I bought A saginaw 4 speed A couple of months ago .It has A 2 ring input shaft, 3.11 first gear and the factory color is blue. I have never seen A blue one and was wondering if anyone has seen one before. I'm just curious what it came out of.
It might have came out of a transmission rebuilding shop that paints all their rebuilt units blue. Pretty common for trans shops to do this, although usually it's more with automatic transmissions. Or it could be a previous owner was painting the engine, and figured the transmission needed it too.
Never seen a blue painted Saginaw either OEM or service replacement. That looks to be a early 70's due to the switch on the 3-4 selector, that was for the emission control system. I forget the original term but it completed the circuit to ground allowing vacuum advance in 4th gear. I don't remember 75 and later cars having that system but I could be wrong there, at least up to 1974 GM was using that. And to throw in a curve, it could have been a mixmaster of parts, would not be the first one I have seen. I don't have the parts catalogs to refer to anymore since I got out of the dealerships three years ago, figured 47 years was enough for anybody. 3.11 gearing and the three holes in the casting below the extension housing is for the torque arm rear suspension, the Monza HR (fastback) and HM (notchback) bodies introduced in 1975.
I have one with dark blue paint with 2:54 first from a (one year only to be put behind a) Big Block 69 Chevelle.
That's the only blue one I've ever seen and I think is factory paint you can tell it's been on there A long time.I was wondering if it could have been behide A Pontiac motor.That was just A guess.
GM never painted transmissions engine color. The engines were assembled and painted at the engine plant, not the car assembly plant, which is where the transmissions were bolted to the engines. But I expect you can make up a great story for it....that's much more interesting than someone painting it blue some time in the past 40-50 years.
It's a Vega/Monza transmission. The extension housing bosses on the bottom are where the "vibration weight" bolts on. As long as you don't "beat" on it, it should be fine. The gears are narrower on the 3.11 and 3.50 first gear transmissions. The two switches are for the backup lights and the spark retard feature. No way it was factory painted, any color. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Ok thanks guys at least I know now. I found it local and got A good deal on it, there getting kinda hard to find around my area anymore ,any 4 speed. Late winter I converted my 72 skylark over to A 4 speed and used A saginaw. The one I installed in my car was no ring input shaft, but it makes A growling noise in only 2nd gear.Im going to keep running it,that why I bought the blue one was for A back up.
As mentioned it’s Monza and it’s clones. The torque arm bolts to those three bolt holes on the tail shaft. Messed with those years ago. Still have a trans like that in my Dads garage in Michigan. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Second gear growl is pretty common as they wear. I have one in the barn just like it, without the blue paint. Even though it was Monza, it will hold up ok behind a V8 if you don't hammer on it. Mine held up really well, and I did hammer on it.
A lot of the 4 cylinder engines had a weight hung on the 3 bolts on the tail shaft and had the 3.10 low gear...
Ok thanks, I'm A little concerned with it noise in 2nd but the rest of the gears are quite. The one with the noise is A v8 transmission no ring input shaft and only has the standard mount that I'm running now,the blue one just A back up.
Eventually it will pop out of gear when you let off. It took a lot of abuse to get mine there after the noise started. Young and dumb were factors. They are pretty easy to fix when the time comes, if you are not afraid to take one apart.
The good point of the Saginaw is the Iron case, the bad point is the narrower gears due to all five gears being in the main case.
I worked in a shop in the 70's that painted complete rebuilds red, repaired trans black and patch jobs silver.....................
Never believed much in them after I helped a friend swap the 3 spd in his '64 GTO for a Saginaw; gear teeth didn't even last the weekend.
The 3.11 low gear Saginaw 4 spd was std equipment on 66 Impalas with 283 & 4spd according to the service manual I had.
^^^^^ Not to say a 3:11 first gear ratio Saginaw's won't survive a V8, it can. It's all in how it's driven. Drive it like a cruiser and it'll last a long time. @54 Chevrolet do you know the gear ratio to the rear end in your Pontiac? Just asking to see how well trans will match up with rear when rolling out from a stop.
I nabbed one of those out of a Buick Skyhawk... I was in the process of building another V-8 Vega at the time and ended up ditching that idea.... Thank God!!!. ..
back in 1967, I bought a brand new 1967 Nova, had a 327 & a Saginaw 4 speed, tranny was not painted & the tranny held up find
3.10’s were great street drivers. Hard to stall when starting out and easy on clutches. A friend drag raced one at vintage meets behind a 12 port GMC in a 38 Chev sedan and never hurt it.
Just had an M20 Muncie rebuilt that I bought in a bundle deal. It was painted Pontiac blue. My transmission guy gave it back to me painted machine gray...he said he just couldn't stand to see a Muncie painted blue go out his door. I just laughed.