I was at a swap meet today, and bought a whole rear end out of a 1948 Chev sedan that has a "Truckstell" overdrive unit on the torqque tube. It is complete, controlls, cables, etc. I want to adapt this to a Ford torque tube in my model A. I have no info on this type of overdrive, and web searches don't show much except for large trucks. Anyone on here have any info? What percent of overdrive are they? Were they only made for GM? Has anyone ever adapted one to a Ford rear? Thanks
I saw that and don't see why you couldn't use it any torque tube. There was an article a couple of years ago in R&C called "an overdrive for any car" or something like that. It was about putting a gear vendors overdrive in the torque tube, but it made mention of other styles that were available in the 40's. I'm not sure if truckstell was one of them, but I'll try to dig it up when I get home from work.
Cool, didn't run into you there, but I was lookin. I know I can adapt that to a torque tube, just mainly trying to learn about the unit! Did you get anything at the swap meet?
You're welcome. I actually knew that was going to be at the swap meet and was interested to see what it looked like. I heard the guy talking about it at the SCC car show last week. Now, I'm kind of interested as to how they work.
Is this the same OD as a Ruxtel? They had those on Model T's, just wondering if some letters/spelling have been lost in translation...
It's a truckstell, I read the tag on it. Chris, did he have the lever and all the cables? I just saw the unit in the torquetube laying in the back of the truck. I'd love to see how it all works out and I hope you can make it work in your A. I noticed your '41 in the parking lot, but I was only there for a little while.
Yeah, I got everything with it, cables, kickdown, looks like everything to run it. The A didn't make it, I got the brakes done and bled, but they are a bit spongy, and need a little more dickin around. I didn't want to chance loosing brakes
I read that the Chevy and Ford torque tube bells were the same diameter. Hard to believe, but maybe the front end of that thing is a bolt on to a Ford tranny. Check it out before you start cutting.
The bell may work, but it's removable anyways, it is a slip-yoke set up. The Chevrolet has a completly differnt spline set up, so that will have to be modified, or I may *luck* find a U joint with both ends splined to what I need. The driveline is also splined different from Ford at the rear, so I can either have the model A driveline re-splined, or attach the Chevrolet splined shaft to the Ford driveline. Either way, it does not look at all hard to adapt, I just kinnda want to learn about the unit, how to oporate it, what not to do so I don't break it or something. Also, looking for repair manual so I can go through it
Chris, I'm a newby here who hasn't intro'd himself. My apologies to all. I have a truckstell on my '45 GMC PU. The truckstell was designed for Chevy cars and trucks with a 3 on the tree only. You don't really have ALL the pieces for a correct install, but don't worry. My truck is a 3 on the floor and it works great for me. It's a .78 OD. The "extra" cable is for the Tip toe matic portion of the OD. You are supposed to be able to put the vehicle on OD and then drive FORWARD! for the rest of the day shifting in and out of OD. You will not be able to do that. The column shifted cars(and trucks/burbs) had a spring loaded mechanism which Dumped the truckstell out of OD when the shifter was placed in reverse. There were rods and actuators on both the clutch and the throttle for both the tiptoematic portion and the reverse disengagement. I set mine up with a PTO cable and I basically just pull it out at speed in top gear and enjoy the ride. The truck has a 302 GMC in it and it hauls the mail in OD. I do have the smaller cable actuator hooked up to my shifter for potential engagement of the ttmatic but while it bench tests properly, it does not work in practice in the truck. So that engagement bar is left in the same position all the time. You have an anti rollback feature. That is both good and bad. It's nice when you are in OD (or trans engaged but in direct, if you get that to work) and the vehicle will not roll back on an incline. It's bad because if you forget to disengage the OD,(which would be automatic if you had all the other underhood apparatus) you will blow up the truckstell. These are beefy units which do not used solenoids like the BW's. A truckstell is MUCH stronger than a BW. They are rare. A truckstell is nothing like a Columbia 2 speed. Ruckstell and Truckstell are just too close in spelling not to be related companies. Perhaps a bankruptcy and reorganization. I have never found that link however. I do have tech info it which I went through hell to get. PM for it. As far as how to hook it up to a ford, you are on your own. You have a Model 101 which for cars. The only differences, as far as I know, with respect to model numbers, realtes to all the controls under hood. There are 2 rods with stops set up at predetermined points on the rods. On rod for the throttle and one for the clutch. The actuator bar is pulled out (The little cable to the "kickdown") when the clutch is engaged or when the throttle id floored. Then with the TTM, tou get a downshift to direct for passing-throttle rod. And then when you shift to reverse, the trans dumps out od OD -clutch rod. Then you pull the large main cable out again for re-engagement. You're probably going to need to reread this a few times before you get it. But when you get the materials, you'll figure it out.
