@Nailhead A-V8 I would be willing to ship the crossmember let me know. You can PM me if you are interested.
Well I had no place to work on cars for a spell so I moved some stuff along to help others in their pursuit of Hot Rod dreams...some were grateful...some not so much so waddayagunnado? fuggedaboudit...... This rear section is from the coupester I started off building at the beginning of the thread the guy is building a roadster... I sold them when I found these roadster 1/4's but then suddenly I no longer had a place to do welding so I passed the whole body on to someone with welding facilities
So after a double shot of my Govvie's love... I'm able to travel to where I can do a bit of work again...I met a guy building a '33 McLaughlin so the '32 straight 8 found a good home, I can't do any welding where I am working so the Z'ed frame is off the table for now...found a cheap deal on a frame that had been used as farm equipment at some point in it's life with a ton of extra steel booger welded to it....that farmer could weld! It looks like birdshit but it was never going to break EVER! no torches so going through discs like theyre goin out of style This is just a sample of some of the junk I cut off...still going I know you fellas are going to "give me the gears" but I'm stuck with the Warner T9 4spd. that came on the engine...finding a running 3 spd. is the bane of my existance this is the dirt and grease I scraped off just the trans
Back to the tech. @RICH B the frame came with an A rear axle...I've collected up juice b/p's and '37 hubs/drums but it seems like a lot of the info I've read is conflicting or just plain arduous and $...seems to me that kids in the '50's wouldn't have been flipping plates, cutting and rewelding holes for w/c 's and definitely not machining b/p's, drums, shoes or axles....what's the straight forward way of doing this? cutting a hole and clocking slightly forward? * apparently the model A piston rings can be used to center the b/p's and another model A part will space the drum and b/p apart....can you verify this info and do you know which part that is? - thanks guys!
Been a while; but if I remember right, the register on the A axle and the Lockheed backing plate is the same diameter and the plate only has to clocked a little to the rear to clear. Drill 4 new holes in the backing plate and good to go; no need to weld up the old ones. Taper axle shims used to be used to move the drum out; but in this day and age of angle grinders & cut-off wheels, I'd just cut enough the lip off the backing plate lip to clear. Not too bad.
Industrial stuff will do in in a pinch...some kinda farm implement gas tank and I found this oil filter on an industrial Lincoln big block flatty...it bolts on two of the intake bolts on the small flatty perfectly instead of the monster filter that currently sticks a foot off the side of the block
As well as I can remember from an old R&C how-to article it was a Model A valve seat. The seat angle goes against the radius on the spindle.
Wow some of those parts are rough. I admire your tenacity and drive. Gonna weld that rust dust together and make it work! Yes!
Well even after years and years of searching the classifieds rubbing elbows and networking I've been stuck in this "transmission rut" since the idea of this project began...maybe I'm a sucker for punishment but I wanted an early driveline...I'm looking for as near to the experience guys had 60-70 years ago as possible...so for me that includes a manual top shift trans but I've now conceded that the 4spd crash box is a no go...these are my next best option...ugh This as a 1950 side shift 3 spd. in good working condition and a '42-'50 78 case ...what I don't know is how to get the rusted gobbldegook out of the case (while saving the input and output shafts) nor if the gears/guts from the other trans will go in it? btw Van Pelts is curiously silent on the subject...
One option on the side shift trans is locating an aftermarket shifter. Probably not going to be easy but. . . . Ya never know who has one hanging in the garage. I do not know if the late gears will fit (and work) in an early trans.
the '39 and up 3 speeds will have "syncros", the early one will not... as for side shifters call joe, he used to buy every shifter at swap meets for the knobs... getting on, will probably sell the shifters cheap.. my $0.02
So here you can see that I've gone back to a coupester body... the roadster I had was going to require lots of welding which I can't do at the stall I rent...then I found this pass. 1/4 here on the hamb so I sold the coupester body and resumed working on the cut-off roadster 1/4 ...confused yet?
