Technical Looking for photos of Hurst syncro-loc for side shift cad/lasalle

Thanks Walt, I will check it out.

 

George, I'll bet that's the gas cap door...My bud Teddy DeMello paid the best bodyman in town $25 to set one of those on his '40 Coupe, including 'patch-painting' black! (1959)

Now, on your LaSalle: After machining the tailshaft for the closed Ford U-joint, (be sure and machine it far enough forward for the bearing, which is the FRONT bearing for a Ford transmission: '39-'48.)
The rear mount/brg retainer has to be machined at the brg O.D., just about .035"? Can't remember, but measure the difference between a Ford front and Ford rear O.D. The front you'll use is just a little larger.
I put a '56 Buick in Teddy's '40 coupe, radiator had to be moved forward...narrow fenders wouldn't agree, so I had the radiator shop 'notch' the radiator on both sides 3/4" where they interfered.

But make no mistake: there is little fudge area up there, reason I say this is my other '40 got an Olds 324, with a '39 Ford box. Even in the stock position, the front was Close.
Regarding the diameter of the LaSalle case, I believe it can be moved rearward with a minimum of cross member 'surgery'...Wish I was there, such a 'familiar' problem, just like yesterday. 60 years!
LOL

 

Ha! That excellent LaSalle Collection pic looks like my garage!
Sure would like to find some gennie sticks...Hot Rod John makes NEW ones out of 304 stainless...$200, have to plan for that one!
"Used to be 'Papa Mike'...Now it's 'Pauper Mike'!"

 

Yup, '41-'48 fuel filler door!

Once I get the car home, I'll really suss out where I am going to put the engine. If I can shorten the torque-tube and move it back an 1" without hacking the snot out of the x-member, that would be my #1 choice. Sliding that great cast iron lump forward isnt gonna do anything good for traction or handling...

 

George - here is the only photo I could find of the Cad-Lasalle trans with the Hurst Mystery Shifter attached - you can see one of the shifting rods is not connected. Has the Cad bell housing on it as well.
The above posts though really show what these pieces are all about.

 

You say "patina" I say rust.



When I started this thread, I figured I'd end up making a mount & bodging together a bunch of Chevy syncro-loc parts, never really expected to find one of these... I'll still have to modify the bracket, but this should work.

 

There was a hamber selling the conversion kits here on the Hamb that were just like the originals with the linkage and everything... I can't think of his handle for the life of me right now- this is a dual pattern- but I did find a syncro-loc on eBay that looks just like this. I got this shifter from Jonny Cola- the trans from Rocket Olds and the adapter from Rocco and Cheaters-

I'll see if I can find it in search but I was pretty sure he still has some kits left-

One of these days I will convert a Lasalle to Torque tube! So rad

Tuck

 

This guy?
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/“kingshift”-shifter-unit-for-the-1950-60’s-standard-transmissions.926212/
I'll just polish my stick and get it re-plated. Yours is puuuurdy!! Where did you get that knob? Your mounting plate wouldn't work for me, I plan on coupling it to the torque-tube.

 

George: I beleive that "knob" is part of the handle. First gen Hurst yoyo style. Yours looks like 2nd gen square top, pretty rare too, compared to all the taper tops. Cal Custom made alot of yoyo style knobs that give the "look".

 

Thanks Bowie, I knew I'd seen similar knobs separately at some point.When did my style handle come to market? Pre 1960 or post?

 

The first Hurst shifter ad I've found is the "siamese twins" one in Dec '60 Hot Rod. There's also an article in that issue on them. I'd put the square tops around 1961-1962?

 

Thanks Bowie sounds about right. I'll look at some old ads myself as well, I need around '60/'61ish. I have Dec. '60 Hot Rod, I'll dig it out and start there.

 

Assuming I could find one, could I swap a yoyo stick into my tower?

 

I'm not sure, the only yoyo I have ,is a dual pattern like Tuck has shown. A Syncro/Loc with a yoyo handle,could interchange, I would think?

 

I've been hunting and come up empty any threads on rebuilding syncro-locs on here?

 

Ok, so I have done a little research into this.
Heres the first ad, Oct. 1960, pretty clear the syncro-loc is not on the market yet.

There was no Hurst ad whatsoever in the Nov. issue, this was in Dec. 1960 Hot Rod ,as Bowie has mentioned, but the ad shows a round knob.


