Projects Gasser on Maui..... but it's just another '55

I hear you, Randy, and think my drag racing days, at least with this car, are over. I think w this new RG box and sticking to strictly street tires, I should be good. Eventually I'll sell it as I have 6 rigs now, 3 "done" (??), working on #4, and two more to go. As I'm 72 eventually some of these will have to go. The blown Olds 425 has a full girdle tying the center mains to each other and to the block rails, so think the bottom is pretty bullet proof. That motor should go into a nostalgia dragster frame with a powerglide, there are a couple on the island, and just run a straight big block in the 55, maybe Buick 455's, I have two stashed away, maybe with a tunnel ram sticking through the hood....
Willy

 

Playin' around checkin' the percent of gear change with the two Richmond Gear 5 speeds:



Kinda interesting to look at these numbers....

Well now, Richmond Gear has told both Summit and Jegs that the "super street" 5 speed
will not be available until August! Looking at options.
Willy

 

Looks like the best cure might be to put the old 265 back in with a powerglide End of transmission problems.

 

Hey, now there's an idea, and I just happen to still have that motor and 3 sp stashed away somewhere, why, I donno, but I do....

Since it looks like the RG "super street" 5 speed is just not available, looking around, I'm considering the Tremec TKO600 road race 5 sp, rated at 600 ft lbs. The gears are very similiar to the RG "super street":
2.87
1.89
1.28
1.00
0.82
Part #TCET4618

Anybody know anything about these boxes?
I was trying to stay with RG because their new 600 ft lb rated box would fit in my car with essentially no changes, not so sure about the Tremec, but it seems to be available now.
Willy

 

There are rumors that co that makes Tremec trannies might be in financial trouble, the word "bankruptcy" came up at one point....

 

Still considering that Tremec, but....

Here's my choices, I have a cherry Muncie M21 I can use, but think it is the course spline on the input side, so would have to change out the clutch plates! McLeod dual disk, not cheap! And a longer driveshaft, also not cheap!

And I would probably rip it up even faster than I'm trashing my DN !!

Also have a TH400 that was built up for a Buick 455 race car, could find a flex plate for the blown Olds and bolt that up, but again probably a different length driveshaft.

On Maui a Lenco would be an exotic piece, and probably even fun to drive once I got used to it, but would miss the downshifting capabilities, even the Turbo 400 downshifts pretty nicely if you blip the throttle just right on downshifting!!

Am traveling in OR and WA at the moment, visiting family, so have time to ponder these deep, deep thoughts.....

Aloha,
Willy

 

With the power that you must be making, I don't think that the M21 would hold up under any abuse. I personally don't care for automatic transmissions, but the Turbo 400 might be your most cost-effective/practical solution.

Just my 2 cents. you sure have been through a bunch of grief with transmissions.

 

If you go tremec let us know how it works out. I have one for my 55 Axel car, but I'm still in the build phase.

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

I got lucky (I hope) over at the evil page and found the needed input shaft for my DN/RG street 5 speed. I have all the other parts I need for the rebuild.

And, amazingly, the vendor for this part is Jeg's....
LINK to the for sale page....
They won't ship to Hawaii for some reason, and freight is free in the lower 48, so having it shipped to my son in Oregon, he'll UPS it to me.

This doesn't really solve my problem for me in the long term, but at least I can get it back on the road and enjoy it a little while looking at better alternatives. Just gotta keep that lead foot outta the secondaries and the boost gage !!!
Willy

 

Just for fun, dug up some info on the TKO trannies:



i'm guessing the 500 ft-lb rating on the 4616 box is due to the 3.27 low gear. I need to check that the box is essentially the same as the other two trannies inside, except for that low ratio in first.

Anybody know for sure?
Aloha,
Willy

 

Decided to go ahead with the Doug Nash rebuild, just don't have the cash to go buy a new TKO600. Will have to lighten up my lead foot a bit....

Found parts I needed on ebay, shown here next to the old parts:





The wear pattern from the dual disk clutch plates is very visible on the old input shaft:



Got everything cleaned up, together, and with new bearings from the local bearing house where needed:



Now to stuff it back in the case, and back in the car for some road testing, gently, gently !!!
Aloha,
Willy

LINK to tranny rebuild page 2....

