Ford type 9 - 5 speed gearbox
 

I was wondering if any member has taken this route to more relaxed motoring in either their Amazon or PV. I understand an adapter kit is available for B18/20 engines. Think this may be in USA not sure about UK. I did spot on EBay a few months back that a Type 9 box and adaptor for a red block sold for good money. My 544 has the 4.56:1 ENV back axle - great for acceleration but awful for relaxed cruising at 70 mph. I know I could look for a late overdrive unit but these are getting very hard to find and expensive. Thanks in advance.

If you want to go that route I have one more type 9 five speed gearbox left to carry out this upgrade , also can help with the other parts to go with it to complete this if any help let me know 😎👍

Thanks 123GT-AMAZON I am very interested in finding out more about this conversion. For example what ratios I would find with the 5 gears in the type 9 gearbox. How much modification would be required to the gearbox / prop shaft tunnel on the 544. Cost implications of this upgrade. Perhaps you could PM me with more information regarding what you know and costs of parts you can provide. Thank you.

T5 conversions are more common in North America because of availability although the ratios in most of them do not really work out that well for a B18 / B20. I think the T5 was used in some small trucks and they might have better ratios.

The T9 might be more of a UK / Europe thing if you are looking for donors. The T9 was used on the Capri and Sierra (Merkur in NA) XR4 and not a lot of the XR4i s made it to North America. I think the final version of the Capri (which never ended up in North America) was the only one to receive the T9. In fact the UK is the hot-zone for the Mk III Capri so you are probably in the correct location to search for a donor.

The T9 always struck me as a better match for the B18 / B20. However, availability over here (and cost) is a problem. You will not find any T9s sitting in a scrap yard.

How about fitting a 4.1 rear axle and a 5 speed box from say a 240?

There was a thread about that, 240 boxes, about a yr ago. Didn’t you contribute, 142?

240 gearboxes don’t fit as they slanted lot 0f a headache even thinking about it

Have looked into this pretty extensively - 4.1 axles for 544’s are simply not available as a used item in UK. As for tho 240 gearbox - even if you could somehow match it to a M40 bell housing, it’s a big old lump and would require a lot of surgery to the tunnel. The Ford type9 box is physically much smaller and adaptor parts are available.

I’d be interested to know where to get these conversion bits, S Farmer. Do Rob an Emma stock them, forsooth?

Tinus Tuning makes adaptor plates to fit the T9 to the B18/B20.

https://www.tinustuning.nl/1-onderde...ndrijving.html

Fire off an email to him and he may be able to provide all the details associated with the conversion and maybe he can put together a package of the required stuff.

By the time you source everything it is not going to be cheap. On this side of the Atlantic, the only prices I could find for the T9 suggest that you are going to be looking from a minimum or around $700 US$ for a salvage box to around $2000 - $3000 US$ for a reconditioned box. I now remember thinking about this for my 142 about 10+ years ago and deciding that my M41 was probably just fine. The cost is also probably the reason people go with the T5 on this side of the big water.

I think Tinus Tuning also gives you a T5 option behind the B20. The other party offering these adapters is John Parker at Vintage Performance Developments (VPD). VPD is a dodgy supplier without par (take the money and run) so I would stick with Tinus Tuning because he appears to actually deliver parts.