I have overhauled many fmx cruisomatic transmissions. Aside from a weakness in the cast iron case where the servo contacts the case, it is a easy overhaul, and a durable transmission. It was used on heavier applications prior to the C6. I always had the torque converter flushed and endplays checked to be sure of its stability. Precise Band adjustment are important, as well as clutch pack clearance, and overall transmission endplay. Visual inspection of wear in the valve body, front pump, governor, and sun gear are important. The best part of these early transmissions was the rear pump, which allowed a push start. The rear pump was dropped in later models of the cruisomatic, and not used in the C6 or C4 transmissions.
Hello Angell. I think you did a fantastic job on your tear down of that trans. Anyone that will be taking one apart could surely use your video to help with it. George B
Thank you sir! That was definitely the goal, I know transmissions can be very daunting to many folks, so I wanted to spend a little more time explaining things on this video to hopefully help people work on them!
Angel, you make your video's fun, entertaining, and instructional, I believe you could be a BIG HIT on TH-cam. I suggest you take the dive and do it fulltime. One video every month or two won't do it. Watching some other channels that are similar in content do not stack up to your talent. You are not afraid to poke fun at everything including yourself, and any mistakes made help make your video's better than the rest. Good luck, I would like to see more of you. Go for it!
Thank you for the very kind comment sir! While I would love to do this full time, I am afraid that won’t pay the bills (maybe one day though!). But you are absolutely right, I need to get more videos up more regularly! I am starting to get more serious about doing these videos, seeing that so many people like them, so I have begun devoting at least an hour of my time each day to video creation. Between filming the actual restoration process, creating a script, doing the voice over, and then assembling the video, it takes a lot of time to create one of these videos, so hopefully the extra time I put into these can help churn them out faster!
Thank you sir! I've heard a lot of good things about those toploaders, very popular transmissions! I am getting ready to rebuild the less popular successor to the toploader, the SROD from my dad's 81' Mustang, much lighter and smaller than the Cruise-O-Matic that's for sure, good luck on your rebuild!
Thank you sir! These are definitely a bit intimidating to rebuild so I don't blame you! I will say though that this was certainly a fun experience, I actually feel like I understand how these transmissions work now which is pretty cool!
I have the 390 FE and Cruise-o-matic trans from a 63 T"Bird in my collection. No car though. Agreed, the trans is HEAVY!. The intake manifold isn't much lighter.
glad you made this video I have to rebuild my transmission in my 64 this summer and was only able to find 1 video of how to do it this was a way better video than that one i saw
Thank you sir, I appreciate the comment! I should hopefully have the next video up in less than a month, which should have a lot of good information to help you on your rebuild!
My Word! looks like a mechanical heart.... I can just hear it now.... "Angel to O.R 1 Stat!" I don't think I am brave enough to tackle that job. Right now I am working on removing my Steering box as it leaks like a sieve. Since you have both engines out of your Tbirds you might want to consider rebuilding yours as well because once the engine and break booster is in place it's no fun to try and get to the steering box. God bless and very impressive work!
Thank you sir, I always appreciate your comments! Funny you should mention that, I am actually getting ready to receive my steering box seal kit from the Birds Nest on Tuesday, it will be one of the first items to go back on the car. It should definitely be easier to rebuild than the transmission that’s for sure! God bless and good luck on your steering box rebuild!
@@AngellsGarage Ha! that's to funny! my seal kit is arriving also from the Birds nest this week as well. Back in the '80's I had a '64 Tbird and it was my daily driver and one day I put it in reverse and it took over 30 seconds to go in reverse as well as any forward gear. So I called around to find a good transmission person to work on it. I did, and he rebuilt it and told me that those old cast iron 3 speeds were one of Fords better transmissions.
Hey Angell, interesting video. This is a big job. I did one a long long time ago and it worked okay. I decided to leave those jobs to the professionals that do that sort of thing every day. One common characteristic of the cruise-o is when they get old and start to wear out, they don't want to stay in second gear very long. They tend to shift into second and then immediately dump into third gear. Not always but very common. I remember that there was a shift kit to correct this but those kits have been obsolete for decades. I really don't know what people are doing these days to correct that. Since you could not drive any of these cars, you'll never know what, if anything, was wrong with that trans before you took it apart. I guess you'll find out when it goes back together. I'm looking forward to your next video putting this thing back together. Thanks.
