Did Oldsmobile ever offer a 4sp hydro matic

No torque converter. They had a fluid coupling. This is why they were geared so low in first gear.

 

GM used 389 Pontiacs with 4 speed turbo hydro's behind them. I have one in my '57 GMC Suburban NAPCO.

 

And why the PowerGlide, which did have a torque converter, only had two speeds.
GM never did stick a TC in front of the 4spd units did they? That would have been some kind of acceleration

 

Can these still be found/purchased?

 

Still available, but EXPENSIVE to rebuild.

 

My 52 Lincoln has one, it needed to be rebuilt before I could really drive it. Was living in Dayton, OH at the time. Called all over and only found 1 guy who claimed he could do it, he said I had to pull it from the car for him. Eventually found someone on this forum who sold me a recently rebuilt one and I put it in.

That wikipedia link says it's the heaviest transmission ever built. Well... when I was putting the new one in, it slipped off the jack stand partially and I caught it , holy ****. There was actually a bell housing inprint on my chest for a few weeks.

I've heard the fluid coupling called a torus.

I'm also told that in auto racing that requires a cage around the transmission that this is the only transmission authorized to run without one due to the cast iron shell.

 

Mr Ridge Runner..............I thought isent message earlier? but undoubly got deleted!!
If the Hydro IS available.........PM ME KOOL Smoke

 

I've had a number of 55 Oldsmobiles with the 4 speed automatic. I have 2 of them now and the one that's still stock is a 4 door hardtop with a continental kit. Talk about a sleeper. I kicks **** off the line and chirps the gears if you stay in it. Talk about a fun ride!

 

YA! And you'd know when that thing shifted, give ya whiplash!!!LOL
My '52 Kaiser had a HYDRO in it.

 

Another article, this time from Hemmings

http://www.hemmings.com/hmn/stories/2006/09/01/hmn_feature28.html

 

Nope, Cadillac offered it in p***enger cars in '41.

The result, dubbed "Hydra-Matic Drive," went into production in May 1939 for the 1940 model year. The first Oldsmobiles so equipped were shipped in October 1939. Oldsmobile was chosen to introduce the Hydra - Matic for two reasons: economies of scale—Oldsmobile produced more cars than Cadillac at the time — thus providing a better test base, and secondly, to protect the reputation of Cadillac in case of a market failure of the new transmission. Advertising proclaimed it "the greatest advance since the "self-starter."
In 1940, the Hydra-Matic was a $57.00 option,<sup id="cite_ref-Csere1988p63_1-1" cl***="reference"></sup> rising to $100.00 for 1941. In 1941, it also became an option on Cadillacs<sup id="cite_ref-Csere1988p63_1-2" cl***="reference"></sup> for $125.00. Almost 200,000 had been sold by the time p***enger car production was halted for wartime production in February 1942

 

Heres one about the plant fire...

http://www.autotran.us/TheGreatHydraMaticFire.html

 

-------------------
They were used even earlier than that in
military applications. In WWII, the twin
Flathead Cadillac V8's that were used in
some Sherman tanks were hooked to
matching twin-4sp hydros.

Mart3406
=========================

 

Simply put: ALL Hydramatics were 4 speeds up until Turbo Hydros.

 

I found an online version of the owner's manual for my car and it stated that you could push start the car if needed. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

Yeah- mine shifts with ....gusto or enthusiasm is the best way to describe it, I guess

 

Smokey2,

PM sent.

Ed

 

Thanks for straightning out my take on history. I probably heard wrong to start, been awhile, always willing to accept corections.

Ed

 

Rich Fox mentioned G.I. deuce and a half's using the Hydro. I never knew that. Summer of '67 I was helping one of my best friends move himself and his mother from Redlands to Calimesa. His uncle was a guy named Herman Broome, a founding member of the Early Ford V-8 Club. He was a framer by trade and at the time had a '49-'50 GMC half ton with a 270 and a Hydramatic. I do not know if it came that way or if he did a conversion.

 

He must have converted it; the first year that GMC pickups were available with a hydramatic was 1953, and 1954 for Chevrolet pickups.

 

The '49 looks like a tank next to my wife's Scion Xb.
Good to know the ****** is "built like a tank".

 

No, that is the Jetaway...

 

'49 and '50 Olds 88s were fast cars, even with the Hydra-Matic, and their front suspension lifted a lot when you got on it from a standstill. A running gag when they were still plentiful was that they had "one gear up and three forward".

 

I've got one out of a '56 GMC that we used to have. I'm quite sure it's a 4 spd hydramatic. PU came from the factory w/Pontiac V8 & auto. Dad bought it new with turqouise/white paint & interior and the big back window !! Don't have any use for the trans. so will sell it as soon as the snow melts. What it's worth to a Hamber ??

 

IIRC they were behind Pontiac engines in GMC trucks.

 

many old automatics had a rear pump that allowed push starting IIRC

 

I had an old 40 Buick roadmaster with a milled head, and a special differential, used to beat some of them 49/50 Olds.

 

In 1961-64, some Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles were equipped with 3-speed Roto-Hydramatic (aka SlimJim). This transmission left a lot to be desired and was superseded by the much improved Turbo-Hydramatic in 1965.

 

--------------------------
Yep, they were definitely available in GMC trucks that used Pontiac V8 engines. They were also used in some Chevrolet pick-up trucks in '55 through '57. Before NHRA got wise to the scam and banned the combination, in the mid to late 1960's, some Junior stock racers used some highly creative and imaginative "interpretation" of the stock cl*** rules to run 4-speed hydros in their 265 and 283 V8 powered '55 , '56 and '57' Chevy sedan deliveries. The justification being that since the sedan-deliveries were sold as Chevrolet trucks rather than as p***engers cars, therefore, despite the fact that Chevrolet only ever actually offered the 4-speed hydro as an option on 6-cylinder-powered sedan deliveries, it supposedly might have been at least theoretically possible to also get one in a sedan delivery with a V8! Of course it wasn't possible and once the NHRA eventually figured this out, the Chev "4-spd-hydro with a V8 in a sedan-delivery" combination was banned from further stock cl*** compe***ion.

Mart3406
===========

 

At the time, late 60's, the stock rules were: Any engine, any trans, availible in any body could be mixed (Within the same manufacturer). I ran a 4 speed in a 60 Biscayne 2 bbl 283, it could not be bought that way, but was availible in a different body so it was legal for stock.

Not a scam, it was the rules.