Lasalle Cad to Ford torque tube tech needed please

I have made a decision to swap my 39 trans out of myOlds powered 32 roadster for a lasalle side shift box. The 55 olds motor is going to be a bit too powerful for the ford trans I think. I bought this 55 olds motor a few years ago and it came with the whole bell trans setup, harvey clutch and pressure plate and mystery shifter.

I spent a little time going back searching the hamb and didn't find what I am looking for. I remember someone posted a tech article on how to do this. Someone also showed pics of a trans allready modified. It would be wonderful if I could find someone who wanted to trade cases.......long shot I know. I have 2 of the olds short tail trans.....one good and one for parts. Thanks in advance for any help Steve

 

This is what I found in the TECH ARCHIVE

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185196&highlight=lasalle

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151009&highlight=lasalle

 

thanks jrblack30 That second one is the tech I could not find. I can't read the print however on my computer. My wife says I can't find anything so it makes sense that I can't search the hamb with any good results. Steve

 

Dont worry I have trouble finding the info I am looking for also, then it sucks when I can't read it when I found it. Maybe if you get ahold of PAUL maybe he can send you some better scans of the articles you need.

 

pm sent

 

I think you got it right,
Steve wants to do what you did,
make one of these

second from the top..

 

I see that it is possible to do a side shift conversion to closed driveline, but what do you use for shifter? Will the Mystery shifter / GM 3-speed shifter fit or will you have to do major mods to get to work?

 

My brother did a buick roadmasterer to ford in the 50's as I remember the ball radius is the same He alined a removable ball housing from a ford and redrilled and tapped the holes and bolted the ford part to the G m case he cut pieces of shim stock and glued them to the splines then pounded the pieces together
shade tree style but it stayed together and worked....57 nailhead in a 36 ford Me thinks a roadmaster output shaft will work in the cad case but where can you find an old buick stick parts ???

 

The Ansen Posi-shift was the answer for those side shifters , not 'zactly common these days but I'll bet a guy could use an old Hurst . Do put a steel shift fork button in it while its out .

 

Since this adaptation requires that the LaSalle output shaft be cut down and modified, couldn't you then place a plate between the tranny housing and the Ford tail mount. Adjust the tail shaft thength to accomodate the plate added. Then the plate would be for mounting the shifter to. You may sacrifice another 3/8 to 1/2 inch of overal length but then you would have something to work with to mount the shifter.

Additionally the plate could be dual drilled one for bolting the plate to the LaSalle case and the other pattern to accept the Ford tail. You wouldn't have to drill/tap the LaSalle case, wouldn't have to worry about the leaks from those modifications. This would also remove the need for machining the LaSalle bearing retainer for the ford pattern.

Just a thought.

 

Shorten and respline the cad output shaft.
drill and tap the cad case to accept the ford rear mount.
machine the ford mount (cut a relief to clear the cad snap ring).
bolt on and go, the trans is bullet proof!
Back in the day (50's) someone sold a kit to do this, so probaly some still around on the Bay or Craigs List.
Ron

 

Thanks for the info guys. In a "perfect hot rod world" I would find someone who has the modified trans and wanted to trade for an original. Paul pm'd me and we may work something out. Steve

 

I am trying to send you an article from Car Craft Magazine 1955 and it is too big. I will mail it if you send your address or fax number.

Willard

 

I've sent out several copies of a mag article with dimensional drawing of cuts to Ford plate to HAMB ers...one of'em must have a scanner.

 

Steve,
in an attempt to answer your pm'd question about lengths..

I bolted up and measured both the converted Lasalle transmission and an early Ford transmission to a couple Olds blocks and see that,

assuming you are using the 1/2" flat plate adapter with your Ford trans and plan on using a stock Cad/Olds bell with the Lasalle,

the Lasalle ends up being almost 3" longer than the Ford

measuring from the bolt surface on the Olds block to the transmission mount bolt hole I get aprox. 16" Lasalle and 13-1/4" Ford

looks like cutting the torque tube/driveshaft and relocating the transmission mount might be in order...

 

There's a guy called "Hot Rod John" who sells on ebay under the trading
name of "planejane" (I think).
He has been offering a LaSalle to Ford torque tube kit that he makes.
He frequently offers Cad/LaSalle/Olds stuff for sale.Has a phone # you can call. I bought some trans. parts from him. He's a nice guy who will chat.

 

Seems like some people have had bad experiences with stuff he's sold recently, so you might want to do a search on that. As far as modifying the trans, there's not much tech involved. You shorten and spline the shaft, then drill the LaSalle case for the Ford mount. Getting it to fit in your chassis is another matter, and probably unique to what you have.

