Technical Ford Transmission question

This may be a stupid question, but here goes. can you turn down the lip of 2nd and 3rd gear on a 36 to early 39 Ford transmission to accept the brass synchros? and if so will it cause any other issues?

 

this would be nice to know, so I will give it a bump

 

Try posting your question on Ford Barn, There is a wealth of early Ford knowledge on that sight

 

I thought second and third were the only gears in a Ford three speed that utilized the synchros. 1st & reverse slider are not synchro. Maybe I don't understand the question.

 

you are correct, however as far as I know they didn't start using brass synchros on 2nd and 3rd until late 39 and I have an earlier transmission that doesn't utilize them. so what I want to know is if you can turn down in a lathe the lip or leading edge of 2ND AND 3RD gear a small amount, so that the brass synchros can be retrofitted to the earlier transmissions that didn't use them.
second gear from a later trans won't fit on the earlier main shaft, so rather than going with all new internals and scrapping otherwise good parts, I was hoping to just turn that lip down. it looks like it would work and be easy to do but I have a feeling other issues may arise with the slider cone etc as the older style second gear is just a bit thinner when laid on the bench side by side.

 

Very interesting. I'm curious to hear about this. Maybe Van Pelt would know?

 

Gonna bump this up.
Has it been asked on ford barn? Lots of flathead info there. If we don't get an answer here, maybe I'll post there?


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The simple answer is no. Any machining you do to the tapered cones will reduce the critical dimension for the 39-62 bronze synchro rings to get the correct "grip" on the cone. There would be changes in the axial dimensions between the main drive gear and second gear also. The snap ring groove for the synchro hub would not be in the correct location. The issue of the shifter fork location for the 2nd/high fork also becomes an issue.

 

I didn't have a lot of hope for it, but thought it was an interesting idea. Thanks for the info Mac!


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thank you to everyone who replied. as it turns out I purchased some parts from Vanpelts today .

 

cool thread - and thanks to the Van man for support !

 

I recently pulled a transmisssion apart that someone crudely ground down the gears to add the synchros. I will check later on to see if they are still in the scrap bin and post some pictures.

 

If you have good '36-39 trans gears, chill out and use them. Not quite the latest tech, but entirely usable and work fine. Some people seem to think anything before the brass ring '39 is a crash box...
And, of course, you can still impress the riff-raff by saying you you have a '39 trans...seems like about half the actual '39's I have examined use the earlier gears.

 

I found the gear.. A Brass synchro style gear on top.