The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Any tranny rebuild shops in SoCal???

Say, does anybody know of any tranny rebuild shops in the Southern California area? The 3 speed in my '41 half ton is just a tad sloppy (the gear shift hits the seat or the dash which is kinda hard on my knuckles). Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hey Charlie: Why don't you rebuild it yourself. It isn't that hard. You can get the rebuild kit and new bearings from any of the vendors. I would try to get the front & rear bearings locally and the repair kit from someone like Jim Carter. You'll also need the shop manual. If I can do it anyone can. There is plenty of help right here on the Stovebolt site if you get into a jam.

Good Luck
George

Those trans are easy to work on,its the same as my 37 and I was able to get bearings locally. I used a 50s motors manual using the repair procedures for the 49-54 car trans to fix mine. There is someone in the swapmeet section that has NOS trans parts for them,I think he has a NOS case listed. I bought other parts from him and he said he has gears and other trans parts also.

Okay youse guys, you've convinced me to try it myself. In the past, I've found that there's nothing that I can't screw up if I put my mind to it. I'll get a rebuild kit and will check the swap meet section for the bearings. If nothing else, I think that Bowtie Bits sells rebuilt trannys. So if mine winds up with 3 reverse gears and one forward, I can always get one from him.

Thanks for the advice. I may be bugging you later for more advice and the location of a good liquor store in the area.

Charlie Brown: There's a place up my way, that we get most of our trans parts from. They had a kit for my 4 speed Saginaw. I'll look up the phone # tomorrow and get back to ya.

Besides the shifter hitting the seat, what eles is wrong with the trans? Noisy, shifts hard, grinds into gear?

Hey Wingnut, thanks, that'd come in handy. It's been about 10 years since I last drove the truck (thought that I'd do a little minor maintenance and painting on it), but I don't remember any other problems with it. It might have whined a bit, but I believe that's normal? The main problem is that it is very sloppy. Would that require a complete rebuild or is there simply a part that I could replace? Despite what everyone says, rebuilding the tranny myself scares the bejeebers outta me. I've got a very dusty set of Patrick's rear end gears that I haven't worked up the courage to install.

C.B. You may just have a linkage problem. But here are a couple of #'s up my way.

ATC aka RPM: 626-815-4236. Trans parts and kits.
Quality Bearing: 626-969-1773. Bearings only.

Keep me posted.

Thanks for the phone numbers! I'm still a little ways away from tackling the tranny. My garage is currently full of fenders and other parts that I need to paint and put back on the truck so I've got some room to work on stuff. I'll letcha know how it goes. If you see a '41 Chevy half ton going 45 mph on the freeway backwards, that'll be me.

Charlie- The sloppiness could be caused by worn forks, but most likely it's all in the shifter tower itself. If you look at the top of the trans. where the shifter goes in, there's a tower bolted on that has a ball socket machined into the bottom of it much like the u-joint housing on the back of your transmission. The shifter has a ball on it that pivots inside this socket. The shifter ball has a dowel pin pressed through it that rides in a slot in the socket. This pin lets it pivot, but not rotate around. Typically, the slot and pin wear a ton, then you end up moving the shifter a ton before it actually moves the forks. Without removing the tranny, you could remove the shifter and it's tower as an assembly (by unbolting the 4 bolts that hold the whole top cover on) and remachine or replace the worn parts. It will then be way tighter and you might not even consider a rebuild necessary.

Hi Barry,

That sounds very good. Would similar advice also apply to my son's '62?

Hi Frog- Is it a 3-spd. or 4-spd.? '62 3-spd. would have a column shift, wouldn't it? 4-spd. is a floor shifted trans. with a tower and shift lever. The 4-spd. shifters come out alittle different, you have to push down (against a spring) and then rotate to disengage the pins and the shifter will pop right out. They can wear in the same way as the older 3-speed shifters. The wear will be obvious once you have the shifter and tower off the transmission and see how they work. These old trannys are pretty basic. Get a shop manual for your year truck if you are unsure of yourself. Once you take your first complete tranny apart and put it back together, the mystery will be gone. The older ones really aren't that difficult.

Barry, many thanks for the info! I'll look into it this weekend and will let y'all know how it comes out.

It's four. Thanks for the info!

Charlie Brown I think those shifters on your trans are made from the factory like that,both of the trans I had in my 37 were like that but they went into all the gears just fine. Just remember those trans are not muncie rock crushers with a tight hurst shifter and you cant get the gears in backwards,those are the easiest trans I have worked on. If you need any parts let me know I have the remains from three trans in a box in the garage

Hey Jeff, thanks for the advice and offer. These old trannys may have been a bit sloppy, but I can't believe that they were this bad. I should point out that when I say that the gear shift hits the dash, that's without the knob. I was going to pull the shifter out like Barry suggested this past weekend, but it was so nice and warm (my apologies to the rest of the country) that I opted to do some painting instead.

If your forks aren't worn too much, and you rework that shifter and tower, you will be amazed at how tight it will shift. Every gear will just be a short, crisp move away and not the "pot stirring" treasure hunt of a shift that you have gotten used to.