I have a few late fifty's ford truck trannys with granny low. Is there anyway to re gear them with better gear ratios or are they boat anchors if you wanna go faster. This is probably a dumb question but I wanted to double check before I got rid of them.
Having undesirable old parts is not fun, they are old and someone somewhere at sometime will want the part I have, but I can't store this stuff forever -- I need to still store the stuff I need for my build. Maybe here is another question that can be asked for your trans though. Does anyone know if these late 50's trans can be swapped in to replace the 40s vintage crash boxes (I am assuming that the late 50s ones are syncro)? I would assume that you would need at a minimum the hogshead off a late 40s box, would the rear mount work or would the older rear mount bolt on? The idea if it works out is to offer them to guys that want to build some of the older bigger trucks as replacements -- just not sure if it would work out though?
What you probably have are Warner Gear (Borg-Warner) T-98s. So far as I know there is nothing specifically offered for them in terms of different ratios. Their replacement is/was the T-18, and there were some different ratios offered between the different automakers that used it. I have been told (but I have no direct personal knowledge) that T-18 parts will swap into the T-98. Some off-road guys use the T-18 for either a main gearbox or a step-down box for crawling. That being said, they are still top-shifted boxes which are never going to be capable of fast shifts. Ford used them in everything from the F-100 to heavy trucks. From what I can tell there is very little market for them,,I've never even been able to give them away. Hope this excessive amount of info helps.
I run a GM 465 Muncie 4spd with bull low out of a '81 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup in my '32 Chev sitting behind a BB396, not that glamourous, but gets the job dun! great for smoke shows and runs the 1/4 mile in 12.9 sec, I just can't pas a gas station.
My 61 F100 has the granny low 4 speed behind a Y block. Not great for high speed cruising but works just fine around town and for pulling my boat.
Off topic, but I did see and drive one truck top shift 4 speed that was not a granny first gear. This one had a gear spread like a car 4 speed and you had to use low to start off. It even felt smooth shifting from 1st to 2nd, not like the normal granny trans. I have been around trucks a lot, and I have never seen or heard of another. The truck is a stock 66 gmc 4x4 suburban.
F&J : your box is a New Process 435. GMC did use a progressive one like that ,I had a 64 that had one.
T-98's are common swaps for older Jeeps and other small 4x4's. Hit up the pirate4x4 board's classifieds. Most rock crawlers like the lower 1st gear. Certainly not scrap at today's prices. My $.02
I just leave out them side out of the way, sometimes stash them in the trunk of a car i have sitting around. As soon as I throw something away someone calls and says they need it. You can leave those things out side on the ground for 20 years and they will still work. Smear some grease on the input and out put splines and your good.
Believe it or not, when you see old 60's speed catalogs and look at the engine to transmission adapters there were adapters made for most of the truck 4 speeds so somebody was using them for something. I think people just used 2-3-4 and ignored the granny low and they were a good tough trans.
I'm using one behind my Zephyr V12.. the earlier flathead 4 speed model. Don't care about 1st gear or the slower shifts.. I do care about the PTO output shaft to drive my AC compressor and Alternator though.
The Jalopy Journal