Thank you sir! That is quite interesting, I actually never heard of that particular issue before, I’ll have to definitely look out for that when I begin testing the transmission out! I wish I could have tested this transmission out, but after going through it there was definitely no way it was going to work. Both of the clutch pack pistons literally fell out as soon as I took them apart, and as it turns out the seals on the pistons were totally petrified. I actually had to bust the seals off with a hammer because they were so rock hard! As odd as it sounds it made me feel good finding those bad seals and the burned up band, at least it let me know I did the right thing rebuilding it because I was worried about taking it all apart only to find nothing wrong!
@@vintagethunderbirdrepair9426 So no I sadly did not find a replacement, I checked eBay for almost a month straight and all I could ever find was a FMX drum, which although similar, did have some differences. I thankfully though have a machine shop at the company I work at, so I was able to borrow the engine lathe for a few hours and get some help from an experienced machinist. While I couldn’t completely remove all those deep groves, I was able to smooth everything else out and remove all those burn marks, so other than a couple of groves the drum otherwise looks brand new, so it should (hopefully) work just fine. If not I’ll be back on the hunt again, but I am feel pretty confident the repaired drum should do good!
@@AngellsGarage Okay, You do know there are Thunderbird dealers that sell used parts like The Birds Nest and they may have these transmission parts??? There is also a guy here in Denver that may have the parts too. I once upon a time had a container full of transmissions and engines but that is long gone. You always need it after you throw it away!! Anyway, hopefully your cure will be fine. Good luck.
I am hoping to have the next video up in a week or two! It’s going to be a long one, about 45 minutes, I didn’t realize how much work it took to rebuild the transmission!
Normally I probably would have taken close to 100 photos for a job like this, or maybe even more, can’t have enough photos! But since I filmed everything, I instead actually have about 5 hours of footage showing EVERYTHING and only a couple of photos, mainly just to show my friends what I was up to. Thanks for the comment sir!
So i could essentially replace my tail housing without pulling the transmission or even the exhaust? Not sure about the exhaust. My drivers side mount cracked right along the case. Guessing welding these would be futile.
So you should be able to pull the tail housing out without pulling the transmission, I am not sure about the exhaust, but my guess is that you might have to move it. You'll need to slide the tail shaft back about 2 feet to clear the output shaft and pull it from the car. The tail housings are cast aluminum, which are generally considered weldable, so repairing it might be possible. I have never welded cast aluminum, so I really can't provide much input on how to do it, although some quick research shows that TIG welding is the most common method for repairing cast aluminum. Best of luck on your transmission!
@@bricecenter For my rebuild, I will be using Type F to fill the transmission. The main concern with the fluid for these transmissions is the clutch plates. Originally, these transmissions used bronze clutch plates. These clutch plates need a “grippy” transmission fluid so that they do not slip, which is what Type F works perfectly for. That being said though, if the old bronze clutch plates have been replaced with the newer fiber ones, then technically you can use either Type F or Dexron/Mercon. Dexron and Mercon allow the clutches to slip more, which provides a smoother transmission shift. In general though, the less the clutches slip, the better it is for them and the longer they’ll last, so I opted for Type F. Also, something interesting I found online said the closest replacement for Type A is actually a 50/50 mix of Dexron and Type F. Might be interesting to try, but I usually don’t like mixing different fluids together, so I’ll stick to Type F only lol
I would call the Bird's Nest first and see if they have any in stock. They have a lot of OEM and used parts, so you might be in luck. If not, my second suggestion would be Browne Auto Salvage in Sunset, TX. They have a couple of Thunderbirds and I am willing to bet most, if not all of them still have the Cruise-O's in them. They will pull the parts for you and can ship, I have gotten some parts for my 63 from them, very fair prices! You can call or text Browne's at (940) 393-2469
@@AngellsGarage Thanks! The birds nest is going to check if they have one. Mine is 16.5 inches. they wanted a casting number and the length, but i see nothing on mine and it's been painted black which makes it even harder to see. Going to try and pull it out today or tomorrow without removing anything! Well, i removed the drive shaft. if i just let the exhaust hang a bit i thing there is room. Luckily the underside of my car is very clean.
Got it out the back. I just loosened the exhaust. easy peezy. I'm going to keep welding as my last resort. It's not that hard to remove, but i'll be sick if it breaks while i'm driving and i dump 10 quarts of transmission fluid out the back.
