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BUSY BOLTERS Are you one?  The Shop Area
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Jul 21st, 2025 | | | | Joined: May 2005 Posts: 28 Apprentice | | Apprentice Joined: May 2005 Posts: 28 | Anyone in the Georgia area know of a good '54 3 speed manual transmission rebuilder? Or have a workable '54 3 speed transmission for sale?
Thanks,
Joe | | | | | Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 2,644 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 2,644 | Ask around at car shows or you local NAPA. People who work on vintage vehicles don't usually advertise but instead are members of a somewhat underground society of mechanics and owners.
I found my mechanic from a lead I got at my local NAPA store. | | | | | Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 4,903 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 4,903 | Good ones are very difficult to find. They almost all need new a new synchronizer and shift fork. | | | | | Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 637 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 637 | Those transmissions are the world's easiest to work on. I have built up dozens of them and am in the process of putting one in my '54 GMC right now. A word of advice... NEVER speed shift, you WILL break it! That's the voice of experience! Nothing about them is hard to do and parts are easily accesible. I just wish they would have stood up to the torque of a built up GMC 270, that's how I broke dozens of them. I have a supply of them in my inventory that should last me a lifetime, if I don't speed shift. | | | | | Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 582 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 582 | There are a couple of them for sale on Ebay now and they come up from time to time. I rebuilt mine myself last winter and had never undertaken one before but like chevman32 said, they are pretty easy to do. I bought NOS or NORS parts off Ebay and the bearings and gasket kits from the repop sellers and everything worked fine. wdoftexas, a contributor on this site usually has a nice supply of all the internal gears, countershafts, etc that you might need if you want to undertake it yourself. Those parts also come up on Ebay as well. I took a bunch of pics when I did my rebuild and posted them on the "Tranny Rebuild" album on the webshots link below. You also need a good repair manual. Some of the smaller reprinted ones for sale through the repops have dark, lousy pictures but a good reprinted or original factory truck manual should provide you enough guidance. You'll need some basic tools as well and can sometimes makeup replacements for the old factory tools that they show in the manual pics. I plan on rebuilding another one this winter from my donor trannys and have it as a spare. Good luck! | | |
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