And heres the article from Dec. Hot Rod. First thing I notice is the appearance of the shift tower is different from every syncro-loc I have ever seen. My conclusion, this is a pre-production prototype, and at the time the article was written (probaby Aug. 60?) the shifters design hadn't been finalized...




Ok, now, read the last paragraph of this page...

And the first paragraph of this page.


The yo-yo handle/ knob isnt date specific, they were released concurrently, the yo-yo was for the "deluxe" model. I would guess these shifters probably came to market either right at the tail-end of 1960, or the first couple months of '61.

 

Close-up of my shifter tower. Note that all the patent pending stuff that I have seen on every other hurst shifter tower I have ever seen is missing.


Tuck, does your shifter have any of the usual "patent pending" stuff stamped on the tower, or just a number? I would expect the number on your tower to be different than mine, as the part numbers in the later catalogs for hurst towers with integral sticks vary based on stick style/length. I think this is an early production shifter, probably 1961? I will research further and see if I can find out when Hurst was granted their first shifter related patent.

 

George: After reading your last post, I went digging in my Hurst menagerie and pulled the earliest one I have. It's a barrel type that spells out "Hurst Dual Pattern with Syncro/Loc , pat#3052135 others pending;052835". Since the 1st mention I've found for syncro loc"k" ,is HRM 6/62; and Syncro/Loc in 10/62 , I'd place mine as a late '62 unit. Your unstamped #048437 is definatly a prior unit. Its been a whole lot of years since I read all of that Dec'60 article, I forgot they made both the knob and barrel versions of those little body dual pattern units. Have fun,haul ass!

 

I am going to try to find the patent info later today. I love researching this kind of stuff. Looking at the photo in the magazine, Tucks shifter, and my shifter, the one in the magazine and Tucks dont look the same as each other, but they both appear to not have a front face on the tower with no 3rd gear stop-bolt. I'm guessing Tucks is probably earlier than mine.

 

Both the Dec'60 pic and Tucks are the earlier non syncro/loc little body units. I'm thinking the very 1st Anco/Hurst units didn't have any limit stops at all. About 25 years ago I gave a early dual pattern to a buddy to cut off the handle to make a "custom " bend ,I gave that one cause it seemed lite duty,with no adjustments.

 

I have the numbers on mine I believe... I have a hurst syncro loc yo yo- I'll snap some pics of it and post later.

 

Theres really very little syncro-loc info on the HAMB, I found one other thread, aside from the two I started. Maybe we can correct that, and get a good collection of info here. Could be a useful resource.

 

George the guys with the most hurst history knowledge are dennis kirban, theamcguy, and 69hurstsc. If they can't answer your questions nobody can.

Have you tried this thread yet?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-hurst-history-trivia.427115/

 

Very good info,THANKS

 

I did, although I havent gone through the entire thread. Lots of cool trivia so far, but very little in the way of technical info. I should read it in its entirety. If I find anything pertinant to syncro-locs, I will link to it on this thread. I have come up blank on the patent searchs so far, but will keep digging.

 

One thing I keep planning to add here, but I always seem to get distracted by something else thats been posted.
I dont know how many guys are aware of this, especially prior to the introduction of the Super Shifter, there were a number of well-known racers that would use a syncro-loc tower on 4-speeds, and fab a separate reverse lever. Some of the well-known names that used to do this were Bobby Warren, Bill Callahan, and Bill Jenkins.

 

I am going to link Little Wings hurst thread, LOTS of Syncro-loc info here. I actually had this in my suscribed threads and forgot about it. Not surprising as I have 16 pages of subscribed threads, kinda defeats the purpose at some point...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-hurst-info-page.305115/

 

Gee Wiz George, I've been following this thread since you started it. I had seen Tuck's pic on his thread when he put it up of the YoYo on Lasalle. But now you've got me wanting one of these little bug'rs and I don't know why. I don't have anything to put it on. Maybe one of these early shifters would fit the part if I ever get around to doing a 55 Pontiac Gasser.


"Listen Mr... It ain't broke if I can't fix it"

 

Well Cad-Lasalle trannies were pretty popular in gassers in the late fifties. IIRC Doug Cook had one in his '37 (gotta love a gasser with short bar lancer caps!) early on, and Lean Gene ran one in the olds...