Liberty gear question

[428kidd]

Guys any one know what a liberty gear set costs now? Also price of face plating? What kind of turn around to expect? thanks Lance

[BattlestarGalactic]

I buy parts randomly, have some new dog rings and sliders coming for a friends Nash.

Replacement rings(proshift or faceplate) are like $87 each(CRS kicking in)?  That is just the part, not installed.   I don't know what they charge for installation, I've always done all my own work.

Their delivery is sketchy at best.  Sometimes they will come through and get it done in a reasonable time.  Then there are times you have to call and harass them.

Years back, Paul would tell me to send the gears to them for repair.  I told him I have the capabilities to do it myself AND I can do it over a weekend.  Not take months.  He agreed, their delivery can vary.  It's fine if you have all winter, but in the middle of summer it's rough to sit and wait and wait and wait.    Paul knows me and takes care of me pretty well.

What transmission are you working on?

[428kidd]

Toploader. Looking at doing one for my comet . I found a used one , but there is some wear and it's the wrong tail shaft. Was wondering if I should buy it and repair it and get a new tail shaft or just use one of mine and buy new liberty stuff and build one that I have ?

[e philpott]

Terry Sutton from Liberty was just at my shop literally 40 minutes ago and left his vehicle here for the weekend while he hitched a ride to Maple Grove for some Pro Stock Bike action with Flying Ryan Oehler , I just asked him about my Top Loader getting Face Plated and he said they are running 4 weeks right now

[blykins]

Four weeks is about correct.  I use them when I have Toploader gears faceplated.   On street cars, I will also leave the 1/2 synchronized and the 3/4 faceplated for easier driving.

[Towd56]

Can someone fill me in on faceplate and this liberty gear talk? Not familiar with the benefits or cost?

[blykins]

It helps you shift quicker because it reduces the amount of engagement teeth on the gear/synchro.   Can be tougher to drive on the street because you have to match rpms since the function of the synchronizer has went away.

There are several companies that can modify the gears, Liberty is one of them. 

[blykins]

Here's a Toploader I built for a customer with synchronized 1/2 gears and faceplated 3/4.   Second gear is pretty hard to miss, so keeping the 1/2 synchro intact makes it a little more streetable.  When you need to hit 3rd and 4th, it's stupid easy with the faceplating.  I paired this one up with a Long inline shifter.  Bang, bang, bang. 

[BattlestarGalactic]

The only hard part leaving the brass on #2 is trying to shift at higher rpm.  It will be happy around 6K, much higher and it gets finicky.  It will wear out the ribs on the bottom of the brass and then get real hard to shift even at slower speeds.  I ran a stock brass toploader in the wagon for a few years back in mid 90's.  Worked flawless at 6k all summer, with fresh brass installed during winter.

The issue is trying to get the large 2nd gear to speed match at high rpm.  It takes a lot of friction to change the speed of all that rotating mass(2nd gear).

It would be real nice if someone offered a half slider for 1-2.  Brass 1st, faceplate 2nd.  Give you the option of hitting 1st without little effort at a stoplight and give you full option of shifting rpm there after.

[Chris68GT]

As of my last conversation with Liberty they do offer a syncronized first, face-plated second slider now. It's the same piece that's in my TKO 600 which is face-plated 2/3/4. It's in my street car that I race and probably one of my favorite modifications I've done. I drive it on the street regularly and love it. Upshifts and downshifts are fine, you just have to man-handle it. I don't rev match, just snap it in on downshifts or it'll clash.

[BattlestarGalactic]

With a touch of finesse,  you can shift it slowly UP or DOWN without even a clunk.

If you want, just run it up in a gear, ease off the throttle AND pull it out of gear without the clutch, then push the clutch and slip it into the next faster gear.  Smooth as silk, no noise.  Downshifting takes a touch of "rev match", but again doable without fuss.

I personally cringe when I hear guys just "bang" it through the gears driving them in the pits.

[Chris68GT]

Cringe away buddy, I'm still gonna keep doing it. I like shifting it like a motorcycle on the street, put tension on the lever and blip off the gas a little. Boop, next gear. Just had it apart last month for an inspection and it looked perfect inside aside from the brass pads on the shift forks that replace the nylon ones Tremec thought were necessary to reduce NVH. I wish someone made some shift forks for the TKO that were like a toploader fork, no pads to wear out. Stupid design.

[Nightmist66]

I have a pro shifted toploader I'm going to try this time around. Pro shifted is similar to face plated. Got a good deal on it, so I picked it up. It was not synchronized on first when I bought it. Went through and did the usual bearings, seals, gaskets. I modified it myself, so it has a synchro on first now. Planning on using the old Hurst Comp. Plus shifter so I can keep the factory console. I hope it all works.

[BattlestarGalactic]

Cringe away buddy, I'm still gonna keep doing it. I like shifting it like a motorcycle on the street, put tension on the lever and blip off the gas a little. Boop, next gear. Just had it apart last month for an inspection and it looked perfect inside aside from the brass pads on the shift forks that replace the nylon ones Tremec thought were necessary to reduce NVH. I wish someone made some shift forks for the TKO that were like a toploader fork, no pads to wear out. Stupid design.

Don't worry Chris, I won't.....
Yes, those fork bushings are a PITA.  Nice for a quiet shifting street car.  Racing, not so much.


Nightmist66, the only downfall to the old pro rings is "when" the lug gets burred up, it will burr the slider up.  That causes interference issues with the slider moving back and forth over the hub splines.  It will get hard to shift or jam up completely.  You have to be a bit more light hearted about just "clunking" it into the next gear while on the street.  Faceplating eliminates that issue since the face of the slider takes the hit, not the splines it rides on.