@@mooosestang Awesome! Glad you were able to get it out without any hassles! Now just hopefully Birds Nest can find you a tail shaft, then life will be good
@@AngellsGarage i can't post a link to a picture, thanks youtube!. The crack is not on the threads and didn't crack all the way through🤣 if birds nest or browne auto doesn't come through i look into a local welding shop. I'd always be nervous about it breaking though. Mine didn't have that rubber seal on the splines, just a seal inside the end of the housing.
Hey angel I’m working on a 1961 thunderbird myself I have a ton of extra parts I’ve collected from people parting with their projects so if you have any parts you may need or are looking for you can ask me and see if I have some I have them all in storage containers and I have to get rid of a lot of duplicates I have a few headlight buckets, headlights, some window gearing, small trim pieces and some larger things from all 61-63 years so feel free to message me and we can work something out
Yeah all that cast iron in this transmission is heavy! The biggest problem I actually ran into was parts availability, you just can’t find parts for these old Cruise-O’s outside of seals and some small parts. Things like bearings, gears, and even the bands aren’t even made anymore. So if something major ever goes wrong with this transmission, then I will definitely be doing a C6 swap, the parts availability alone would make it worth it!
You're funny and informative and have mad skills. Here's hoping you blow up on TH-cam. You've got the juice!
Thank you! I really appreciate the kind comment sir!
I have overhauled many fmx cruisomatic transmissions. Aside from a weakness in the cast iron case where the servo contacts the case, it is a easy overhaul, and a durable transmission. It was used on heavier applications prior to the C6. I always had the torque converter flushed and endplays checked to be sure of its stability. Precise Band adjustment are important, as well as clutch pack clearance, and overall transmission endplay. Visual inspection of wear in the valve body, front pump, governor, and sun gear are important. The best part of these early transmissions was the rear pump, which allowed a push start. The rear pump was dropped in later models of the cruisomatic, and not used in the C6 or C4 transmissions.
Hello Angell. I think you did a fantastic job on your tear down of that trans. Anyone that will be taking one apart could surely use your video to help with it.
George B
Thank you sir! That was definitely the goal, I know transmissions can be very daunting to many folks, so I wanted to spend a little more time explaining things on this video to hopefully help people work on them!
Angel, you make your video's fun, entertaining, and instructional, I believe you could be a BIG HIT on TH-cam. I suggest you take the dive and do it fulltime. One video every month or two won't do it. Watching some other channels that are similar in content do not stack up to your talent. You are not afraid to poke fun at everything including yourself, and any mistakes made help make your video's better than the rest. Good luck, I would like to see more of you. Go for it!
Thank you for the very kind comment sir! While I would love to do this full time, I am afraid that won’t pay the bills (maybe one day though!). But you are absolutely right, I need to get more videos up more regularly! I am starting to get more serious about doing these videos, seeing that so many people like them, so I have begun devoting at least an hour of my time each day to video creation. Between filming the actual restoration process, creating a script, doing the voice over, and then assembling the video, it takes a lot of time to create one of these videos, so hopefully the extra time I put into these can help churn them out faster!
Fantastic video your precise and step by step process is wonderful thank you Sir
Thank you sir! I appreciate the comment!
Another good video Angel, and timely. My Ford toploader is currently in pieces on my bench. Keep up the great work and glad to see the gloves in use!
Thank you sir! I've heard a lot of good things about those toploaders, very popular transmissions! I am getting ready to rebuild the less popular successor to the toploader, the SROD from my dad's 81' Mustang, much lighter and smaller than the Cruise-O-Matic that's for sure, good luck on your rebuild!
@@AngellsGarage thanks Angel! You are killing it. Hope eveything is good for you.
nice work again keep going and stay save
Thank you, I appreciate it!
You are a natural teacher.
Thank you sir! I do like these videos to be helpful, I want to help other people keep these cars on the road for a long time!
Awesome video, very detailed. I am gonna come back to this when I start working on my transmission. Hope you get more subs, you deserve it!
Thank you sir, I appreciate it! And good luck on your transmission, I hope the video makes your job a little easier!
Wow! You're more brave than I am! I don't have the confidence to tear apart a transmission. That's a job I'll gladly pay a shop to do!!! Great video!!
Thank you sir! These are definitely a bit intimidating to rebuild so I don't blame you! I will say though that this was certainly a fun experience, I actually feel like I understand how these transmissions work now which is pretty cool!
