dealers that sell used parts like The Birds Nest and they may have these transmission parts??? There is also a guy here in Denver that may have the parts too. I once upon a time had a container full of transmissions and engines but that is long gone. You always need it after you throw it away!! Anyway, hopefully your cure will be fine. Good luck.

Yeah all that cast iron in this transmission is heavy! The biggest problem I actually ran into was parts availability, you just can’t find parts for these old Cruise-O’s outside of seals and some small parts. Things like bearings, gears, and even the bands aren’t even made anymore. So if something major ever goes wrong with this transmission, then I will definitely be doing a C6 swap, the parts availability alone would make it worth it!

Thank you sir, I appreciate the comment!

Thank you sir, I appreciate it! And good luck on your transmission, I hope the video makes your job a little easier!

Thank you sir! I do like these videos to be helpful, I want to help other people keep these cars on the road for a long time!

Normally I probably would have taken close to 100 photos for a job like this, or maybe even more, can’t have enough photos! But since I filmed everything, I instead actually have about 5 hours of footage showing EVERYTHING and only a couple of photos, mainly just to show my friends what I was up to. Thanks for the comment sir!

Thank you sir, I always appreciate your comments! Funny you should mention that, I am actually getting ready to receive my steering box seal kit from the Birds Nest on Tuesday, it will be one of the first items to go back on the car. It should definitely be easier to rebuild than the transmission that’s for sure! God bless and good luck on your steering box rebuild!

@@AngellsGarage Ha! that's to funny! my seal kit is arriving also from the Birds nest this week as well. Back in the '80's I had a '64 Tbird and it was my daily driver and one day I put it in reverse and it took over 30 seconds to go in reverse as well as any forward gear. So I called around to find a good transmission person to work on it. I did, and he rebuilt it and told me that those old cast iron 3 speeds were one of Fords better transmissions.

Thank you sir! I appreciate the comment!

Thank you sir, I appreciate it!

Thank you Susie!

Thank you Susie, I am glad you liked the video! Love you too!

Thank you sir, I am located in northern Nevada!