Another 8BA question

flatford39

Senior Member
Have what I believe to be a 49 Merc 8BA motor. It came without a transmission. I am putting it in my 31 Roadster. I am hooking it up to a 39 top loader and am using the cast iron truck bell housing. Will I need to reuse the piece in the attached pictures??? Doesn't look like I will need it. I am pretty sure it is a dust shield but I don't know what transmission it was used on. Merc o matic maybe?? If I do need to use it where would one get the gaskets??
 

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You will NOT need to use that, whatever it is.
It looks like it might be for a the later 51 merc transmission or an automatic.
Does it have a part number.
 
You will need it with the cast truck bell. Two bolts go through it and hold the pan. The flat side goes against the starter plate. Flathead suppliers have the seals, I got mine from Van Pelt.
 
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The dust shield came with my engine but it didn't have a bellhousing or starter plate. The oil pan is the one with the big inspection hole in it. I have been trying to identify exactly what this motor came out of and everytime I do something like this comes up. It's an 8BA block for sure that has a 4" merc crank and had Merc EAC heads on it when I got it. It also had the 49 Merc water pumps on it as well. Did Ford mix and match truck parts with passenger car parts??? It even had the steel crankshaft pulley #6312 in your first diagram attached to the crank.

Thanks for the diagrams.
 
I don't know how Ford did it, or what has been mixed/matched in the years since. My setup came out of a '52 F2. It still had the Mercury green paint, heads, crank, etc.
 
40cpe, Looks like I stand corrected. It seems that is part of the 8RT bellhousing.
I would sure like to see a photo of that piece installed.
Thanks for the knowledge.
 
Yeah mine had the merc green paint on it as well. I would say someone put it in a truck along the line but I just can't figure out how they were able to use the 49 merc water pumps that I believe are 49 merc only units. The water outlets would have been to low on the truck I suspect.

Regardless I am glad to have it and it's crack free.
 
Definitely have to use the truck oil pan with that seal retainer. I would look for a 49 through 51 Mercury oil pan with the shorter rear sump unless that is what you have. Most of the big truck oil pans have the deeper sump and the clean out and a lot of them were used with the cast iron half bell with the 11-inch clutch & flywheel. The Merc set up or the plain set up for 10-inch clutch F1 pickups were good set ups. Both can be found on flea-pay fairly often. What ever you do, get the starter plate that goes with the half bell & pan that you choose. They were all different and don't interchange. The Merc set up had an angle piece on the starter plate that will attach to the bottom of the Merc type oil pan with three studs and thin nuts. The studs are welded to the pan. This is a good way to ID them. You will also need the oil pump pick up for the pan you choose. The Merc also used its own road draft tube due to the way the cross member was installed in them but you may be able to use either one.
 
Mr. Rotorwrench has given the BEST recommendation -especially about getting the correct bell housing AND starter plate.
 
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