Technical Redirection: 3 speed, no, let's make it a 4 speed, into my '40 Ford coupe

Well, it's been about 2 and 1/2 years, and 2 blown out throw out bearings later. Had to go back to the drawing board on this project.

After getting the whole thing back together, back in January, I drove the snot out of the car until about April, when the throw out bearing started making noise, even though I had a bad 2nd gear syncronizer. I found a 3 groove Saginaw 4 speed for a reasonable price, and figured I'd go ahead and do the 4 speed swap as an "in and out" kind of project just before the Stray Kat 500. While I had things apart, I did some more measuring and came to realize that the adapter to the adapter thing, while it worked pretty killer for the mechanical clutch linkage, it left me just short of reaching the pilot bushing with the input shaft. TOTAL REDIRECTION

I went back to the parts stash and took the old 60-62 Chevy bellhousing off of the "peanut" 3 speed that we took out of Dad's '34, and decided to put it all back together with the passenger side clutch fork and a hydraulic clutch master/slave setup.

I'm not gonna mention the money that I threw at this project on stuff that didn't work, including new parts that wound up making their way to the stash pile of stuff not used. What I will do, though, is post the junk that worked.


I laid out a pattern and Doug drilled holes in a plate of 1/4" steel. We sandwiched it between the stock master cylinder mount and the adapter for a late dual reservoir adapter, with a 10-1907 brake master cylinder. The Wilwood clutch master hangs next to it, and I had Doug weld a tab on the bottom of the clutch pedal to operate the clutch. We ran a hard line up over the top of the X member and transmission tail housing, over to a flex line, and up to the slave cylinder.
The slave cylinder is a 1996 Ford Escort 3/4" bore on an adapter plate to mount it to the Chevy Bell Housing. We ran hard line down to the flex hose that goes back to the X member.

To shift it into Reverse, I used a 4' TCI 840400 shift cable. This cable was shorter than I had originally planned, but I think it turned out better than I had planned anyway. It required us to make a bracket that bolted to the top of the Saginaw, for a cable stop, and I made a bracket to mount it to the shift arm. The top of the cable is mounted to the stock hole in the firewall for the Throttle rod, and I used a 3" screw, with the head cut off, a 10-32 coupling nut, a couple lock nuts to use the stock throttle linkage as my reverse shifter.

When I am using "forward gears" I have the throttle knob pulled out about an inch, and when I need reverse, I put the car in neutral and push the knob in to shift it into reverse. When I get to my destination, I put it in reverse, and everyone sees it as it should be. LOL

So...to answer questions:

Yes, I know my wiring is SLOPPY. I wired the car over 25 years ago, when I was a whole lot younger and didn't know the wonders of zip ties. I do plan on spending a good weekend to tidy up the mess under the dash.
No, I didn't take the time to clean up the oily mess all over the Ford Blue SBC before I put it back in the coupe. One of these days, I'll shoot some degreaser on it and blow it off in the car wash.
Yes, I used the new Borg & Beck style clutch this time, instead of buying another diaphragm pressure plate. Lesson learned. I will swap it out the "next time" I yank the engine.
Yes, I nearly shot myself through the windshield the first time I got on it and shifted from 1st to 2nd, after being used to the wide ratio of the 3 speed/3 ring Saginaw. Seems that the new 2nd gear ratio was quite a surprise to me.

 

Great thread. Thinking of going this route on my 40 sedan

 

Thanks. This thread could be titled "lots of mistakes were made until I found something that worked"

To be honest, while the 4 speed is cool, I think the wide ratio 3 speed was more fun.