deuce lover
Well-known member
At least with the Bronco there are lots of gear choices and it has the 5X5.5 bolt pattern.With the trans you have, 3.90 gears will give you a final drive of 2.95 in 5th.
t5 is installed
- Thread starter Lyle
- Start date
Lyle
Senior Member
deuce lover The trans I have has the 4.03 first. with the 4.11 bronco I am thinking it will be start the take off and quickly go to second. Also my front bolt pattern is 5 on 4 1/2 with the disk brakes I could not get the 5x5.5 I have a f100 front end. I thought about changing to the 5x5.5 in the front. Now with the low 1th gear I might change to the high speed mercury 1953 rear.
deuce lover
Well-known member
Lyle,What is that Merc gear ratio? Isn't that Merc rear wider than the Bronco?You have the same trans I have which has the .076 5th.If you have to tall a gear in the rear you will lug that motor in 5th.You could get those Bronco axles redrilled for 5X4.5 or get adapters from 5X5.5 to 5X4.5.
Lyle
Senior Member
I also have a 52 rearend that is a little lower than the mercury. I don't know what the mercury or the ford is.Ajohn my frend said the 52 is lower than the mercury. 52 is a standard with. A overdrive ******. I have 2 automatic mercO matics and 4 or five other side shifter transmission and 2 top loaders. One of the side shifters is overdrive with all the atgachments except one of the cabels is bad. I had a nabor pull the engine and ****** on the52 and he did not save the speedometer cable he forgot to disconect and messed it up.
rotorwrench
Well-known member
The AC & MA (52 & 53) rear axle assemblies were a Ford type with removable third member but had similar gear ratios to the 50 & 51 Dana 44 type rear axle assemblies but no parts are interchangeable. Overdrive ratios were 3.90:1 standard and 4.10:1, 4.27:1, & 4.55:1 for heavy duty & mountain driving applications. Merc-O-Matic types were 3.31:1 standard and 3.54:1 for heavy duty & mountain driving applications. The 52 thru 54 Mercury rear axles are interchangable with the 52 thru 54 Ford passenger cars except the wagons & sedan delivery models with only minor differences.
The 50 & 51 Mercury types (Dana 44 6 5/8" ring gear bolt circle) are the same at the mid 50 thru 52 Ford F1 pick up with only a change to the spring hangers. 49 Mercury types (Dana 41) are the same as the 48 to early 50 Ford F1 pick up types with 5 5/8 ring gear bolt circle also with different spring mount pads.
I always wondered what the yellow 53 Merc convertible that Lucy & Desi drove in the movie "The Long Long Trailer" had for a rear axle ratio.
The 50 & 51 Mercury types (Dana 44 6 5/8" ring gear bolt circle) are the same at the mid 50 thru 52 Ford F1 pick up with only a change to the spring hangers. 49 Mercury types (Dana 41) are the same as the 48 to early 50 Ford F1 pick up types with 5 5/8 ring gear bolt circle also with different spring mount pads.
I always wondered what the yellow 53 Merc convertible that Lucy & Desi drove in the movie "The Long Long Trailer" had for a rear axle ratio.
Flat Ernie
Senior Member
Lots of good info on here and lots of confused info here...
The S10 had two distinct gearsets:
1st - 4.03 2nd - 2.37 3rd - 1.49 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.86
1st - 3.76 2nd - 2.18 3rd - 1.41 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.72
You absolutely cannot tell which gearset you have by the engine it was behind. There are some rules of thumb, but to be certain, you must decode the tag (1352-xxx) against a known list. Additionally, most of these are now 20-25 yrs old and, like our flatheads, you don't really know what's in them until you open them up - they may have been rebuilt a time or two.
1993 S10 may have either Ford or GM bellhousing bolt pattern...most seem to be GM pattern while the rest of GM T5 (Camaro/Firebird primarily) seemed to have switched to the Ford pattern by '93).
The S10 did not get the WC trans until '93 and anecdotal evidence suggests that only the Ford pattern T5 were WC...but I've found no documentation to back that up.
