I worked at T&C Livonia during the time the Toploader was just starting to go into the production cycle. My 2-month-old '64 Custom/427 was delivered with a T-10 in it. I twisted off the ouput shaft one evening while granny-shifting into 2nd (it was very likely in process of failure prior to the actual break) and it didn't make good sense to simply replace the output and put the T-10 back in place.
I talked to Bruno Zava, the Executive Engineer for the plant, and he had a new toploader delivered to Bill Brown Ford where the work was being completed. I had to go to another dealer to get such items as the proper clutch disc, replacement TO bearing and clutch fork and the DS front yoke to fit the big in-'n'-out Trans (truck parts) but I never had another problem with the trans. The new Toploader was delivered to the dealer with my name on it and no ID tag. Several years later in a trade I got a new special big in-'n'-out with a very short output shaft and extension. It was put together for a then-new 427 race Cobra. It didn't have a tag on it either. I was surely not the only guy in the plant that knew Bruno.
KS