I have two of these. They work great. One is the tip-toe-matic and the other isn't. You know you have the tip-toe-matic if there is a screw on cover on the side that covers the arms and cables. The other kind has the arms exposed. The top gear ratio if your car has 4.11:1 drops down to 2.96. The tip-toe-matic allows for a passing gear that is hooked up to the gas pedal . When you floor it on the freeway, it drops out of overdrive to give you higher RPMS. When you are finished passing, you have to push the clutch in to get it back into overdrive. There is a weird linkage that has a bent rod to connect to the clutch and gas. It mounts up behind the transmission on a collar that is mounted to the torque-tube. I hope this helps, but mine are both in CHevies so I don't know what to do for your application.
I am going to bump this I dont know much about them - any place that can take it apart and tell me if its a working unit ? Who can rebuild them? Any advice??
Hey there Truckstell owners, I'm glad I found a forum for info exchange. I've got a couple. I messed with mine for about four years before I got one installed and working. I have a model 103 installed in a 54 GMC with a 320c/i straight 6 and the 4speed hydro tranny. The motor's hopped up as much as is tractable on the street and 3.55 gears in the rear. I'm very pleased with the outcome of the Truckstell install. I never enjoyed running the highways up around 70+mph with my motor spinning @ 3500 or so while a little Dodge Neon or something would go flying by. My motor will pull up past 5 grand but I don't like to run it up there. So I was determined to get a Truckstell installed. For the most part the correct info has appeared in this forum so I won't repeat it except to say that no matter if the gearset inside is a BW or not is of little consequence as I have yet to find one that wasn't perfect no matter what the overall condition of the overdrive. The problems seem to be worn bushings, and most often broken "tangent spring"s and torn up "sprague clutch"s. When I see these last two obvious ploblems I'm willing to bet someone tried to use the overdrive without all the accompanying linkage. These overdrives absolutely cannot be backed up while the overdrive is engaged. You'll wad up the Sprague and snap the Tangent spring. A linkage must be found or made that will automatically disengage the overdrive when the transmission is placed in reverse. I heard just yesterday from a fellow inliner who stated when I asked about his linkage setup: "No, I'll just remember to take it out of OD before I backup". I'm betting he'll forget one of these days, as I've pulled into lots to back into a parking space while still in OD, threw it in reverse without thinking about the operating "state" of the OD. In my case I have all the relevant linkage that will disengage the OD when reverse is selected. "whew". I recommend that none of you out there thinking of installing a Truckstell don't even be tempted to install one until you've found the real linkage or designed your own with an auto disengagement provision incorporated in it. On my rig, I am using the 101 linkage from 46-48 unit which adapts quite nicely into the pickup cabs. I didn't need the clutch levers as mine is an automatic so I made a linkage that is a mere spring loaded button on my floorboard to facilitate kickdown. With a little practice I've been able now to split-shift for 7 practical gears and the optimum gear for any driving condition. Now I can run with traffic in the 65-70 range while turning only 2100-2200 rpm. On a major road run last summer I was able to knock-off mile after mile in 41 to 42 sec/mile range and still only spin it around 2800 rpm. You can do the math on how fast that is. I'm lovin it! I have some of the Truckstell paperwork, including a repair and service manual and would be happy to share with any of you. If you think that I can answer your questions about these units send me a post and I'll answer if I can. I hope this serves well as an encouraging and cautionary post. Best Regards,KB.
