What tranny was available in 1978 on the Diamond Jubilee Edition?

Asked by Paul Jun 12, 2012 at 07:51 AM about the 1978 Ford Thunderbird

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I can't tell which tranny is in my Dad's car. He died and left it to me. It needs servicing. I believe the motor is either a
351M or 400M.

3 Answers

14,425

I had 2 of those Diamond Jubilee T-birds and they were/are very nice cars. Unfortunately the are underrated and don't bring in as much money as they should as a collector car. I had a baby blue one and a copper colored one. Mine had the 351-M (Q-code) in them too which was the most popular enigine. I It's easy to tell which trans you have. , Just look on the B-pillar (door jamb near the door latch) it should have a place where it says "trans" and have either a "U" for SelectShift XPL transmission or a "X" for FMX transmission. It's got to be one or the other. The engine code is either "Q" for the 351-M, "S" for the 400 or "H" for the 351-W or "F" for the 302. I might have built your T-bird as I was making $8.00 an hour working on the assemblyline at the Ford Chicago assembly plant in 1977-1979 building the T-Birds. 260,792 Birds were built in Chicago in 1978 code "G" and 91,959 were built in Los Angeles code "J" One brand new T-bird was driven off that Chicago assembly line every 58 seconds, 24 hours a day 5 days a week and 8 hours on Saturday. The plant was closed on Sunday. The 1978 Thunderbird became the best selling Thunderbird of all time, good for 3.3 percent of the American automobile industry total! The 1978 Thunderbird was the first since 1960 to run in NASCAR events. Bobby Allison, Dick Brooks, and Jody Ridley all drove T-birds. Take care of that Bird. Kenny.

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Mr Blue oval if you are still there; I have an 04/78 8G87S2855x which would be 285,55x made in Chicago? I bought this car in 1982. Color 81YW DSO55? Body 60H Trim E7 Trans X. 95,000 miles I'm ready to rebuild the 400 with higher compression, sans polution crap, etc. Its a nice car. I read the build sheet should be under the rear seat. I'm checking tonight...

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