my transmission on my Impala broke and I need a replacement. I have no idea ofwhat it is. It has a four bolt cover and it's shorter than a three speed saginaw Any advicE WOULD HELP.
Not sure of what its out of.... But i have a 3spd from a '63 Chev that has the same 4 bolt cover but a longer tail shaft. Measures 21 3/4 from bell housing flange to end of tail shaft. P/M me if you need it... ill sell it to ya.
That is a ordinary 3 speed chev they came in cars and trucksfrom55 to about 68. You can use your short tailshaft on any of them. I have destroyed dozens of them over the past 40 years. I usted to try and use them in a 58 impala with a 421 super duty 63 catalina pontiac engine.They are easy to build. Take it apart there will be needle bearings that will fall out from the impuit shaft. Dont worry there are 14 larger and 24 smaller ones. You can pack them with stiff wheel bearing grease. You can use a piece of rubber hose tto hold the cluster gear needle bearings in place then push it out with the shaft. you will need large snap ring pliers to remove the tail shaft bearing from the housing. Hope this helps.OldWolf
Muncie 3-speed is the "formal" name. Non-syncro first gear. Not too strong; but easy to work on or replace. Your "short" version was used 58-64 X-chassis cars, though the same trans, only longer, was used through 65. 66, the Saginaws came out. There was also a fully syncro 3-speed Muncie in 69-70. And, for a couple of years Pont LeMans/GTO used a FORD full syncro 3-speed (of all things ???). Swap to a Saginaw 3-speed if you can or even a Saginaw 4-speed, as they're fairly cheap, and stronger than what you have now. Personally, I would try and find the MOPAR 3-speed W/Overdrive "4th" gear that came in some later model Chevrolet/GMC trucks and vans. Odd that there was "crossbreeding" of transmissions between Ford/GM/Chrysler. Even the GM Hydramatic got used in some 50's Lincolns, and many other manufactures also.
I have a saginaw three speed that I bought today but it pissed me off that it was too long. The shifter would have to be moved back about 5 inches. Is it worth it? I dont have that much room to work with.
There were three different gear set for those. Look at the input shaft. If it necks down between the splines and the housing, they are the wide ratio gears used in low powered cars. A full dia shaft would be closer ratio and used in the V8 cars. The real close ratio gears were only in Corvettes and maybe 409's
I remember seeing a pickup truck carrying the tools and tires for a STOCK drag class '57 Chevy (back in the days when everything actually had to be stock) with FOUR spares of that trans racked up. They died like flies at the strip... At least from '55-7 they were just about as easy to change as a light bulb. Same issue as early Ford boxes: To have a chance, endplay needed to be dealt with, overall endplay and some fiddling with the synchro I can't remember that was unique to that trans.
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