Re: 1955 400 Manual Transmission Conversion

Posted by 55clipper On 2010/8/3 13:02:25

The drive shafts are different beween ultramatic and standard or at least the u joints are. I did a mass swap out on my conversion. Had the rear end rebuilt and swapped it out, swapped drive shaft and had it rebuilt and balanced using new type u joints with zerk fittings, had the friction plate relined, rebuilt the pressure plate, new throw out bearing etc. Even swapped out the shift quadrant on the dash to the dummy plate used on the od trans. I suggest you use the 11 inch clutch used in the Custom or 400 as compared to the 10 1/2 used in the Super and Delux.
Since you have a 400, the extra 1/2 might be a good idea.
I was lucky, my donor was a Custom. I have the 372 56 engine in my Panama.

The conversion went pretty smooth. Only glitch was I was missing some linkage which I made from threaded rods. It was a very worth while conversion.