LaSalle transmissions - can anyone point me to an exploded view?

If you can find a diagram for a '50 olds box,It is the same. They are really tough to work on. There is a little br*** slug about an inch in dia. that fits in the 2/high shift fork. They are delicate. Don't ask. Do you have the front bearing retainer? A ford can be used. There is a snap ring that goes inside the 1st gear on the output shaft. Hope you have it. Best wishes.

 

hahaha its actually the electric company's parking lot.....

Johnny just bought a couple ******s in pieces and they have box's of extra parts...... so if you are missing anything let me know and I'm sure we can come up with it....

I would really like to see a diagram as well.... i have an open drive side shifter and I want to use a top loader case on it..

 

is the lasalle box (both sideshift and toploader) stronger than a '39 ford toploader, or is it the gearing which is desirable?

i vaguely recall that the sideshift gears are the same (physically) as the desirable '37 lasalle toploaders. i dunno much about transmissions in general.

 

38-42

CC

 

LaSalle box is way stronger than a Ford toploader. It's not even close. '38 and '39 gears will fit in a '37 case, but the case has to be machined slightly to make it work.

 

thanks for the pix ProEnfo

I picked up a couple three side shifts completely dis***embeled
and a nice rebuilt top shift unit recently...

might be good to study a picture before trying to put one of the side shift jobs together.

and, uh..
technicaly the lasalle is a bottom loader.

 

Top shift..

CC..

 

here's the same picture scanned from my MoToR's auto repair manual
this one with descriptors for some of the bits inside..

 

Paul, I hope it helps, sorry for the quality...it's an old book.CC

 

here's a brief how-to out of an old little pages mag on converting the Cad to Ford tail behind an Olds..

 

It has been MANY years since I tore into one of those gear boxes.The two things I remember most is:Have a GOOD set of snap ring pliers and use plenty of grease to keep the roller bearings from falling out of the shafts.Small hands help too as everything comes out from the bottom.

When you do get it together,don't try and speed shift it from second to third or the shifter ****on will snap.Then it won't go into 3rd gear;well it will but it won't stay.Keep a few of those around.I used to keep a couple in the glove box.They were originally made of oil-lite bronze.They sold steel replacements but they weren't compatible with the slider and usually fried.I made a few from red br*** when I couldn't find originals and they seemed to work pretty well.Also seem to remember you could change those ****ons without completely dis***embling the trans but it was tricky to do on the road.Last time I worked on one of those was about 1963.

 

how much did they change year to year?
how do you identify what year a transmission is?

of the three I have I believe the top shift to be the '37

the rest of the pile looks like enough to build a late one, '41 maybe?
it has a m***ive output shaft, splined for a modern style U joint

and another that looks like something in between,
side shift like the late one
and similar output shaft to the '37

the third side shift case has been altered,
a bit crudely, to take a Ford tailshaft
like in the article above.

 

Great thread . I might be needing this info..

 

i'm going to STEAL everything in here and add it to my olds post

 

What was the last year a lasalle ****** was produced?

 

It's a little hazy, but either '53 or '54, depending on who you listen to.

 

I'm not sure when they decided that a 40 foot long tailshaft was the way to go. I know that '38 sideshifts still had the medium length tail like the '37 did. That may be what you've got, because I bought a sideshift that the owner alleged came out of a '39, and it's got the long tail.

 

I'm getting a complet change over from a LOW milage 53 . Going to have to make a shifter of some sort.

 

actually i don't think they produced the lasalle ****** after 1948
i'm basicly guessing or rather ***UMING, because, they was made for the flathead v8 originally... in 1949 the caddy and olds v8 ONLY had automatic... in 1950 they put out olds with lasalle ******, do not belive that many put together..

basicly i belive all post 1949 are surplys ******s left from the 40ies,
like the only caddys with manual was the he****s or ambulances (i rather belive it was merly almost only ambulances that had em, why need to shift fast with an he****?)

wonder what the "excuse" for the olds 1950 tailshaft is though, and why that accordingly to heathen the bellhousing differs from caddy and olds aswell

and the last year used should be 1953 or 1954, atleast 1954 should be the absolute last year used due to in 1955 that cadillac changed bellhousing pattern

could of course be possible that they produced it later on then 1948 but read somehwere on an olds faq that they "raided partsbin from cadillac and lasalle" ... they should have reintroduced the ****** and strenghened the 2-3 shift so it became even more bulletproof...

 

Here's a tip for you, and everyone else with a sideshift Cad/LaSalle. Find an old Hurst floor shift conversion for a '55-'64 Chevy three speed. It's not that difficult to convert for use on these transmissions, and the early Chevy gearboxes used the clamp-on shift arms that you need for the Cad/LaSalle. I'm putting together some pictures of what's entailed as far as modifications go.