 

Was ready to put it back in the car when I noticed the front slider for the clutch release bearing was busted off, found it inside the release bearing inside the blow bell....

Considered trying to weld it back together, but Richmond Gear said they could supply the part. It took them many months to finally ship me the part, and on Saturday I finished it and put it back in the car.

I did notice that the side of that "snout" facing the clutch fork was worn, shiney. Checked the clutch fork and I could see where the release bearing was hitting the "throat" of the clutch fork. Took some time and ground out the "throat" of the clutch fork until there was good clearance for the release bearing.

And with the old input shaft, the broken "snout", and the release bearing and fork, I was able to check out the movement of the bearing on that "snout", and the clearance of the bearing to the fork "throat", all is good now !

And this time I could use the old input shaft to line up the clutch disks, so the tranny slipped in nicely. The car is running great again, shifting is smooth, the Doug Nash is quieter then I ever remember it being, and NO MORE POWER SHIFTS !!!

Just gonna drive it and enjoy it (and try not to BREAK it) !
Aloha,
Willy

 

How did you fare with the storm? We will be in Lahaina the week after next for a vacation. Hope your family is OK.

 

Haven't been here in awhile, the car has been running fine, as long as I keep street tires on the rear and drive only on the street, drag slicks at the track seems to be where the tranny can't take it....

That storm knocked down some trees and power lines, but no real damage to my place!
Got lucky!

But coming back from a super bowl party at a friend's house Sunday nite, there was a loud "clunk" occasionally from somewhere in the rear end of the car. Checked it out yesterday morning, and found the bolts at both ends of the panhard bar loose !

NOT GOOD !

The rest of the rear suspension components all good though, the coil overs, the ladder bars, all A-OK. So I treated the panhard bar bolts (thru heim joints) with red locktite, should have done that long ago, or put nylock nuts on there long ago....

A buddy recently told me he uses nylocks on all his suspension parts, says they never come loose. Or in the rare event they loosen up, they only loosen up so far and then don't go any further.

Just thought I'd mention it.
Aloha,
Willy

 

Its good to hear from you again

 

Hi Willy, glad to see the car is still holding together, although it sounds like you're on the verge of breaking stuff, so keeping the drag slicks in shop should help avoid too much breakage. I have the same problem with my '33 and just keep street tires on it to protect the trans. That's the weak spot in mine. I use the nyloc nuts on everything underneath and haven't had one come loose yet. I haven't used any loctite with them. We'll be down at our place in Kihei from March the 7th to the 28th, so may see you out on the road somewhere. Bill

 

Hi Willy,
We've been down at our place in Maui for a couple weeks and went to the drags last night, but there was a big oil down that closed the track for an hour or so around 7:30, just before a copper coloured 67 Camaro was about to run. I did see it run one run before the oil down, a woman driving, did a good wheel stand as she left the line. Any idea who's that is or where I might see it? I've got a '67 too that I bought new, but that one was pretty quick.....9's I think. Thanks, Bill

 

Not sure who is the owner of that car, have seen it at the track. Didn't make it to the track this month, got either a U-joint going bad in the '55, or the output end of the tranny is going bad. Speed related growl gets louder w/ speed, over 60 you can feel the vibration. No time at the present to do the necessary R&R. And I don't want to be guilty of spreading parts down the strip !
Hope you enjoyed our little island....
Willy

 

Thanks Willy. It sounds like you better put that old 265 back in there, maybe you'd avoid all these breakdowns...

 

Ha, wouldn't that be a gas! Maybe even a six cyl? 3 side draft carbs, hi comp pistons, ported heads, a rumpity cam, in a '55 gasser....

 

Still having problems keeping my Doug Nash "4+1" 5 speed tranny together in "Patches"....
The latest is that I lost 3rd gear (again), and Richmond Gear, which has been supplying the parts for me to make these transmission repairs (they bought out Doug Nash some years ago and started producing their own "Street Five Speed", which was the old Doug Nash like I have, so the parts are all the same....) is now owned by a company called "MidWestTruck", and is no longer supporting the Richmond Gear Street Five Speed. Meaning I can't get the third gear set to repair this trans as a 5 speed and put it back on the road....

So I pulled out the busted 3rd gear off the cluster shaft, machined a spacer to hold 2nd gear in it's position on the cluster gear shaft, cleaned everything up, and put it back on the road as a four speed, for now, shifting 1-2-4-5!



