I have a 70 Mach-1 with a Wide Ratio tranny. The trans seems to be in good condition but it is a little "stiff" between gears not unlike the new T-5 or Tremic transmissions used in 90s and 2000s Mustangs. This trans shifts without any scrapes both up and down but is stiffer than what I "remember" Toploaders being like "back in the day". One of the cars I owned years ago was def a Close Ratio tranny. Does anyone know for sure from personal knowledge if Wide Ratio Transmissions shift Stiffer than Close Ratio Transmissions do??
Speaking as a builder of toploaders, I can tell you that both the wide and the close ratio transmissions have the same feel going between gears. They even use the same parts, except for the specific gears--2nd, 3rd, 4th gears and the cluster are specific to being either wide and close ratio. First gear, the sychros, blocking rings, shift forks, output shaft, shift rails, cases and other parts are interchangeable. A T-5 is of modern design and is hard to beat when it comes to shifter feel. The toploader cannot compete there.
the top loader in stock form was always a stiff shifting transmission. part of the problem is the number of teeth on the synchronizers. you can lighten up the shift by flattening every other tooth on each synchro blocker ring, and it wont hurt the durability of the trans itself.
The Toploaders I have had never seemed noticeably stiff to me unless something wasn't right with the shifter or linkage(not counting the one time some detents fell out in a used TL while I was driving). It's not as free feeling as a T5 now that I stop to think about it, but it never occurred to me while driving. I would attribute it to the fact that the TL uses external linkages with more friction and gear oil instead of ATF. My truck has a more modern transmission that still uses gear oil and it's a little stiff until it warms up. Say.....anyone ever tried to run ATF like Synchromesh in a toploader?