I have the 390 FE and Cruise-o-matic trans from a 63 T"Bird in my collection. No car though.
Agreed, the trans is HEAVY!. The intake manifold isn't much lighter.
Yeah no kidding! I guess the motto when they were building this car was "The heavier the better!"
You have some balls for tackling the transmission, not for the faint of heart, great job.
Thank you sir, I appreciate the comment!
glad you made this video I have to rebuild my transmission in my 64 this summer and was only able to find 1 video of how to do it this was a way better video than that one i saw
Thank you sir, I appreciate the comment! I should hopefully have the next video up in less than a month, which should have a lot of good information to help you on your rebuild!
My Word! looks like a mechanical heart.... I can just hear it now.... "Angel to O.R 1 Stat!" I don't think I am brave enough to tackle that job. Right now I am working on removing my Steering box as it leaks like a sieve. Since you have both engines out of your Tbirds you might want to consider rebuilding yours as well because once the engine and break booster is in place it's no fun to try and get to the steering box. God bless and very impressive work!
Thank you sir, I always appreciate your comments! Funny you should mention that, I am actually getting ready to receive my steering box seal kit from the Birds Nest on Tuesday, it will be one of the first items to go back on the car. It should definitely be easier to rebuild than the transmission that’s for sure! God bless and good luck on your steering box rebuild!
@@AngellsGarage Ha! that's to funny! my seal kit is arriving also from the Birds nest this week as well. Back in the '80's I had a '64 Tbird and it was my daily driver and one day I put it in reverse and it took over 30 seconds to go in reverse as well as any forward gear. So I called around to find a good transmission person to work on it. I did, and he rebuilt it and told me that those old cast iron 3 speeds were one of Fords better transmissions.
Hey Angell, interesting video. This is a big job. I did one a long long time ago and it worked okay. I decided to leave those jobs to the professionals that do that sort of thing every day. One common characteristic of the cruise-o is when they get old and start to wear out, they don't want to stay in second gear very long. They tend to shift into second and then immediately dump into third gear. Not always but very common. I remember that there was a shift kit to correct this but those kits have been obsolete for decades. I really don't know what people are doing these days to correct that. Since you could not drive any of these cars, you'll never know what, if anything, was wrong with that trans before you took it apart. I guess you'll find out when it goes back together. I'm looking forward to your next video putting this thing back together. Thanks.
Thank you sir! That is quite interesting, I actually never heard of that particular issue before, I’ll have to definitely look out for that when I begin testing the transmission out! I wish I could have tested this transmission out, but after going through it there was definitely no way it was going to work. Both of the clutch pack pistons literally fell out as soon as I took them apart, and as it turns out the seals on the pistons were totally petrified. I actually had to bust the seals off with a hammer because they were so rock hard! As odd as it sounds it made me feel good finding those bad seals and the burned up band, at least it let me know I did the right thing rebuilding it because I was worried about taking it all apart only to find nothing wrong!
@@AngellsGarage What about that drum that got chewed up by the band? Did you find a replacement?
@@vintagethunderbirdrepair9426 So no I sadly did not find a replacement, I checked eBay for almost a month straight and all I could ever find was a FMX drum, which although similar, did have some differences. I thankfully though have a machine shop at the company I work at, so I was able to borrow the engine lathe for a few hours and get some help from an experienced machinist. While I couldn’t completely remove all those deep groves, I was able to smooth everything else out and remove all those burn marks, so other than a couple of groves the drum otherwise looks brand new, so it should (hopefully) work just fine. If not I’ll be back on the hunt again, but I am feel pretty confident the repaired drum should do good!
@@AngellsGarage Okay, You do know there are Thunderbird dealers that sell used parts like The Birds Nest and they may have these transmission parts??? There is also a guy here in Denver that may have the parts too. I once upon a time had a container full of transmissions and engines but that is long gone. You always need it after you throw it away!! Anyway, hopefully your cure will be fine. Good luck.
We need another video
I am hoping to have the next video up in a week or two! It’s going to be a long one, about 45 minutes, I didn’t realize how much work it took to rebuild the transmission!
How many photos did you take during disassembly? Looking forward to reassembly!
Normally I probably would have taken close to 100 photos for a job like this, or maybe even more, can’t have enough photos! But since I filmed everything, I instead actually have about 5 hours of footage showing EVERYTHING and only a couple of photos, mainly just to show my friends what I was up to. Thanks for the comment sir!