It's running just fine, I miss having 3rd, but just take it up a little more in 2nd and pop it into 4th, and I'm gone....

Since I can no longer trust Richmond Gear to provide support for their trannies, I'm going elsewhere. Looking at the Tremec TKO600, their are some "upgraded" versions around that interest me, let's see what I end up with...
Aloha,
Willy

There's more pix at my web site...

 

Hi Willy,
Nice to hear how you're making out, even if the news isn't too good! I've got several friends running the TKO 600 (regular version), including my son in his '70 Chevelle 454 SS that's been hopped up pretty well. He loves it, as do my other friends, although I suspect your right foot might be a little heavier than my son's or my friends.
I'm still running my T5 in my '33 which dyno'd at 551/513 and my foot is likely heavier than yours, although not as much power, or traction.......lol. I've mangled pretty much everything else, including my Centreforce clutch, drive shaft, axles and springs, but the trans keeps holding in there, but my street tires are likely my fail safe against breakage.
We're heading down to Maui March 07th for a bit, maybe see you roaming Makawao. Bill

 

I'll be looking for you, should be here as far as I know...

Looking at these guys for my TKO600:
https://shiftsst.com/gm-street-rod-and-truck

 

I decided finally on an upgraded TKO 600 from an outfit called Silver Sport Transmissions. They have all the parts needed in stock and should be able to assemble and ship a new tranny out to me next week. It should be fine, I'll change out my rear gears from the current 3.50 to a 4.56 to match the higher gear ratios of the TKO five speed. First is 2.87, followed by 1.89, 1.28, and 1.00; OD is 0.64, that's quite a jump from 1:1 4th gear, but with my 31" tall rear tires, the spread sheet looks good with those gears and that 4.56 rear end. Guess I'll find out. I also have 4.11 and 4.33 gear sets on the shelf if I want to try those, and I can change out and set up those gears fairly quickly, have done it a bunch of times. I like the Ford 9" setup that way, and have standardized all my rides on that rear axle.
Aloha,
Willy

 

Update:


More HERE
(scroll down for latest)

 

IT'S HERE....


Silver Sport Transmissions (SST) did a nice job putting it together and getting it shipped out to me quickly. I'm looking forward to driving it....

What fun !!!

 

Started the tranny swap, took lots of pix, too many to post here, so they are HERE on my personal web site, scroll down for the latest.

Got the old box out...

The new tranny jack is sweet! Enough already, wrestling those trannies around like I used to do...

The two trannies...

I'll miss this old Doug Nash, have had it for nearly, and maybe more, than 30 years...

I'll have to pull the shifter stub off of the TKO before installing it, it is too tall and hits the floor, preventing a clean install...

That could be a problem, as the hole in the floor is pretty small, might have to cut it bigger and fab a cover plate in order to have access to reinstall this shifter stub and the shifter handle after the trans is bolted in place.

More later...
Aloha,
Willy

 

I had to remove that shifter tower to get the trans in and aligned...



But first I pulled the clutch setup apart and inspected everything. All looks good, but as I've been running the McLeod RST dual disk setup at the track with the ceramic clutch plates, which are a little "grabby" out on the street, and I had the organic clutch disks on the shelf, I went ahead and reinstalled the clutch setup with the organic disks...

It should make for a smoother driving stick shift setup on the street.



Put a new pilot bearing in while I had it apart...



Aligned everything with the old input shaft from my old Doug Nash gearbox...



Posted about 20 new pix on a new page at my wheels maui location, take a look HERE...

More Later...
Willy

 

This looks like it will work out for you. Your car is well "out of the box" -- I really like it.

 

I have a pair of '55 sedan doors to make it a 2 dr, or do something more radical like putting the sedan doors on the front, moving that B pillar back to fit, and cutting down the rear doors (narrower) to fit with the larger sedan doors on the front, and mounting the rear doors suicide, now that would be different! You can tell I dream a lot, but no money so only a few of the dreams get actually built....

Started on an adapter plate from new tranny support to old tranny mount plate:

Needs about an inch forward and 3/8" up, so going to use a piece of 3/8" plate...


More HERE, scroll down...


Aloha,, more later...
Willy