My buddy Tim would like to drive his roadster to the Asphalt Invitational next weekend... and would like to get his Columbia rear-end operational before the trip. Does anyone have any onfo... or can supply a wiring/plumbing for vacuum diagram for a Columbia? Is it a matter of making the leever go one way or the other to click it into overdrive? Tim said something about a clutch activated switch, a dash switch and a vacuum pod... He'll be bringing it over Wed. night so we can get it going... So, I ***ume the clutch switch is to dumb it down... so you are ***ured that the clutch is in when you hit it into overdrive... can you get by with something mechanical to activate it and byp*** that option? I'm new to these and need info! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!! Sam.
There is a bunch of hardware used on the originals to make it all work. somewhere in one of my v8 times magazines, there is info on a shortcut to make them shift. will try and look for it tomorrow if you can wait till tomorrow nite?. that's the best i can do.
The Columbia is manuovered by the vacuum switch on the dash board. And there is also a small gearbox to get the speedo to show the right speed. If i remember right the clutch switch cut out the overdrive when depressed, so you dont start in High. The gear in the rear axle is activated by the vacuum clock, and the lever is in high when i one position and low in the other. So to get it running you, can make a mechanical contraption to work this, wire or mechanical links. And as long as you don't do burnouts in high you should get away with starting in high, But the Columbia is actually a brittle contraption. And most of them needs to have parts welded and strenghtened before mounting them on an axle.
Look in Hemmings for the guys from Chattanooga Tenn that "bullet proof" Columbia's. They know them inside out. They told me that most guys use a late model Ford F150 gas tank selector switch. It's 12 volt and the vacuum is swithed from one side of the canister(high) to the other side of the canister pulling it into low with the clutch in of course. If you think about it, you can figure out the vacuum hose routing. They have photo copies of the original controlls but they get pricey if you aren't doing a restoration.
I think the minimum needed is a vacuum switch, available from some two speed trucks. The clutch switch is unnecessary if you remember the clutch--duh--and of couse without the little gearbox your speedo will be wrong in one setting. I think some 1960's Chevy trucks have a useable speedo shifter that's close but not exact for correcting. Throwitallaway and mark the speed limit in two places on your tach... All the Columbia auxiliary parts like this are scarcer and more expensive than the Columbia itself. And it is brittle with a primitive shifter--it is not to be used as an extra gear in normal driving, just one shift when you get on the highway and another when you're back to town. I've heard of people throwing away the whole vac setup and using something like an early fifties GM starter solenoid. Rumbleseat's book has some info on the things near the end of this: http://www.flatheadv8.org/rumblest/gears.pdf
This fordbarn thread may offer some info: <a href=http://www.fordbarn.com/earlyv8/forum03/messages/9236.htm">http://www.fordbarn.com/earlyv8/forum03/messages/9236.htm</a> All the stock parts from the dash contols to the rear end, are pricey and hard to find. A friend ended up plumbing his own system with a small vacuum tank under the seat and a modern vacuum solenoid type switch at the rearend. He had been told of some people who supposedly used a heavy duty push/pull type cable to manually shift the rear. If you want I could get you in touch with my friend, and he could explain how he did it in his 29 roadster w/ red ram hemi.
Wow! Thanks for all the info guys! So, in short... we need to apply vacuum to the pod on the rear end... and only turn it on when we're on the hwy, and then off again when we pull off the hwy... and we'll be golden. Right? I think he has all the original stuff under there... just no vacuum lines or wiring. FWIW, the car is a "survivor" that his dad built in '49... featured in CKDeluxe. Sam.
I saw a simple lever controlled , basically a byp*** of the vacuum, in a '30 pickup with a chevy 6 in it, out in pasadena a couple years back. The guy says that's all you need. TP aka zibo
The Jalopy Journal
