Ford fordomatic 2 speed

I bought a 2 speed fordomatic not knowing anything about it other than it is a rare trans. Can it be built to race?
Thanks

tconnection wrote:I bought a 2 speed fordomatic not knowing anything about it other than it is a rare trans. Can it be built to race?
Thanks

We had those in our Edsels but I can't see them having robust enough internals to be worth anything racing.

If it could be built to race, the blue oval purists wouldn't use 'glides.

Buddy took it back and gave my money back.

I have one of those trans also. I looked at it thinking it has a C-6 sized input and output shafts it should be pretty strong. Don't know where the weak link is that makes a Glide so much better other than 50+ years of development on the Glide.

FirstEliminator wrote:I have one of those trans also. I looked at it thinking it has a C-6 sized input and output shafts it should be pretty strong. Don't know where the weak link is that makes a Glide so much better other than 50+ years of development on the Glide.

We've broken a couple behind a 312 y block motor. The planets are weak and the material they used in the shafts is not the greatest. IF there was aftermarket support then anything would be possible but it just didn't happen with them like it did the glides.

RARE? I have six or seven of them laying around, how many do you want?

tconnection wrote:I bought a 2 speed fordomatic not knowing anything about it other than it is a rare trans. Can it be built to race?
Thanks

The one I had in my 58 Edsel had a cast iron case and weighed a ton. Also they were a 3- speed trans, L and D. If you started in low it

would stay in first gear, if you started in D it would start in second and shift to third. Now if you wanted to race with it you had to start in low

manually shift to second and when it shifted pull it back in to low to hold second and shift back to D when you wanted third gear.

rmk57 wrote:

tconnection wrote:I bought a 2 speed fordomatic not knowing anything about it other than it is a rare trans. Can it be built to race?
Thanks

The one I had in my 58 Edsel had a cast iron case and weighed a ton. Also they were a 3- speed trans, L and D. If you started in low it

would stay in first gear, if you started in D it would start in second and shift to third. Now if you wanted to race with it you had to start in low

manually shift to second and when it shifted pull it back in to low to hold second and shift back to D when you wanted third gear.

That;s a different trans than the Ford-O-Matic that was in the Falcon. This 2 speed was aluminum cased and had big input and output shafts. In my 58 Merc there is a trans similar to what you are describing. In the Merc it was called a Merc-O-Matic----basically a medium case Cruise-O-Matic. Not sure what Edsel called it. I'm sure they had their own special name. How do you shift the Edsel? My Merc is push button that operates a couple cables to the trans.
Are you the guy that goes to Carlisle with the pink Edsel that put a 460 in it? If so, about 8-9 years ago we were talking about how we don't have to comply with seat belt law because our cars are 1958.

I don't have the Edsel anymore, its long gone. Pretty sure it was called a Ford-o-matic in the Edsel to. The Edsel had your push button selector on the hub of the steering wheel. It was mounted on planetary gears so the hub didnt turn when you steered the car. Changing gears was controlled by a series of relays and a shift motor mounted on the side of the transmission. The shift system was called "Teletouch" and was fairly complicated for its day and not very dependable due to heat from the exhaust and normal road dirt messing with the shift motor. They discontinued the push button feature mid-year I think and went to regular column shift.

I'm in the northwest and my Edsel was Villager wagon. I also had Fordomatic in my 57 Ford, 272 Yblock.

If its aluminum case, and has a large input / output shafts, that's half of what a Glide has!!
I wonder if Glide internals could be modified to work inside the Ford-O-Matic case.
But then a tricked out valvebody and pump would also be needed.

BBFTorino wrote:If its aluminum case, and has a large input / output shafts, that's half of what a Glide has!!
I wonder if Glide internals could be modified to work inside the Ford-O-Matic case.
But then a tricked out valvebody and pump would also be needed.

.....Fun idea to kick around, but....

Sounds like a lot of R & D and $$$$ when good powerglides are like bellybuttons. Ford-O-Matics (assuming they worked as well as today's aftermarket glides) would only wind up in a handful of Fords, guaranteeing that they'd always be a very pricey alternative.

maverick wrote:

BBFTorino wrote:If its aluminum case, and has a large input / output shafts, that's half of what a Glide has!!
I wonder if Glide internals could be modified to work inside the Ford-O-Matic case.
But then a tricked out valvebody and pump would also be needed.

.....Fun idea to kick around, but....

Sounds like a lot of R & D and $$$$ when good powerglides are like bellybuttons.  Ford-O-Matics (assuming they worked as well as today's aftermarket glides) would only wind up in a handful of Fords, guaranteeing that they'd always be a very pricey alternative.

Anything is possible , but GM did their homework when it came to marketing in the early years and racing development. Along with enter change abilities aftermarket support ( back then fire and bailing wire was all you needed ) So I agree with the above post. 60 years ago if ford had of marketed better then we might have been using a Ford Edsel two speed .