My son's 54 Chevy which we're taking to BTT50's has a second gear issue, will not stay in second at all. I thought I'd take a look to see if it was anything obvious but no luck, linkage is fine, etc. I dropped the torque tube thinking maybe the yoke was loose on the rear allowing too much end play but it doesn't look to be controlled that way. I did find about a 1/4" of end play in the mainshaft plus a lot of slop in the rear bushing of which I'm assuming the end play may be the biggest issue with second. So I have a couple of questions for anyone who may have experience with these early trannys. 1. I have this one as a spare, main case length looks the same, extension housing is different though. The 54's extension housing is made to mount on the crossmember. Can I switch the extension housings between the two? Can anyone ID this one? 2. Will the trans come out of there without moving the engine? Looks like it might but thought I'd ask first. If not I guess we'll be going in first and third, no big deal I think that's how we went last year. Thanks for any help you can offer, we're working towards a 5-speed swap so don't want to invest a lot into repairing what's there.
The trans will come out without moving the engine. I'm pretty sure you have to pull out the cover (trans hump) to be able to get to every thing. It's probably been 45 years since I helped a friend with one of those so I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly how to go about it. I'm not sure about the mixing and matching of transmissions or swapping the innards from one trans to the other.
i think i stuffed 47 parts in my 54 chev trans, not the same but worked get some slack out of the transmission and replace the snycro parts dont cut off a finger taking the driveshaft down takes a little time to get it out rember most farm machinery places or hardware stores have machine washers to shim up stuff
I just converted my 53 from a powerglide to a 3 speed. You need to drop the crossmember for the tranny support. Its bolted to the frame rails, so itll be easier. Just support the motor from tipping back. However, itll only go so far and then itll rest on the valve cover against the firewall. Im not sure about the tailshaft either. But I wouldnt suspect the end bearing to play havoc on just 2nd gear, it would effect all gears if it was THAT bad, plus it would leak bad. 1/4" of end play should be ok in my book, others may dissagree. Two things to look at: 1. Pull off the side plate and look for wear on the 2nd/3rd shift fork. Look for wear on the 2nd gear where the fork mates to the gear 2. Inspect the 2nd gear teeth and the syncro. Inspect the tooth grooves that the 2nd gear runs on. I picked up my first 3 speed (went through 3 trannys before I found a useable one) and rolled it upside down to look at the bottom... sounded like a piggy bank. There were 13 broken teeth in the box. All of them came off of 2nd gear. If youre willing to drive there in 1st and 3rd, keep in mind there "may" be broken teeth floating around and could get swept up into your two remaining gears and make for one crappy day. You wont know anything untill you pull the trans and open up the side cover. Let us know what you discover!
Actually you can even pull it out up through the floor, I had a '50 parts car that came with no trans and the crossmember was still in it, but the tunnel top panel that unbolts was missing, so I can only assume it came out that way.
This one is riveted on. I do have a 1949 factory service manual and read the part about removing the floor cover and pulling it out through there, must of changed by 54, no removable cover on this one.
The access panel was gone by '53. Youll need to drop it down from below. If its riveted on, just use a grinder and knock the heads of the rivets off and replace them with bolts when you reasssemble everything. No big deal. Either that or pull the motor and pull the trans with it. Or cut a large access panel into your tunnel and weld it back in later. I see these as your only three options. But it has to come out to do a proper diagnosis. Good luck!
the trans will come out without pulling the motor, did it many times. unbolt trans from motor and frame, pull the U joint collar/cover back to revile the U joint and unbolt it. unbolt the axle from the leaf springs and pull the axle back a few inches, the trans will now come out. after you re-install the trans you might need a come-a-long to pull the trans back into place.
Im not following you on your trans removal instructions for 24riverview to follow when working on his 54. I see no reason why detaching the rearend from the springs is neccessary. The weight alone of the closed driveline shaft makes the drive line dip down, thus clear for trans removal. Please explain why you prefer this method. Why do you require a come-a-long to reattach your trany? I think you meant the rearend, correct? 24riverview, all you need to do is remove the u-bolts and support the drive line. Support tranny with a jack. Remove linkage from tranny and remove speedo cable. Unbolt 2 bolts for trans mount on crossmember. Grind off heads of rivets for trany crossmember. Remove crossmember. Unbolt 4 bolts securing trans to bellhousing. 2 on top bolt on outside of trans, threading into the bellhousing. 2 below bolt inside of bellhousing, threading into trans. You may require a very long extension to remove top bolt on driver side. Slide the tranny out of the bellhousing and lower to the ground.
I wonder if the last one happy hoppy worked on the torque tube didn't swing down out of the way as nicely as it does on the 54 thus the rear end moving advice. Surprised me to see the cutout in the crossmember for clearance, the last one I worked on was a pickup that the crossmember needed to be removed for clearance. Update- removed side cover from spare trans, countershaft bearings are trashed, so much for that idea. Removed side cover from trans in car last night, LOTS of vertical movement in rear bearing. I'm sure that's our problem, synchro can't keep second where it belongs to keep it in gear. May look tonight to see if that bearing is any better in one of the spares and if its worth trying to switch. Again planned on driving this thing to BTT50's so not a lot of time. Thanks for all the advice so far.
Maybe, maybe not. I've seen these transmissions with the 2-3 shift fork worn almost all the way through and, under those conditions, it never pushes it all the way into second gear in the first place.
yes, I meant pull the rear end back into the transmission during re-assembly, ( was working alone ) what keeps the torque tube from just coming down and out of the way is the U joint. ( see picture ) the U joint is made up of 2 slip yokes with a U joint in between. one end goes into the transmission and the other end into the torque tube. to get it out and free the transmission, I pulled my rear end back a few inches to drop the yoke. this give me some room to pull the transmission backward away from the motor to clear the transmission input shaft from the clutch assembly. sorry if my post wast not clear.
Dave, thats was my thought. Having just done my 3 speed swap, this is just what I did. Ive never seen a u-joint that didnt unbolt on these cars. I can understand sliding the rearend out to slide out the yoke, but that seems like an awful lot of extra work compaired to unbolting the u-joint.
sure, now you tell me. HA! yes it was a lot of work, but for some reason I pulled the axle back and the next 2 jobs I did the same as the first, habit? I agree unbolting the U joint would save a lot of work.
Update #2- Disassembled spare transmission shown in photo in first post just to see how big a pain it was. Easiest trans I've disassembled in a long time, mainshaft anyway, didn't need to deal with any of the counter gears. Ended up using the input shaft, synchro drum, mainshaft and second gear out the 1st spare along with the mainshaft bearing out a second spare in the original 54 case. Got it finished up about 10:15, Nick took it out for a try and said the only thing that seemed strange was using second gear again. Evidently its been a while. So to answer my original questions- Yes the transmission will come out of there without moving the engine. Slide it back, roll it on its side to get enough room for the input shaft to clear the bellhousing, then it will drop out the front on the right side. I also think if the original spare had been in better condition I could have just switched the end housings, everything internally was the same length (we did use the whole input/mainshaft assembly from this one in the 54 case). So if you see this 54 in Minnesota this weekend, you'll know it made it that far anyway.
Most of the "worn syncro" diagnosed problems with torque tube Chevs can be eliminated by shimming the top train up tight. The case wears in the rear snap ring groove to the point the syncro can't work.
Hi, all I have a 1954 chevy truck that im working on for my husband . Just realize that i have enclosed tranny. What would be the best way to remove it? Thank you
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