Needing an A-7085-E transmission rear bearing retainer

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I am working with a gentleman that wants to put a 4 speed transmission in his pickup / huckster in order to take advantage of the low speed 1st gear for parades.

I am looking for the A-7085-E transmission rear bearing retainer. If anyone has one or has a lead on one I would like to purchase one.

I have a AA-7085-B transmission rear bearing retainer and had thoughts of milling off the rear side of it to bring it down to the needed thickness but I don't think that there is enough material there to have it be strong enough to be useable.

Please reach out if you have have one or know of where one is.

Also the gent wants me to go through the 4 speed transmission to see what the condition of it is. I've not opened up a 4 speed transmission as of yet and am curious if there would be any tips or hidden pitfalls one needs to look out for when disassembling one of these transmission.

Thanks,
Dave

[David R.]

I am not finding A-7085-E in parts price list but found it listed in green bible. I bought a spare transmission a while back I can look at it tomorrow.
I would recommend Jim Schild’s (unfortunately recently deceased) AA supplement manual. While the photos in it aren’t very good, there is some good information on 4 speed. I spoke to author a while back and he said after so many reprints the original photos (believe from 70’s) needed updating but he sold rights to the book and publisher wasn’t interested in updating.
At any rate, I would definitely go through the box. They are notorious for a crack around case near one end “ear to ear”. I believe this is from continuing to run them with worn out bearings allowing misalignment of shafts and excessive stresses on case. The roller bearing in between input and main shaft the main culprit. Be very careful disassembling when removing input and output shaft bearings not to distort slinger shields. The counter shaft (cluster gears) must go out to the front, rear hole is smaller. South Shore Bearing (877-768-8427) are great to work with on replacement bearings. Usually find some wear on bearing surfaces of cluster gear shafts. Don’t think they are available. Expensive to reproduce because they have to be machined and heat treated. I went through a couple transmissions and used better of the two. Wear in slot on ball on shift lever needs addressed typically. Weld up or braze and file or machine back. The new pins are available. I replaced springs and ball bearings in shift tower rail assembly too. I sourced them from WW Grainger. Jim Schilds tip on incandescent light bulb trick for installing bearings works great. Adjusting reverse lock out is covered in the Ford Service Manual Bulletin Reprints, (very handy source book). Hopefully this helps some. PM me if I can be of any assistance. David Pennington

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Thank you for the reply and information David. I've started disassembly and so far have not found any cracks in the case. Still cleaning it up for a better look though.
Appreciate you taking a look for the bearing retainer.

If anyone has one and isn't interested in selling it if you would consider taking some measurements of it that would help a lot.

[Bob C]

Vince has the print for A-7085-E on his site.
https://www.fordgarage.com/pages/aafour ... hassis.htm

[David R.]

I looked this morning, sorry I didn’t have one.

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Thanks for looking David.

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Thanks Bob, I've been looking at that drawing. It shows the total thickness of the retainer at 1". What I'm not seeing on the drawing is the protrusion on the top of the retainer that goes about .30 into the back side of the transmission to keep the bearing in place. If the 1" dimension doesn't include this protrusion then I'm pretty sure I can mill the one I have down and make it work. You can see the area I'm referring to on the first picture of the AA-7085-B on Vince's site in the link you've attached.

[Bob C]

Look at the top of the side view of the bearing retainer drawing, it shows the protrusion is .215-.220.