I'm changing out the Hydra-matic in my 1952 Pontiac from a 54 model back to the 52 model and there's a gasket between the flywheel and torus cover. Anyone know a place that may have this gasket? Also any place that may have a transmission filter and pan gasket? I'd like to find a place that someone has dealt with and can give a good word on. I was going to use silicon for the flywheel-torus cover gasket, but I'm leary of doing that in case some of it gets loose and messes my transmission up. I've checked several places locally and so far no one can get anything. Dave
Try Northwestern Auto Supply on Division St. in Grand Rapids Michigan.They have a website;a toll free # and very knowledgeable phone people.
I got mine from David Edwards (phone 1-781-449-2065) www.autotran.us TexasHardcore gave a same link. Excellent service everytime (even overseas) and he accept PayPal also.
There is a place call Northwest transmission parts south of Hillsboro Ohio that will have whay you need,sorry I dont have any info on them but they have a website and should be easy to find.
In Massachusetts I used a place called Transmission & Performance in Stoneham ,Ma. Phone 781 279 3233. They had all the parts I needed for my '53 Lincoln with the GM 4 speed early Hydramatic. They even have a couple of early 50's GM hydros on the bench ready to go. Good car people by the way.
Thanks, that's who I went with. I sent him an email last night and already got an email back. I've paid him for it already so hopefully I'll have it sometime this week so I can get this transmission back in the car. Appreciate the replies, I wasn't sure if I was going to find this gasket or not... things locally weren't looking too good Dave
And, there's always that auction site we all know and love. Just do a search for "hydramatic"; there's always stuff for sale, including the gaskets you speak of. Butch/56sedandelivery.
Dave, please don't go that route with the tube of silicone or that black RVT cement. A person before me used some of that stuff to seal the torus to the flywheel in my '53 Lincoln. Tranny fluid gushed out of it after about 30 minutes of run time after I bought it. I had to pull the engine and tranny as a unit because it had an X frame to get at the problem. Would have been nice if someone had used the proper o ring gasket and done it correctly the first time.
Yeah I'm not going to use the silicon. I ordered the o-ring gasket that I needed so hopefully I'll have it before the end of the week and be able to fix it right. I have the transmission out the car now, it took me about an hour to pull it out. I'm just waiting on the gasket now so I can put it back together. Dave
Hi Dave, I am about to pull my trans out of my 55 pontiac. Have freeze plugs leaking at the back of the motor. I would like to pick your brain on the trans and how difficult it was to pull out? Doesn't look like anything I've pulled out before. Was it any tougher then a current trans? Hear that lining everything up with the motor still in the car could be a nightmare. Any thoughts? J
Pontiac: There are some things you might want to know about sealing up hydramatics. If you look on that online auction, you will find the torus to flywheel gasket for a decent price. It is produced by BEST gaskets and it also includes a flywheel to crankshaft flange gasket. The other item you will need is PLIOBOND 30 gasket sealer. This stuff is made for sealing up high pressure devices, such as a torus. Google the PLIOBOND, it is readily available. What you will need to do is to clean the crank flange and the flywheel mating surface thoroughly. Then coat the surfaces with the PLIOBOND 30 and then place the gasket on flange, then flywheel. You will also need to coat the threads of the flywheel bolts with the PLIOBOND 30. Torque the bolts to specification. This should take care of that leak possibility. Next use the same sealer on the thoroughly cleaned flywheel and torus cover. Then place the big gasket on the flywheel and install the transmission with the flywheel dowels lining up with the torus cover. I install the bell housing bolts and torque, then the 30 bolts and torque to specification. This procedure will help in the leak possibilities.
flyboys101: My car is a straight eight. I had my transmission out in less than an hour and a half. It wasn't that bad of a job. There's just a lot of bolts. I think there's 30 or more just around the torus. And that thing was extremely heavy. I do mechanic work for a living and I tell ya... I'd rather remove this hydra-matic any day over any of these new transmissions. I'm not sure if you all noticed, but this is a thread that's almost 4 years old. The job is done and has been forgot about and I've done 2 others since then .
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