When does part * come out? I think I want to try to rebuild my 64 trannny and your tear down is great
Thank you sir! I hope to have part 2 out within a week, I am just putting the final touches on it now in the video editor!
So i could essentially replace my tail housing without pulling the transmission or even the exhaust? Not sure about the exhaust. My drivers side mount cracked right along the case. Guessing welding these would be futile.
So you should be able to pull the tail housing out without pulling the transmission, I am not sure about the exhaust, but my guess is that you might have to move it. You'll need to slide the tail shaft back about 2 feet to clear the output shaft and pull it from the car. The tail housings are cast aluminum, which are generally considered weldable, so repairing it might be possible. I have never welded cast aluminum, so I really can't provide much input on how to do it, although some quick research shows that TIG welding is the most common method for repairing cast aluminum. Best of luck on your transmission!
What fluid should go back in it? Type A is recommended in the manual, but some say use Type F. I hear Dextron actually replaced Type A.
@@bricecenter For my rebuild, I will be using Type F to fill the transmission. The main concern with the fluid for these transmissions is the clutch plates. Originally, these transmissions used bronze clutch plates. These clutch plates need a “grippy” transmission fluid so that they do not slip, which is what Type F works perfectly for. That being said though, if the old bronze clutch plates have been replaced with the newer fiber ones, then technically you can use either Type F or Dexron/Mercon. Dexron and Mercon allow the clutches to slip more, which provides a smoother transmission shift. In general though, the less the clutches slip, the better it is for them and the longer they’ll last, so I opted for Type F. Also, something interesting I found online said the closest replacement for Type A is actually a 50/50 mix of Dexron and Type F. Might be interesting to try, but I usually don’t like mixing different fluids together, so I’ll stick to Type F only lol
any ideas where i can find an extension housing?🙄
I would call the Bird's Nest first and see if they have any in stock. They have a lot of OEM and used parts, so you might be in luck. If not, my second suggestion would be Browne Auto Salvage in Sunset, TX. They have a couple of Thunderbirds and I am willing to bet most, if not all of them still have the Cruise-O's in them. They will pull the parts for you and can ship, I have gotten some parts for my 63 from them, very fair prices! You can call or text Browne's at (940) 393-2469
@@AngellsGarage Thanks! The birds nest is going to check if they have one. Mine is 16.5 inches. they wanted a casting number and the length, but i see nothing on mine and it's been painted black which makes it even harder to see. Going to try and pull it out today or tomorrow without removing anything! Well, i removed the drive shaft. if i just let the exhaust hang a bit i thing there is room. Luckily the underside of my car is very clean.
Got it out the back. I just loosened the exhaust. easy peezy. I'm going to keep welding as my last resort. It's not that hard to remove, but i'll be sick if it breaks while i'm driving and i dump 10 quarts of transmission fluid out the back.
@@mooosestang Awesome! Glad you were able to get it out without any hassles! Now just hopefully Birds Nest can find you a tail shaft, then life will be good
@@AngellsGarage i can't post a link to a picture, thanks youtube!. The crack is not on the threads and didn't crack all the way through🤣 if birds nest or browne auto doesn't come through i look into a local welding shop. I'd always be nervous about it breaking though. Mine didn't have that rubber seal on the splines, just a seal inside the end of the housing.
Hey angel I’m working on a 1961 thunderbird myself I have a ton of extra parts I’ve collected from people parting with their projects so if you have any parts you may need or are looking for you can ask me and see if I have some I have them all in storage containers and I have to get rid of a lot of duplicates I have a few headlight buckets, headlights, some window gearing, small trim pieces and some larger things from all 61-63 years so feel free to message me and we can work something out
Thank you sir! I will be sure to keep you in mind as I start putting things back together, especially if I find anything missing or broken!
Save yourself 100 pounds and put a C6 instead. Better, lighter and the car will work better.
Yeah all that cast iron in this transmission is heavy! The biggest problem I actually ran into was parts availability, you just can’t find parts for these old Cruise-O’s outside of seals and some small parts. Things like bearings, gears, and even the bands aren’t even made anymore. So if something major ever goes wrong with this transmission, then I will definitely be doing a C6 swap, the parts availability alone would make it worth it!
Cruise-o-matics have more tubes than a boiler .
Yes sir they certainly do!