460 woes!!!

[junkman johnnie]

I just bought a 75 F250 highboy roller. I am put my tow truck bed and my 71 cab on it. I have a 460 with 44 miles on it. I am trying to put it in the highboy frame. The mounts have been modified to fit the 460. It is a 77 460 motor. 79 flywheel. and 79 bell housing. I can not get the bell house to fit right! If I tighten down the bellhousing the flywheel wont turn! I had a hydro bellhousing on it. But I want to go with the older style 79 bellhousing. I have all of my linkages and everything I need. But the 79 bellhousing is giving me issuse. Has anyone else been threw this mess? Do I have to grind anything out? I would think not. Thanks.

[fordman]

i have heard you have to have a true 460 bellhousing to use the 460 sized flywheel. i really dont know its just something i heard. maybe i heard it wrong. i dont know.

[junkman johnnie]

I will look into that. I was lead to believe that a 400M was the same. Same motor mounts, same big block bell housing. But now that I'm having the issue it makes me believe that is not the case. Thanks.

[BobbyFord]

77 460 is internally balanced, the 79 460 is externally balanced. A 79 flywheel on a 77 motor is going to cause vibration problems and eventual crank/lower-end damage.

[junkman johnnie]

Thank you so very very very much!!!! My buddies said that they never heard of such things. So 1 of them brought over a early style 460 flywheel. They are not the same. So now I'm going to swap them out and get her done! Thanks again, Junkman......

[hotrodfeguy]

There is TRUCK 460 and a car 460. the truck one will have a hatchet behind the harmonic bal. Look to see what one you have.

[Hawkrod]

A couple of obvious issues here. As BobbyFord noted, you can't use a 79 flywheel on a 77 motor, they are balanced differently. Second is a 351M/400 bellhousing will bolt on to a 460 but it is too short and needs a spacer added to the back or the input of the trans will contact the end of the crank and bind (as you have found). Finally, truck 460's are the same as car 460's until they went to external balance in 79 so all 73-78 460 truck engines are the same as car engines as far as major components are concerned and it will NOT have a hatchet behind the harmonic balancer. Hawkrod

[junkman johnnie]

I was told today that a stick shift flywheel off a 390 would work. As long as it had the wide opening for the crank. Is this true? The 460 I have came out of my old 77 F250 2 wheel drive. The NP435 came out of a 81 F350 2 wheel drive. The 203 was in the 75 F250 4x4 Highboy frame when I got it. Not to mention the 71 F250 cab, 68 F100 grill, and 67 F600 dash. Plus it has my wrecker bed on it. It has been a work in progress for 4 years now! I tried uploading pictures threw Imageshack. But I guess I am better at turning wrenches then computer stuff.

[BobbyFord]

Save yourself time and headache and use an application correct flywheel for the 1977 460 engine.

[Hawkrod]

Save yourself time and headache and use an application correct flywheel for the 1977 460 engine.

That kind of gets to be an issue as there is no such thing! You either have to use a 390 flywheel and change your starter drive gear to a 390 one (the tooth counts on teh ring gear and starter drive are different on a 390), use a 68-71 429 flywheel or buy and aftermarket one. Ford never made a stick shift 460 until after they went to external balancing and original 429 flywheels are pricey and rare. Along with that, the correct bellhousing to use is an original C9AA 429 one as it is deeper than the D7TA bellhousing from a 351M/400 but as I noted, you can simply add about a 3/8" spacer between the D7TA bellhousing and trans and it will work fine. Hawkrod

[71cc]

i have heard you have to have a true 460 bellhousing to use the 460 sized flywheel. i really dont know its just something i heard. maybe i heard it wrong. i dont know.

I think the 460 bellhousing has an extra hump to clear the bigger flywheel and clutch. It will be at the top op the bellhousing..

[junkman johnnie]

Ok. We were looking at the 390 set-up. But had to change the starter stuff around. So no go on the 390. We got a few stick spacer plates. We thought about cutting the outter lip off and using them as spacers as well. But it is going in a tow truck I will drive everyday! So I did not want to go with the make s@#T up approach!

[junkman johnnie]

So is it impossible to make a 77 460 a stick? If I can I want to use the linkage type. Not the hydro type.

[OldRedFord]

Why the preference for the linkage style clutch over the hydo?

[junkman johnnie]

Because I have aready changed so much on the truck. And I have boxes of spare parts for the old bumpsides. Not to mention when they built those trucks, they were built FORD TOUGH!!!!! The Hydro set ups are ok but I want to feel the truck! I know it sounds stupid, but I can tell when my babies are in need of something just by the way the feel. Your arms and legs are an extention of you. When you sit in a FORD it will let you know if there is a problem.