SOMEONE ELSE POST FROM FORDMUSCLCARFORUM
Many of you will probably remember that I trashed my
Liberty prepped Toploader on the first run of the season due to too an inferior 2.90 ratio aftermarket first gear, too much traction and too stiff a clutch.
http://www.fordmuscleforums.comdra...a-carnage.html I recently sent some parts to Liberty to have them modified to replace the damaged parts. As an upgrade to the old stuff, I had the 3rd and 4th gear Faceplated and since it is not offered for 2nd gear, I had them replace the old worn Proshift ring with a fresh one.
According to Liberty, the reason for Faceplating or Proshifting is to "eliminate the need to worry about missed shifts." Faceplating and Proshifting eliminate the synchronizers used in common street transmissions and for this reason are only recommended for track cars. Engagement can be harsh and the higher the shift RPM, the smoother the shift. It is possible to drive a Faceplated or Proshifted tranny on the street, but it requires a combination of double clutching and rpm matching. OK for an occasional jaunt, but not for a daily driver. I could have had 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Proshifted again, but that modification is not as long lasting as Faceplating and it is has less of a chance of surviving on the street. See
Liberty Face Plate vs Proshift for further details on these 2 techniques.
In his thread I hope to show through the use of pictures the differences of these 2 techniques plus
reveal a few other things that I discovered in the original Liberty prepped toploader.
Here is a business end of a factory type toploader gear that is used with a sychro and a brass blocking ring:
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This is the same gear, but it has been Proshifted by cutting off the factory teeth and welding on a different assembly:
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Here is the same gear, but faceplated. Again, it is accomplished by cutting off the factory teeth and welding on a different assembly:
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Here is all 3rd gears in one shot:
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Of course the sychro rings (AKA sliders) will need to be replaced in order to use the new gears.
On the left in the following pic is a standard 3rd/4th gear slider. The one on the right has been Proshifted, which basically means that several teeth were ground from the ring:
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The next pic shows the Faceplated slider replacement:
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Look closely and you will see that this slider is also used in a TKO.
When shifting, it slides and mates with the gears like this:
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A stock slider complete with inner hub, springs and shift dogs is on the left, and the Faceplated slider and inner hub is on the right. It doesn't use springs or dogs:
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The slider for 1st and second gear is different in appearance. The Proshifted side of the slider had teeth removed to match 2nd gear. The first gear side was not modified. On the left below is the stock slider and on the right is the Proshifted part:
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An unmodified first gear is used in a Liberty toploader and the brass blocking rings and shift dogs/springs are eliminated. The modification of the Proshifted 2nd gear prevents them from being used. Because I wanted my racing toploader to be a little more street friendly, I had Liberty modify a brass blocker ring to use as a spacer on the Proshifted second gear so that the eliminated parts could be installed. This will give me a fully functioning sycro'ed first gear so that I won't have to come to a complete stop when downshifting.
On the left is a stock brass blocker ring and on the right the modified part:
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Closeup of the modified ring:
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Stock 1st gear with brass ring and shift dog:
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Proshifted 2nd gear with brass ring and shift dog:
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In order to use the Faceplated gears in 3rd and 4th, the corresponding shift rail may need to be modified. Liberty widened the notches a little to ensure full engagement of the faceplated parts:
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Upon assembly I further modified the above shift rail by widening the 4th gear slot (on the right) even more to ensure full engagement.
One thing I notice when I had the fully Proshifted tranny is that the large gear of the countergear had a bevel machined into it. It was needed to help clear the modified sychro-it can be seen on the left:
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To my surprise, the Faceplated countergear does not need the same modification and a stock gear can be used.
Update-as mentioned below in another post: Upon trial assembly I found that there was slight interference between the Proshifted 4th gear and the counter gear. To fix the problem I ended up machining the counter gear as shown above, even though it wasn't supposed to be required.
I found 2 other things of interest that Liberty had originally done. The first is that they strengthened one of the shift forks by welding a small piece of metal to a weak area.
Original fork:
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Modified fork:
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Side by side:
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The final thing of interest are the 1-2 and 3-4 shift levers which are much beefier than the stock:
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Interestingly, they did not include grooves for the sealing O rings.
In addition to the obvious work, Liberty polished the inside of the used gears that I provided and cleaned them up nicely:
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In the process of figuring out what to do with a bent output shaft, I discovered that Liberty can straighten them and have since sent them the one that I bent.
I talked to Paul (Liberty's toploader specialist) several times and he always took the time to answer my numerous questions to my full satisfaction. Although they are somewhat slow (6 weeks in this case), I am very impressed with their workmanship and attention to detail.