...the truck trans can be used with my torque tube the car one can't...still looking for definitive info on the gears but will start by soaking and disassembling the truck trans for now
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tell-me-about-this-3-speed-toploader.1067492/ ↑ Take a look here: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_transID_3speed.htm and follow the other links near the top of the page to identify what you really have. As the others have said, there's a lot of different year parts that will fit in there, and not all of them work together! ↑ The 78 case came out in '37 and was used on '37-'39 cars and '37-'50 pickups (except 60 HP). 78- prefix on a Ford part number means that the part was first used on '37 Ford car with 85 HP engine. To tell if you have a 78 case, remove the trans mount from the back of the case, and the part number for the trans case is stamped across the back of the case in the area covered by the rear mount. If the number has a 78- prefix, it is the case that was used for '39 but not necessarily a '39 trans. The improved synchros that came out in '39 take a different 2nd-high shifter fork that is a full 3" inside width. If it's narrower than that, you have the old style synchros which work fine if they're not worn out. To tell exactly what year trans you have, look just above the clutch inspection window on the bell and you will see the serial number of the vehicle the trans was originally installed in. Check that number against the listings on Mac VanPelt's website, and you will know exactly what year trans you have. US built Ford transmissions have an 18- prefix on the serial number, if it has a 99- prefix, it came out of a '39 Mercury, same trans as Ford. ↑ The 3" shifter fork is also marked 91A at the top of the horseshoe. The main thing to note is that a 78 case does not equal a '39 trans, since the 78 case was introduced in '37. Good news is that you can still find good '40-'48 Ford/Mercury side shift transmissions relatively cheap, and you can put the guts out of the sideshifter into a 78 case. Use the 81A double-detent shifter (introduced in '38) with the 91A second high fork and you're good to go. The point is well taken about not all '39 transmissions having the improved synchros. '39 pickups generally had the old style synchros, as did early '39 cars. The thing to remember on stuff like this is that Ford often made changes--especially mechanical improvements--that did not coincide exactly with a model year change.
I made a platform to start assembling all my little chunks of subframe into one... *this one isn't mine...mine is a bunch of swiss cheese and rust dust
Well it finally happened... a buddy was having one of the local old school Hot Rodders do some work on his car and they were using this '37 48 case for the mock up...I inquired about it and when I picked it up he threw in the coupler and yoke! had no top but another buddy had this double detent shifter tower! this is the final major piece to this puzzle I've been looking for so long... I had this shifter in my collection of stuff forever it fit like a glove! both it and the shifter rails were rusty so I have them sitting in molasses right now...every thing in the trans is free and no chipped broken teeth I should be able to use it as is Cause it had no top it was open for quite awhile... Anyone have suggestions as to how to clean the dust and grit in the trans out thoroughly??
Yeah I'm stoked! bit of a travel to get to the car is my only excuse now! Do you have any ideas on cleaning the trans out? I was thinking maybe diesel ?
Mineral spirits? Anybody? I just solved an issue I've been puzzling over...originally I thought I was going to have to make a full saddle type crossmember until I stumbled across this... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-with-39-transmission-wishbone-mounts.1207191/ This adaptor resolves the issue of running split bones with the tube axle... Now onto pedal/MC mounting
Nice score on the trans. If it were mine, I would plan on disassembling, cleaning/checking everything out and reassembling if it all checks out. It's not that difficult. I use standard solvent, compressed air, fresh oil on re-assembly.
Thanks! I was worried the diesel would damage the seals....the solvent won't damage the seals? I had contemplated doing that but I'm not sure if I could just wing it...there is a pamphlet made by Van Pelt but by the time it arrives and with exchange it's over $150! and I might only use it once. The theory right now is that it came from a running car....I was hoping a good cleaning would be enough...right now I'm soaking the shifter tower in molasses to free it up
If you aren't going to disassemble the trans to replace worn parts now, you will be doing it in a year after you start driving. Just cause it came from a running car doesn't mean the clearances were good. You've heard about these popping out of second gear, right? There is a very likely chance the thing needs new end shims/bushings, as well as syncro brasses. And the seal and gaskets are the easiest parts to replace as they are at the far ends and can be changed by removing four bolts. Don't be worried about ruining them, just replace them now. I HIGHLY recommend getting the VanPelt book as it will tell you all you ever need to know about a '39-style transmission. Well worth the money.
Thanks @alchemy seals i'll replace but can't afford to get bogged down in a full rebuild...I'm trying to arrange borrowing the book on pawn from fellow hamber @anothercarguy
Over the years I collected up as many small swiss cheesey pieces of subframe I could get my hands on.....further back in this thread I went through identifying the many subtle differences between the 4 years and models... so I traded off the good '28 tudor subframe I had deciding that A) it would take a ton of work to modify B) someone else could use it... but was back to the drawing board because every frame I had needed to be cut and modified like a jig saw puzzle or was just shot through with rust. Finally a buddy was replacing his '29 coupe subframe and we traded (some work carefully taking the old one out for what was left of it)...starting from the seat area back on both sides it was completely rotted out so the p/o had tack welded angle iron then used self tappers and bits of scrap iron to tack the body onto what was left of it then painted everything with thick black paint to hide his butchery...what a hatchet job The rearmost crossmember for coupe/roadster isn't easy to find so I used a '30-'31 sedan piece I had and found a truck bed cross member that is flat which i'll use to take the curve out of the sedan rear mmbr... unless I end up finding a rdstr one...the only viable side pieces I had were '30-1 sedan which flare out more than 28-9 and much more than rdstr/coupe so I cut them from further up where the flare starts...my hope is that they will actually save me from having to find a pair of rdstr sill plates but we'll see...if not i'll have to trim the sides in 1/4" or so
The Jalopy Journal