You can indeed change the 5th gear, however, if you take the 5th gears out of the 3.76 gearset (0.72) and put them into the 4.03 gearset, you won't get 0.72, you'll get something else. This is because, in 5th, the power is transmitted from the input gear down to the countershaft to the 5th gear on the countershaft and then to the 5th gear on the output shaft. So the overall ratio is affected by the input gear and the front countershaft gear, not just the 5th gearset itself. So you have to do the math by counting gear teeth in each stage - you could be going the wrong way...there are dozens of possible combos. The geer tooth counts are hard to come by - I used to have a list, but it's long gone & I never transferred it to electronic...a project for another day.
The NWC 3.50 gearset is out there, but harder to find. It was offered in the Astrovans and Camaro/Firebirds. It's ratios are:
1st - 3.50 2nd - 2.14 3rd - 1.39 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.78
The very first Mustang T5 were NWC ('83-84) and had the following gearset:
1st - 2.95 2nd - 1.94 3rd - 1.34 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.72
Lots of combos out there and we haven't touched the WC stuff yet.
The 4.03 gearset with a 4.11 rear is a bit low, even with tall tires. A 3.76 gearset with a 3.78 rear is much better, but still a bit lower than original - I think it's good though, as you get away from a stop quicker and have a better overdrive ratio...the 3.50 is about perfect, but much harder to find.
One of the big advantages (besides synchronized 1st gear) is the closer gear spacing between a 5-spd and a 3-spd. Gear spacing is always a compromise between RPM drop and torque multiplication. With a 5-spd, there is much less RPM drop between shifts keeping our flatheads humming along in their sweet spot...this equals a quicker acceleration (for those so inclined) and better gear choices for around town. It does completely transform the flathead driving experience...
The S10 had two distinct gearsets:
1st - 4.03 2nd - 2.37 3rd - 1.49 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.86
1st - 3.76 2nd - 2.18 3rd - 1.41 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.72
You absolutely cannot tell which gearset you have by the engine it was behind. There are some rules of thumb, but to be certain, you must decode the tag (1352-xxx) against a known list. Additionally, most of these are now 20-25 yrs old and, like our flatheads, you don't really know what's in them until you open them up - they may have been rebuilt a time or two.
1993 S10 may have either Ford or GM bellhousing bolt pattern...most seem to be GM pattern while the rest of GM T5 (Camaro/Firebird primarily) seemed to have switched to the Ford pattern by '93).
The S10 did not get the WC trans until '93 and anecdotal evidence suggests that only the Ford pattern T5 were WC...but I've found no documentation to back that up.
You can indeed change the 5th gear, however, if you take the 5th gears out of the 3.76 gearset (0.72) and put them into the 4.03 gearset, you won't get 0.72, you'll get something else. This is because, in 5th, the power is transmitted from the input gear down to the countershaft to the 5th gear on the countershaft and then to the 5th gear on the output shaft. So the overall ratio is affected by the input gear and the front countershaft gear, not just the 5th gearset itself. So you have to do the math by counting gear teeth in each stage - you could be going the wrong way...there are dozens of possible combos. The geer tooth counts are hard to come by - I used to have a list, but it's long gone & I never transferred it to electronic...a project for another day.
The NWC 3.50 gearset is out there, but harder to find. It was offered in the Astrovans and Camaro/Firebirds. It's ratios are:
1st - 3.50 2nd - 2.14 3rd - 1.39 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.78
The very first Mustang T5 were NWC ('83-84) and had the following gearset:
1st - 2.95 2nd - 1.94 3rd - 1.34 4th - 1.00 5th - 0.72
Lots of combos out there and we haven't touched the WC stuff yet.
The 4.03 gearset with a 4.11 rear is a bit low, even with tall tires. A 3.76 gearset with a 3.78 rear is much better, but still a bit lower than original - I think it's good though, as you get away from a stop quicker and have a better overdrive ratio...the 3.50 is about perfect, but much harder to find.
One of the big advantages (besides synchronized 1st gear) is the closer gear spacing between a 5-spd and a 3-spd. Gear spacing is always a compromise between RPM drop and torque multiplication. With a 5-spd, there is much less RPM drop between shifts keeping our flatheads humming along in their sweet spot...this equals a quicker acceleration (for those so inclined) and better gear choices for around town. It does completely transform the flathead driving experience...
Last edited:
