The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop OD Tranny Linkages

Just got a 3spd OD to put in my '54 3600, from Ebay, but the exterior splined arms that the shifter linkages attach to are missing. I can just reuse the ones off my current 3spd, but what's the procedure to install these things in the right orientation, for that matter how can you tell what gear a tranny is in when it's not in the truck? Any help would be greatly appreciated. :confused:

Did you buy it rebuilt? If not you'll want to go through it befor you waste time installing it and having to remove a non-functioning OD. Get it up on your bench and pull the four bolt cover to find neutral... just move the gears around while turning the input shaft until the output shaft has no reisitance. Looking at the underside of your shift cover you can identify neutral as the midpoints (detents) of each shifter. You can then carefully reapply the cover and you now have it set in neutral.

I never was able to get my '62 3sp+od to work well on my column shifter so I lucked into a really good B+M 3 sp floor shifter and I now have a much more positive shift. I welded a bracket and my shifter is in a comfortable position. I rebuilt my 3 sp+od and I advise you to do the same...If I can do it you can. I absolutely love my OD, I have a '49 3100, '56 235, '62 3sp+od, '57 3.90 truck rear open drive of course. My od is .70, rear 3.90, do the math (.7X3.90= 2.73 final drive) I roll down the h'way at 70 mph all day long, I've had this set-up for five years and she's my daily driver. Good luck!

Oh yeah, I ended up fabbing smaller shift levers and tack welding them onto my shift lever rods on the tranny. This gives me a shorter throw. I put mine both facing up and I get the regular 3 speed pattern on my floor 3 speed shifter.

Mainer54
Cosmo is right you should look at rebuilding it before you stick it in. Portland Transmissions has rebuild kits for 50 bucks well worth it. If your a gambling man like me you need to at least check the solinoid to see if it works by touching it with a hot wire. As for the linkage if your lucky I wasn't (heavy duty 3 speed ,7 bolts holding the cover)you can reuse your cover all you need to do is remove it from the tranny while it's in the truck that way you don't have to guess with the linkage. Only problem is it's a bear getting the forks over the gears in the tranny. When I did in the tranny tilted back a little and the gears inside the tranny would slide back. But after taking the Lords name in vain more than once and throw wrench around the garage, yelling at the kids it finally went toghether. Cosmo is right they are great to have for hiway cruising. However keep looking for a good deal on another it's even better to have two. One in the truck, one in the garage if something happens to #1 as these are getting hard to find and parts don't grow on trees like the used too.

willy 57

hey cosmo, howed you learn to do all that gear ratio math? id love to know how to do it, better yet even understand it. any good books?

Thanks for the help guys, I do plan on doing a rebuild before install. The only other question i have is hooking it all up, I did the search here and there was a very complete description of a complex set up where the trany would even shift into OD by itself, but I'm interested in a much simpler set up. I would just use it as a "fourth gear" and refer to a tach before shifting, so I'd
like to pull the cable and maybe flick one switch.
Has anybody hook it up in a simple fashion like this?

Thanks

All you really need is a switch from a 12V power source to the solenoid. Skip the governor entirely. Mount the switch somewhere on the dash or shifter. Add an indicator light to remind you not to start off with the solenoid engaged.

Unless you're driving on a lot of grades where you need engine braking, you won't need to use the lockout cable very often. Just leave it in the engaged position,