I`ve bought a few Ford old transmissions and this is one of the pictures the seller sent me initially. He believes it is Buick but i`m not that familiar with these. Did Buick have pedals and master cylinder on the side like this one has? <O Any idea what it is ? <O</OThanks. Updated with more pictures.
Buick used this type of transmission in '36-'60, but the floor shift version shown in the picture was only used in '36-'38 and then it went to a side shift case. The early Buick versions did have the master cyclinder and pedals bolted to it. It is a good trans. Pontiac and Olds also used versions of the same trans. Check out some of my other posts for more info. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346588
Buick used two transmissions at the same time. One for small cars (special.super) and another for cass using the larfge engine century, roadmaster and limited
Your pic didn't come thru. Dunno why. And, yes, Buick used two different fransmission in 37 & 38. The big one is the only one you should consider using. It had the pedals mounted on the side and had a shift "tower" similar to a Ford. On the small trans there was no tower and the stick went into a small boss on the trans top cover. I used the big trans behing a SBC several times because I could never find a Cad/LaSalle (this was late fifties). Very easy to adapt to Ford torque tube and very easy to adapt to Chev stick bell housing. I did it myself with just a drill press. And I once converyed one to open drive. For this you'll need lots of old trans parts that were easily found way back then but likely difficult to find now.
The pictures where there earlier. It was definitely a 6-bolt top cover Buick trans used in the '36-'38 Century/Roadmaster/Limited.
Glad it turned out to be the big Buick trans. The gears doesn`t look too bad either, see pictures in updated initial post. Which bolt pattern is the front of the trans? Common GM of some sort? (sorry not very familiar with GM stuff...)
Thus spake OHV DeLuxe: ....Which bolt pattern is the front of the trans? ... Don't know, BUT --- Eons ago when I was adapting these to SBC stick bell housings I had to redrill two holes in the bell housing and file two of the trans mounting holes slightly. Also, there were two different front bearing retainers. Not sure of the differences as this was over 50 years ago but one floated and was held in place when the trans was bolted up to the bell housing. The other was bolted on similar to the SBC. I drilled and tapped the trans case to take a SBC bearing retainer and after doing the holes as described above the whole thing bolted up very nicely.
Buick used this transmission of '36-'60 and Oldsmobile used the it for '51-'63 and Pontiac for '56-'57. I don't know if any other trasmissions have the same bolt pattern. Yes things did change slightly over the years. As pointed out the front bearing retainer changed. So did the rear bearing retainer, the synchronizer assembly, and some other things. The common thing to do is to use the '36-'38 main case, floor shift top plate, and shifter rails, the '37-'38 shifter forks, '41 and later Buick gears, and an Oldsmobile main shaft and open drive rear bearing retainer (tail shaft) and put it in a hot rod.
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