 

I've come into this thread a little late, but I'm in the middle of such a conversion so maybe I can answer a question or two and let you know how I get on. This is my first attempt at this conversion.
First of all here's what I have:
A Cad Lasalle side-change gearbox, and a modified Hildebrandt flathead-to-CLS adapter from Hot-Rod John Kovar (which didn’t fit and had to be modified, but John was contrite. I think he has reproductions of these in production – see his ads on E-bay).
The chassis is a much-modified '32 Ford with the K-member, through which the drive goes with the big rubber support on the back of the gearbox. Because the CLS box and adapter is 3.5" longer than the original Ford gearbox something has to move - either the engine forward or the cross-member back and shorten the torque tube.
Since my car is historic, any modifications should be made for ease of return to original. With that in mind I decided not to move the K-member rearwards and shorten the toque tube, but to move the engine forward that 3.5 inches. Now we have the problem of front engine mounts and clearance with the front cross-member, but that’s another story. For those of you with similar problems I recommend making an engine/gearbox template to simplify things. If anyone’s interested in how I did that photos will be available soon.
But back to the thread – first procure a new, sealed rear bearing for the CLS output shaft, part number 47508-7, and it’s the –7 that’s the bugbear: it refers to the inside diameter of 35mm vice the 40mm. of the input shaft bearing, other dimensions being the same (80mm. OD., 18 mm. thick). These things are like hen’s teeth, but I found a source and posted the HAMB back in August last year.
Next, get your local machinist to enlarge the gearbox rear support to accommodate the 80mm. diameter bearing and its snap-ring. The snap-ring will have to be relieved in six areas to accommodate the six mounting bolts – but more on that later.
Fit the rear bearing (without the snap-ring) into the CLS casing with the rear support over it and align the support with the two pairs of torque tube hemispherical bearing mounting holes at top and bottom. Now here’s the rub – we want to mark and drill and tap the CLS casing to accept six Ford support housing bolts, which, on the Ford box are 5/16" UNC. However, close scrutiny, measurement, and a little arithmetic, will reveal only a millimetre between the edge of the thread and the bearing hole. That seemed too little to me, so I decided to use M8 bolts (coarse thread, 1.25mm. pitch) on an enlarged pitch circle diameter so that the new bolts would be in intimate contact with the housing at the outer edge of the 5/16" holes while providing 3mm. of cast iron in the casing between the thread and the bearing hole. Much stronger.
Now, fit the snap-ring to the bearing and fit it to the casing with the support. Note the interference of the snap-ring over the M8 bolt holes, mark the snap-ring, and relieve it in six places with your Dremel.
Now for the final part – we want to modify the CLS output shaft to mimic the Ford item and accept the Ford universal joint which should clamp the rear bearing to the shaft, up against the end of the helical gear used by the first-reverse slider gear in the CLS box. The U/J will be located on the splines which we have yet to machine on the shortened CLS output shaft, and will be held in place by the special Ford washer and bolt. So we have to cut the CLS shaft to the correct length and then machine the new splines and counter-bore the end and tap it 3/8" UNF for the retaining bolt and special washer. Because the Ford rear bearing is thicker than the CLS rear bearing it is not a simple matter of matching the two shafts’ lengths from the back of the F-R slider helical gears. The Ford output shaft length back from the helical section is 55mm. The Ford rear bearing is 19mm. thick, the oil slinger is 0.8mm. and the CLS bearing is 18mm. thick, so the new CLS output shaft must be machined to 53.2mm. back from the helical section for everything to fall into place when the new gearbox is offered up to the cross-member and torque tube. There’s confidence for you! Check, check, and triple check. For the purists among you there will be 1.8mm. less engagement of the U/J with the drive shaft in the torque tube.
Having parted the CLS output shaft to the correct length, it may now be machined down to the diameter of the Ford output shaft (30 mm.) and the ten splines cut to suit the Ford U/J. At this stage it may be worth mentioning that your machinist’s spline cutter will probably not be able to cut a closed-end spline but will need some run-out into the bearing land. Don’t worry –the Ford shaft exhibits such a feature.
And there you have it. My parts are with the machinist now and I hope to have them back within a week. More later.
If there are questions I’ll be happy to respond to the best of my ability.
If you see where I’ve gone wrong, please let me know before we go too far!
Onwards and upwards,
Neil.

 

Gonna be doing this soon

Rusty