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Factory Overdrive in '49 - '54 Chevys ??

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by weim55, Apr 22, 2011.

  1. weim55
    Joined: Jul 14, 2004
    Posts: 86

    weim55

    Was this ever a factory option for these years ?? Was '55 the first year for the overdrive option ??

    Thanks, Steve
     
  2. R Pope
    Joined: Jan 23, 2006
    Posts: 3,309

    R Pope
    Member

    Pretty sure '55 was the first year. I never saw a closed drive OD unit.
     
  3. Dave Downs
    Joined: Oct 25, 2005
    Posts: 935

    Dave Downs
    Member
    from S.E. Penna

    I think I might have seen a picture/article on a closed drivshaft OD - might have been Ford instead of Chevy........I also might have imagined I saw it....:confused:
     
  4. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    overdrives were available for Chevrolets even earlier than 1949 from at leats 2 manufacturers. I have a brochure for one.
     

  5. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    here's one on ebay... I have a different one.


    [​IMG]
     
  6. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    *** note the 48 or earlier dash in this pic from the 49 brochure.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    here's another

    [​IMG]
     
  8. weim55
    Joined: Jul 14, 2004
    Posts: 86

    weim55

    That Truckstell OD has gotta be one rare bird. Safe assumption that Chevy didn't offer OD as a factory installed option '49 - '54 if the aftermarket stepped in offer it.

    Thanks for the info.

    Steve
     
  9. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    back in the day many options were dealer installed. you didn't buy a package of options from the factory like you do today. you picked them out of a book at the dealer and they put them on.

    35 years of owning a 1949 I have never seen or even heard of a 49-54 that actually had one in it. back then you didn't need one since there weren't many freeways. people didn't drive very far or very fast.
     
  10. Dale Fairfax
    Joined: Jan 10, 2006
    Posts: 2,585

    Dale Fairfax
    Member Emeritus

    It was way to keep up with Fords on the top end-most of the Chevies had 4.11 gears; the Fords 3.78. Never forget the farm kid in my area who had one in a '51/'52 Chevy, along with several other types of goodies including headers and wicked pipes. At night he'd close the Rustic (teen age bar in Ohio) and head for home-right down Second St where I lived. He'd stop at the Stop sign at the edge of town-from there to home was nothing but miles of county road. From that stop sign it was 6 gears as hard as it would run-I could hear him for what seemed like an eternity.
     
  11. jcmarz
    Joined: Jan 10, 2010
    Posts: 4,631

    jcmarz
    Member
    from Chino, Ca

    My Chevrolet service manuel for 1951 has a section on overdrives
     
  12. mtkawboy
    Joined: Feb 12, 2007
    Posts: 1,213

    mtkawboy
    Member

    My dad bought a new 54 Bel Air and there was no factory OD option available
     
  13. Snarl
    Joined: Feb 16, 2007
    Posts: 1,639

    Snarl
    Member

    the Truckstell aftermarket unit is the only OD for the Chevy torque tube drivelines that I've ever heard of. Chevy never offered it.
     
  14. RDR
    Joined: May 30, 2009
    Posts: 1,480

    RDR
    Member

    saw one in a 50 Chevy,on a trailer, for sale at Pomona swap meet about 10 years ago....couldn't believe what I was seeing....didn't know they even made such an animal....wished I'd taken a picture....looked cool amid the closed driveline.
     
  15. 6inarow
    Joined: Jan 24, 2007
    Posts: 2,360

    6inarow
    Member

    Cadillaccoffin has one for sale
     
  16. Normbc9
    Joined: Apr 20, 2011
    Posts: 1,121

    Normbc9
    Member

    The first years GM installed an overdrive in their Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick motor cars was 1955. That was also their first year with a 12 volt system. Many of the car manufacturing competitors like Ford, Mercury, Packard, Hudson and Nash had an OD system before WWII.
    Normbc9
     
  17. FC49
    Joined: Oct 11, 2009
    Posts: 324

    FC49
    Member

    I may be full of it, but weren't Caddy, Olds and Buick 12 volt in '53? With Pontiac and Chev staying with six volt until '55. Or is the senility setting in? Also, I don't recall any Buick torque-tube trannies with OD.

    Frank C.
     
  18. HEATHEN
    Joined: Nov 22, 2005
    Posts: 8,564

    HEATHEN
    Member
    from SIDNEY, NY

    Yes, they were. Chevy and Pontiac in '55, Ford in '56.
     
  19. ems customer service
    Joined: Nov 15, 2006
    Posts: 2,634

    ems customer service
    Member

    the address on the trucksteel catalog is a bank building in downtown cleveland, maybe the columbia overdrive company trying to market under a new name as by then there ford overdrive units were falling out of favor? comments
     
  20. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    I am curious about the similarity of names between the "Truckstell" OD in the ads on this thread and the Model T era "Ruckstell' axles assemblies which, I believe were two speed units (a form of OD)........Seems too much a coincidence the names were so close.......anyone know anything about that?

    BTW, I've been around old Chevys for many years and have never seen ne of these units and, to the best of my knowledge there were no factory option OD's until '55 models.

    Ray
     
  21. 50ChevyFrank
    Joined: Sep 5, 2007
    Posts: 229

    50ChevyFrank
    Member

  22. 33-Chevy
    Joined: Nov 30, 2007
    Posts: 267

    33-Chevy
    Member

    Truckstell and Ruxtel were not related and Columbia made a similiar torque tube overdrive for Ford. I had a Truckstell overdrive. They didn't hold up well. If an inexperienced driver put it in reverse while still rolling forward it would destroy the planetary gear roller bearings, which usually meant it got pulled out and replaced by a stock torque tube.
     
  23. Heo
    Joined: Jan 8, 2010
    Posts: 524

    Heo
    Member

    columbia was in the rear axle not in the tq tube
     
  24. jrlemke
    Joined: Dec 20, 2009
    Posts: 83

    jrlemke
    Member

    The torque tube o.d. was in a Rambler. G.M. first offered o.d. in 55 in cars and maybe a couple years later in light trucks. I don't remember any other G.M.'s with o.d. Studebaker and Packard had it before WW 2. I think Ford first offered it in 49.
     
  25. 1lstpass
    Joined: Jun 1, 2010
    Posts: 4

    1lstpass
    Member
    from Lisbon, nd

    I have a 1953 210 that has a three on the tree and a pull out overdrive lever under the dash. It's planned to be a future project. I know nothing about it though, I may have to do some research.
     

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