Technical Picked up an OD trans

bought this 3spd OD. Price was decent so I made the drive to check it out. The owner was a super cool mechanic. He rigged up this Hurst shifter and switch. Said he split gears not just using the OD alone.
He was surprised when I told him I plan on keeping my 3 on the tree. He had several parts from building lots of theses over the years. Threw in 2 side covers with unmodified shift levers.
Guy had tons on info on theses OD set up. He told me to remove the cover and if I found anything I didn’t like that he has plenty of parts to take care of it.
Had a really nice adventure this evening.

 

This was very cool. Saginaw 4 speed with OD added. He said he built this decades ago. Talked like he wasn’t ready to part with it.

 

I need to put my four speed back in my car now that I have a new solenoid.

 

Sounds a lot like a friend of mine that I bought 6 OD 3-speeds from a while back before he moved across the country. He had lots of parts and was planning to build a Saginaw 4-speed with the OD added. He sent me a magazine article with all the info to do it. Good score!

 

He has a Lay**** set up for a ford.
He’s gonna dig it out. Might have the grab that as well
Said it’s from an AMC but supposed to share a bolt pattern with ford.
Imma gonna research that

 

We were doing the Saginaw 4-speed with O.D. back in the 70's. Worked well.

 

Some years ago a guy on a Yblock site had an R-11 behind a Ford toploader. 4 speeds, syncro first and an o/d that would live behind a big block. Then there was the OT Doug Nash in the Vette. I think that was a Lay**** but don’t really know. Sweet set ups, you’ll love them.

 

Has two cars with the old BW overdrive. The first was a 54 Mercury convertible and the second was a 58 Impala with a 348. They shift very smoothly because of the overrunning clutch in the OD unit. I really liked the way they worked.

 

Many of the overdrives were set up to only function in 2nd and 3rd. reason is they don't want the sprage (?) clutch to run in reverse. So, the homemade thing to be able to split all the gears is a cool thing if you remember to not use OD in reverse. The Lay**** is a wonderful unit, found in volvo's and many english cars, popular today with the cl***ic car crowd, packards, etc, mated into the closed drive line. I put the volvo unit in a 38 chev with a datsun 240Z motor years ago with an earlier top shift to avoid the high gear only lock out for overdrive. It was wonderful, had 8 gears, but be careful to not use it in reverse!

 

So where does one find info on doing this sort of set up??
Have a 65 toploader and a 50 ford overdrive
Havent dug them out yet to have a look .
Have a 401 buick I was going to use one of them behind, but .maybe I can use both !!!
Also have a side shifted 70s 3 speed with overdrive . Maybe overdrive on the overdrive
I know getting ridiculous now !!!

 

I think those F100's from around 1960 had a top loader ****** which could be had with a factory O/D option. Not sure about their reputation, but I heard they would split gears. Might be worth a hunt for more info on a F100 Forum...

 

The '50 Ford OD unit is an R10, not really the best choice behind a 400+ ci engine. An R11 would be better.

 

I KNOW NOTHING of these manual OD's so I am watching this thread intently. Tanks

 

Yes it is the r10 ,found some pictures .

 

How bout posting it...................

 

Good idea! I will see if I can find it. Will report back.

 

I bought 3 of those from a member here. I am going to pick them up in Oklahoma on my way back from Florida. I understand that they are BW T89's that are very similar to T85's. If so, they are strong transmissions with R11 overdrives. Ford ran them behind FE's. I have been away from "car stuff" here in Florida for the last 6 months, so I am looking forward to tearing into them when I get back.

Anyone have any more information on these?

 

This is a link to the BW overdrive manual, applicable to most of the units. For those unfamiliar with them, or for installation, troubleshooting, etc.

http://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/TechData/BWOverdriveManual.pdf

 

Looking forward to meeting you when you pick those up.

 

We removed the side plate. Reverse had 3 teeth missing, idler shaft was bad. The guy I bought it from said for me to call him if I found something I didn’t like. Should have pulled the cover off before the purchase. Thats on me.
Called the guy, he apologized and said he’d make good on the parts. He’s a former trans guy and says he has all the parts to make a good one.

 

Scans of the 4 speed + overdrive article. Saginaws.

 

I've been told the 2nd and 3rd thing before, but every one I ever drove would go into overdrive in 1st gear. You just had to be able to get above 28 mph in first.

A buddy had a nice 55 Fairlane 2dr sedan, 272, 2bbl. He found out he could get it to go in overdrive in 1st gear, so he did it all the time. My buddy never had any feeling for what cons***uted abuse on machinery. He would wind it up in first, let up and get it into OD and then wind it up again. At about 50 mph he would depress the kickdown switch under the gas pedal and shift it out of OD. He thought it was funny.

 

Thanks! That’s the same article I was going to post. You found it first.

 

I built a 4 speed Saginaw 4 speed about 25 years ago..I was very simple to do if you don’t mind transmission work
I never like the freewheel coasting so the OD was always locked out unless on a freeway ….

 

I had a '56 Ford convert in '59, worked over the 292 a little, Warner T86 w/O.D.
We used to street race for $50-$100 (the serious races) so I'd ask the fast SBC guys to roll start.
We'd roll just over 25, I'd slip it into O.D., (low gear) and 'fake' a shift into 2nd.
The Chevy guy would shift into second, and when we got to the 'start line'... I'd kick it back into low gear direct, that Ford would just leap (right in the power range) 65 mph. in low gear, speed shift to 2nd, and I was gone.
Never lost a 'rolling start' race.
High RPM, and the torque in 3rd gear... after a race, some guys said "Fast Ford, winds up high...What're ya runnin', Chevy?"
Cruised downtown San Jose, white shoe polish on 1/4 windows: CHEVY EATER
Loved that white ragtop!

 

Guy I bought it from said he didn’t use the governor. Straight wired to the solenoid with the switch.

 

I kept that article, as I had thought it was neat bit of hot rod ingenuity, and thought I'd try doing one some day.
Had a friend who had most of the parts in his shop, when he p***ed, I didn't have the heart to ask about those pieces. Not sure where they went.

 

I'm partial to the Lay****-de Normanville type of overdrive, because of the relative ease of modifying it to shift manually i.e. right now!, rather than the stock BW style of no, you can't shift it yourself; fill in this application form in triplicate, and we'll engage overdrive for you when we get to it. Also, no freewheel except for the split-second between direct and OD.

The 28mph threshold (on the Lay**** OD) depends on the operating pressure of the unit, because the hydraulic pressure comes from an internal pump driven by the gearbox output. In theory the threshold can be lowered by running a higher pressure (or an external pressure source — something I've speculated about). That is determined by the spring in the internal pressure regulator. Gear Vendors overdrives perform the way they do because they operate at something like three times the pressure as the Lay**** units they're based on.

To my mind, being able to engage OD at 6500rpm in first is about 80% of the point.

 

I also picked up a 57 chevy OD and a ford t85 for cheap if remember right.
Waiting till I have the Time to mess and learn about them.

 

I don't use the governor either in my t85