Name that bellhousing

1oldtimer

1oldtimer

Well-known member
Trying to find what this bell housing came off of (and then I need to find one). I need a year and car.



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Ok, found out what it fits. Looks like a 1951 Mercury and I need the bellhousing with matching starter plate and the lower cover.


I need the 8ba bolt pattern to the motor and the 4 bolt to the transmission with the old style clutch shaft NOT the arm. Does this sound like the '51 Mercury?
 
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1oldtimer said:
Ok, found out what it fits. Looks like a 1951 Mercury and I need the bellhousing with matching starter plate and the lower cover.


I need the 8ba bolt pattern to the motor and the 4 bolt to the transmission with the old style clutch shaft NOT the arm. Does this sound like the '51 Mercury?
Click to expand...

The regular production full cast iron '51 Mercury bell is the one with the early ('40-'48 T/O bearing shaft) and fork. This bell, and '52-'53 Ford and Mercury full cast car bells all use the same starter plates and lower inspection covers.
 
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The late 51 Merc item is the only one that has the rotating fork like the old Fords. The 52/53 Ford & Merc had a fulcrum arm to actuate the throw out but they do share the starter plates and lower cover of the 51 Merc style.
 
rotorwrench said:
The late 51 Merc item is the only one that has the rotating fork like the old Fords. The 52/53 Ford & Merc had a fulcrum arm to actuate the throw out but they do share the starter plates and lower cover of the 51 Merc style.
Click to expand...


I think "later" '51 Merc may be more accurate, as I have never seen first hand or any pictures of 1951 Mercury bells, other than the full cast iron version; never the stamped steel 1/2 bell round pattern carry-over from '49-'50. I would think the shop manuals would have shown both versions if the cast bell was "late", since they are usually printed very early in production, but none do, at least U.S. manuals. I don't know when the actual change took place but guess it was very early U.S. to use up '49-'50 parts, maybe later elsewhere like Canada, etc. If you know some factual info please share.

An example of shop manual early printing is in my '64 Ford/Mercury shop manual that shows only the B/W T-10 4-speed, like I had in my early R-code Galaxie, not the normal '64 production Ford top-loader.
 
I’m pretty sure we have one of those bell housings in our core pile at the shop. I’d have to look to see if it has the inspection cover with it. If you’re still hunting this up let me know and I’ll have a look....... Mac
 
Ford started the change over to the new transmission on the Mercury cars sometime in late January or February of 1951. Both of my 1951 cars were manufactured in November of 1950 so they still have the early style half bell set up. 1951 was the change over to the new diamond cut gears that were a improvement over the older gears since they have a wider tooth face profile. Ford likely wanted all the cars to use the same basic transmission & bell housing and that came to pass in 1952 for Ford and Mercury cars when they all went to swing type pedals.
 
rotorwrench said:
Ford started the change over to the new transmission on the Mercury cars sometime in late January or February of 1951. Both of my 1951 cars were manufactured in November of 1950 so they still have the early style half bell set up. 1951 was the change over to the new diamond cut gears that were a improvement over the older gears since they have a wider tooth face profile. Ford likely wanted all the cars to use the same basic transmission & bell housing and that came to pass in 1952 for Ford and Mercury cars when they all went to swing type pedals.
Click to expand...


The '51 Merc 4-bolt transmissions are exactly the same as the newer/improved '51 Fords, except for the shift arms. I guess it was cheaper/easier to design and build a one-year-only 4-bolt bell for the '51 Mercury rather than redesign the clutch linkage to use the '49-'51 Ford stamped bell.
 
They would have had to change the pedals too since the designs tie into each other. That would have made for a pretty big 1/2 year change on the Mercury cars. Change one thing and two more things are affected. I guess they really wanted to use that new transmission. The Mercury also kept the 10-inch Borg & Beck clutch but they changed the disk hub for the 1-inch 10-spline input.
 
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