51 Ford-o-matic torque converter issues

J

Jimbarton

Junior Member
Hello all, new member here. I have a 51 Vic. with the Ford-o-matic. While removing the converter from the transmission, I noticed that one ear was broken off from the hub that drives the front pump and was lying in the pump housing. I have a 52 converter that I planned to use but see that the hub projection is about 3/8" shorter than the 51. I have seen replacements for the 52 and up hubs but not the 51. Any suggestions as to remedy the situation? Also as the break was smooth, can it be welded and reused?
Jim
 
I am not well versed enough in the very early o-matic transmissions to be able to give you an answer but I do know that these transmissions were constantly evolving. Many times they can be reconfigured with the later parts as long as you can find out what works with what. You may have to change to the later type pump to use the later drive hub. Some hard parts are getting harder to source for these unless you can find good used parts. You can check some of the auto trans specialists that advertize in the Early Ford V8 Club's news magazine "The V8 Times", Hemmings, or even google. Good used parts are out there. I personally would look for a good used part or contact someone that is familiar enough with these units to tell you which way to go about using the later parts to repair yours. The cast iron case o-matics in several versions were used clear up into the 1970s so there are a few folks out there that know them pretty well.

Welcome to the Barn
 
Jimbarton said:
Hello all, new member here. I have a 51 Vic. with the Ford-o-matic. While removing the converter from the transmission, I noticed that one ear was broken off from the hub that drives the front pump and was lying in the pump housing. I have a 52 converter that I planned to use but see that the hub projection is about 3/8" shorter than the 51. I have seen replacements for the 52 and up hubs but not the 51. Any suggestions as to remedy the situation? Also as the break was smooth, can it be welded and reused?
Jim
Click to expand...

That hub with the lugs on it bolts into the convertor housing. Take them both out and compare them to see if they're the same. I think the 51 and 52 pumps are the same.
Bill
 
Thanks, I will try to compare the pumps and hubs and note any differences. I have a 52 transmission but the tail shaft is about 5" longer than the 51.
 
As a follow up on the issue, I found that the difference of the converters was that the 51 converter hub was 1/2" + - longer than the 52 due to the front pump drive gear cogs were located near the rear of the gear. The 52 gear was at the front. The pumps were otherwise the same. I used the 52 converter and pump as I could not locate a replacement hub due to mine having one ear broken off. luckley it was lying in the housing and not ingested in the gears.
 
Good to Know. I had to get a cast iron medium case cruise-o-matic overhauled for a 1964 Thunderbird I used to have. The original case was cracked so off to the salvage yard I went. I went through several junk yard dogs before I found a good case. After I got it home & torn down, I found that it was a later model that had deleted the rear pump. The place for it was still there but the castings had been changed closing off the fluid feed ports. I had to go without a rear pump but I never planned to pull start the car so I would never need one anyway. The twin pump system was there so the car could be towed without removing the drive shaft. FoMoCo finally figured it to be redundant after 15 or so years of making them that way.
 
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