 

Thanks, for all the info.... yeah top shifter.... thats what I ment... haha

I got a caddy motor from a 51 four door that was factory stick....the car was low milage and origional..... so they came in regular caddys as well.....

Although that is the only factory stick 50's caddy I've ever seen...

The caddy bell IS different as it dosen't have the mounting ears and is ribbed....

The ****** itself is cool.... it is long, but open drive.
I have two of those, one side shift closed drive, and then two top shift ******s....

My plan is to convert one of the top shifters to open drive using the later caddy guts and tail shaft.

And then I want to convert the other top shifter to use with a ford torque tube tail shaft....

Is there a way I could get a photo copied version of that magazine Paul?


I also have a couple crazy looking shifters for the side shift ******s...

They look to use a ford top loader type shifter and mount on top of the ******.... they have these slide deals that hook onto the shifter arms of the ******.....

I'll take pics...

 

sure, pm me your email address
and I'll send tonight,
or snail mail addy and I'll send a copy..

 

what's the better syncro?
I have two styles, they look the same except
one is bronze and the rest are aluminum.

 

Do some research before you attempt to use the sideshift ge****t in the '37 case, as a couple of the old articles I've read mentioned some sort of modification being necessary to do so.

 

The shift ****on - in a stocker - is an about 5/8" - 3/4" br*** ****on with a 3/16" - 1/4" grove in it.
The ****on drops into a receptacle machined into the 2nd-high shift arm inside the case.

CT Automotive - a famous North Hollywood speed/machine shop used to manufacture a steel ****on - and it could have been cast iron.
The steel ****on cured the speed shifting blues of the br*** ****on, but didn't last as long on the street due to steel against steel - even with lotsa oil - wears faster than br*** against steel in the same well lubed situation.

One thing you want to be careful of is using a floor shift conversion that does not have 2nd or high gear stops built in.

I had a Hurst Mystery Shifter, an econo version of their regular three speed shifter.
The Mystery Shifter did not have stops, but the regular shifter - a little more expensive - did.
The MS shifter also had a removable round floor shift handle and the regular shifter had the flat bolt-on handle.

Reason I point this out is the Cad-Lasalle boxes side shifter sticks out of a long cast piece.
A few speed shifts and you can break the cast iron piece off the case.

I did that at San Fernando dragstrip and damn near fell on the floor.
Saved by a safety belt - lap style was all that was required then.

After I got replacement main case from a circle track racing friend who'd stockpiled a bunch of them, I stuck my gears and stuff in the new case, built some stops for the shifter and no more probs.

Get yourself a Hurst three speed shifter, make some new brackets for the shifter, bend up some 3/8" rods as necessary and the rest should be easy.
Heim joints should work well here.

If you have some hardened steel Hurst shift arms - trans end - that are close to what you need, but the rectangular holes are a touch small you can file them to shape by:
Heat the arm to a moderate orange - as viewed in subdued light.
Let it cool naturally.
File as required.
Heat the arm to moderate orange again and toss it into a bucket.
That will harden the arm back to where it was.

In fact it may harden the arm beyond where it was and the metallurgists on the board can tell us what's happening here and perhaps make a better recommendation, but I've done several of the Hurst shift arms this way and no problems down the road.

As for the extra long tailshaft, I think it was done in an effort to get a shorter driveshaft or get the front U-joint beyond a crossmember.

Far as bellhousings go, Olds had two different styles.
49-51 I believe and 52 & up.
The 49-51's take the Cad-Lasalle trans as a bolt on with no probs.
The 52 & up has a different bolt pattern and you can bolt the 38 Buick trans to these.
Course, then you have to set the Buick trans up for open driveline.

And then there's the Ford clutch actuating arm that exits the bellhousing at a 30 degrees or so angle downward - when viewed from the rear.
The Olds clutch actuating arm exits the bell housing level.
Which makes for some interesting clutch linkage if you want to do it right, but that's another story.

 

Shift forks and bearing retainers are extremely difficult to find. The bearing retainer slips on the front and is held in place by the bellhousing. Since these aren't bolted on, most are lost in time. But you can modify a '39 Ford style bearing retainer to work. Shift forks are forgings and are almost impossible to find unless you salvage them from another trans. To fit the later gears in a '37 case, I believe you have to enlarge the countershaft holes, but I'm not positive on that. But I do know the gears will fit and work fine, and that some machining has to be done to make it work.

 

found another picture
this one is of an Olds transmssion
similar to Cad...