I was reading the above story in the new Hot Rod Deluxe. He finished the article by saying he has read on the internet that you can take the chev. O/D can be swapped into a Saginaw 4 speed. Has anyone done this swap? Dutch
You need the Saginaw three speed O/D (late 60s) to work on the Saginaw four speed. It has been done. Frank
HRM (note that they can't find there own information here!) covered this around 1972. It looked pretty easy...hole for rail, tab welded to fork, bolt it. Big issue is that you need the HD 3 speed (same sidecover as 4-speed Sag, but one shift hole undrilled) with OD, and those were nearly impossible to find even at the time of the article when they were in fairly new cars. I think Chevelle only, around 1969, and no one bought them because anyone going beyond base trans wanted an automatic or a 4-speed.
1966-1969 gm 3 speed w/overdrive uses the heavy duty fully syncronized 3 speed trans. This overdrive will fit the saginaw 4 speed. The recipie is on one of the links at the bottom of my post on this thread. The link says 1965 but it is incorrect. 1965 and down saginaw 3 speeds were NOT syncronized in 1st gear. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249066
Ha! Well, while we're picking on you...the photo in the article of the 'Borg Warner T-85 3spd Overdrive' is actually of a light duty Ford 3spd OD transmission. The T-85 has a curved side cover and looks a lot different when you compare the two.
It would be real close to .7...most BW OD's were right around there. Remember you are looking for the big 3, which looks exactly like your Saginaw 4 except for one shifter position being an undrilled lump. Not even the non-OD is common, as exeryone either had an automatic or went for the four speed in '69... I would try to get the Hollander number for the thing. There's a site that is allegedly linked to lots of junkyards, and lots of blind calls to every junkyard in the boondocks you can find... There are probably 10,000 Sag 4 speeds around for every one of these things!
You'd be better off swapping in a T5. The BW OD won't take much torque, I busted lots of 'em! Ford, Chev, Chrysler, been there, done that. Stripped the planet gears on all of 'em.
This may be the BIG BW since this is the HD of two 3 speeds for Chevy. The R10 is the small one, R11 went on the Ford Police T85's more or less equivalent to the big Saginaw 3. Another 4 speed/s speed family, too!
The last time I remember seeing one of those it was a ford 3 spd in of all things a 1958 Ford 6 door airport wagon. It was owned by a guy up in North Jersey and it was a real pile of crap but it had a 3 spd O/D trans in it. could have even been cable operated but don't quote me on that. One of those memory flash back things
Just went to the new HRM covers site...I think April 1975 is the issue with Saginaw story. They need a little more work...1974 covers are mostly 1954's, an improvement, but still wrong.
There is a newer 3speed Ford O/D Top loader. The shifter mounts were the toploader plare went. I'm going to be running it behind my flathead. it's Alum. and came in mid 80's F-150's Dutch
yeah, anybody finds one of these, if you're think of throwing it away, just call. I gotta spot for it The chevy one anyways.
I had one in the late seventies. I happened to own a '66 El Camino with an OD 3-speed when I read the story about the transmission parts swap. I put the resulting 4-speed in a Chevy powered Firebird. I was never very happy with the transmission. Currently I own a DNE 4+3, which though based on a Super T-10 instead of the Saginaw seems to be a similar operational concept. I'm not thrilled with the DNE either and would go 5-speed or 6-speed rather than convert another 4-speed to OD.
In the 70's, I had one behind a 283 in a Chevy LUV pickup. Took a LOT of abuse and got better highway milage than the 4 banger ever did.
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