DIY Ford Toploader 4spd Faceplating
Who says you can't DIY faceplate 2nd gear in a Ford Toploader? While parts for 3rd & 4th gear faceplate conversions were available off the shelf from Liberty, Proshift was the only upgrade available for 2nd gear. Wanting 2nd gear faceplated as well, I took a set of 3rd/4th Liberty parts and modified them to fit in the 2nd gear position...
Here's a pic of a trial fitting of 2nd inside the main case. This Toploader now has been faceplated in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears. Keeping the 1st gear synchro makes it easier to drive on the street, as you can slip it in and out of gear while idling at a stoplite. If you decide to faceplate your own Toploader (or have a local shop do it for you), this pic also shows the gap dimensions I use which tighten up the slider travel distance quite a bit over what you get when Liberty does it. My shifter knob travel is 1-1/2" from neutral in each gear, which translates to 3" overall arm movement when shifting...
Here's the same transmission as above, except 5 years later. You can see some rounding of the edge of the 2nd gear dogs in this pic, we pulled the trans down to replace them. What you can also see is the aluminum shift rail stops we added on both sides of the shift forks. This greatly reduces the hammering effect of the rail's inertia on the forks, we have had no problems with bent or broken stock shift forks at all. This pic also shows the stop collar lengths that I use, they slide over the shift rails during install and are Loctited in place...
Back in 2011, I originally bought 3 TKO dog rings and 2 TKO faceplate sliders from Liberty. At the time, the dog rings were $65/ea, the sliders were $100/ea....
Machined the gears to accept the dog rings. The Liberty slider for 3rd/4th gears was used as-is, no modifications. For the 1/2 slider, I slit one side off the extra 3/4 faceplate slider, then welded it onto the 2nd gear side of a stock Toploader 1/2 slider. Retained the original synchro setup on the 1st gear side. Ended up with synchro 1st, faceplated 2/3/4. Here's a pic of the parted off section of Liberty faceplate slider sitting on the stock slider...
Here's a pic of the slider after welding on the faceplate ring. Note that reverse gear teeth on the stock slider were narrowed to make room for the weld, the inner teeth of the faceplate ring were also removed...
All this was skip welded using common .035" MIG wire, air blast cooling between welds to protect the heat treat of the engagement lugs.
This transmission has been in the car for around 10 years now, no broken gears, shafts, or shift forks to date. I have replaced faceplate parts a few times due to wear/tear, also replaced a few twisted small input shafts and Spicer 28spl slip yokes. Still has the same 28spl SROD output shaft that was installed in 2011, it's splines are still straight. Went to a 28spl billet Sonax slip yoke a few years ago, it's splines are still straight as well. Car is currently using a Hitmaster clutch hit controller. It's configured to soften the hit for around 1.0 sec during launch, but also comes on for 0.5 sec after the shifts. Without the unit active for WOT shifts, the Toploader's small input shaft splines twist.
To lighten up the cast-iron Toploader, I made a .065" sheet steel tailhousing for it, eliminating the pad for the trans mount and moving the shifter mount pad to the passenger side of the tailhousing (allows fabrication of a smaller/lighter shifter mounting bracket). In this pic you can also see the external "rail style" shift linkage guides that are welded to the Toploader's original sheetmetal top cover. This style linkage allows mounting the shifter above the output shaft, overall it's similar to the Saginaw shift linkage shown two pictures below...
Fabricating our own tailhousing from steel saves weight over aluminum due to use of thinner materials, also allows for a more efficient shifter bracket location. There is no trans mount on this car, but there is a crossmember under the tailhousing to stiffen the tunnel. The complete Toploader with it's cast iron main case, sheetmetal tailhousing, oil, and slip yoke weighs in at 91.4lbs. A complete T5 with it's aluminum case and tailhousing weighs about 80lbs with oil.
I don't have a picture of the shifter installed on the Toploader, but it is basically just like the one pictured below that i made for a Saginaw 4spd I faceplated back around 2008. Looking at this picture, you can see why I moved the Top[loader's shifter mount to the right side of the fabricated tailhousing...
This shifter position puts the shifter close to the steering wheel, also gives it perfect in-car ergonomics for hitting the 3/4 shifter gate.
Here's a simple Toploader specific transmission adapter we made for using a floor jack to install the transmission, also the stand we made that converts the adapter into a floor stand. The adapter simply lifts out of the stand and can then be inserted into the jack pad of our floor jack...
Here's a simple Toploader specific transmission adapter we made for using a floor jack to install the transmission, also the stand we made that converts the adapter into a floor stand. The adapter simply lifts out of the stand and can then be inserted into the jack pad of our floor jack...
IHere you can see the ears that fit over studs installed between the main case and tailhousing. You can also see the simple jack bolt at the front used to fine-tune angle...
In this pic, you can see one of the long studs installed to allow attaching the floor jack adapter bracket. You can also see the shift linkage guides that I welded to the transmission's top cover...