Hey there Truckstell owners, I'm glad I found a forum for info exchange. I've got a couple. I messed with mine for about four years before I got one installed and working. I have a model 103 installed in a 54 GMC with a 320c/i straight 6 and the 4speed hydro tranny. The motor's hopped up as much as is tractable on the street and 3.55 gears in the rear. I'm very pleased with the outcome of the Truckstell install. I never enjoyed running the highways up around 70+mph with my motor spinning @ 3500 or so while a little Dodge Neon or something would go flying by. My motor will pull up past 5 grand but I don't like to run it up there. So I was determined to get a Truckstell installed. For the most part the correct info has appeared in this forum so I won't repeat it except to say that no matter if the gearset inside is a BW or not is of little consequence as I have yet to find one that wasn't perfect no matter what the overall condition of the overdrive. The problems seem to be worn bushings, and most often broken "tangent spring"s and torn up "sprague clutch"s. When I see these last two obvious ploblems I'm willing to bet someone tried to use the overdrive without all the accompanying linkage. These overdrives absolutely cannot be backed up while the overdrive is engaged. You'll wad up the Sprague and snap the Tangent spring. A linkage must be found or made that will automatically disengage the overdrive when the transmission is placed in reverse. I heard just yesterday from a fellow inliner who stated when I asked about his linkage setup: "No, I'll just remember to take it out of OD before I backup". I'm betting he'll forget one of these days, as I've pulled into lots to back into a parking space while still in OD, threw it in reverse without thinking about the operating "state" of the OD. In my case I have all the relevant linkage that will disengage the OD when reverse is selected. "whew". I recommend that none of you out there thinking of installing a Truckstell don't even be tempted to install one until you've found the real linkage or designed your own with an auto disengagement provision incorporated in it. On my rig, I am using the 101 linkage from 46-48 unit which adapts quite nicely into the pickup cabs. I didn't need the clutch levers as mine is an automatic so I made a linkage that is a mere spring loaded button on my floorboard to facilitate kickdown. With a little practice I've been able now to split-shift for 7 practical gears and the optimum gear for any driving condition. Now I can run with traffic in the 65-70 range while turning only 2100-2200 rpm. On a major road run last summer I was able to knock-off mile after mile in 41 to 42 sec/mile range and still only spin it around 2800 rpm. You can do the math on how fast that is. I'm lovin it! I have some of the Truckstell paperwork, including a repair and service manual and would be happy to share with any of you. If you think that I can answer your questions about these units send me a post and I'll answer if I can. I hope this serves well as an encouraging and cautionary post. Best Regards,KB.
So just to be clear you should be able to engage the truckstell while moving forward? I dont have the tip-toe-matic portion working so the plunger has the flywheel stopped all the time.
Chris, There's a member over on ChevyTalk.Org, rrausch is his handle, that also has a Truckstell unit. His was't complete, but he has made some pieces to make everything work. I'm sure he'd like to talk with you about them. I'll go ahead and mention it to him on the forum over there; he's in the 49-54 forum. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I too am glad to have found this bright spot concerning Truckstell Overdrives. I just purchased mine about a month ago, after looking for one for several years. It wasn't as complete as I had thought it would be. So now begins my quest to find the parts and pieces I need. It is a model 103 out of a 53 Chevy pickup, and I plan to put it in a 52 Chevy pickup. It seems that the previous owner put an internal threaded tube in the brake bar assembly, then put a allen screw in that to lock the OD from free wheeling. As 56sedandelivery said talk to Rrausch over on chevytalk.org. He is a heck of a nice guy, and willing to put up with a lot of questions. He was still working on his OD a week or so ago when I last spoke to him. A couple of things before I have to go, there is a fellow on the AACA site that is selling an OD. I contacted him, and the OD is in rough condition, and missing the cables, and the brake bar assembly. So if somebody needed an internal gear it may be something to consider. Also if anyone has detailed pictures, or even drawings, or possibly various parts I would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading this, Jim.
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