The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline switching to a three speed column shifter

sorry if this has already comeup but I cant find anything about it.
just about to purchase a threespeed tranny with overdrive that came out of a 1957 1/2 ton to replace my 1951 3/4 ton's, floorshifted four speed, now question is, will I be able to use the column shifter and linkage from the donor truck and what would it take to get it done?
thanks
aubrey

Aubrey, your original trans is for a torque tube drive, the 57 trans is for an open driveshaft, you're looking at more changes than just the trans .... and the 57 column mechanism won't easily work on the 51 column .... you might want to hold off on the purchase until you figure out what other major parts you'd need to find

Bill

Why? the 4 speed is essentially a 3 speed with a deep reduction gear. It seems like alot of modifications for little return.

The 4 speed transmission is a 1 to 1 ratio. The overdrive give you a final ratio of higher than a 1 to 1. This lowers the engine speed at highway speeds.

" . . a threespeed tranny with overdrive that came out of a 1957 1/2 ton to replace my 1951 3/4 ton's, floorshifted four speed . . "

Here are the specs for that overdrive transmission (I think that 56 and 57 overdrive transmissions were the same)

Red-the rest of the plan is to swap the high 3/4 ton rear end, huck brakes and torquetube driveshaft, for a 3.90 geared rear from a halfton 55-59 with bendex brakes and an open driveshaft. right now i am looking for the parts to make it all work. is it possible to use the 57 column shifter on a 51 shaft? I guess the other option would be to go with a 51 shifter i just don't know if this will work with the 57 tranny. or go with a hurst kit. anybody out there have experience with this problem?

I just put a overdrive in a 54 3/4 ton and used the stock column shift.
The only problem is the low-rev shift fork.
Starting in 1955 the low-reverse slider gear is slightly wider than the 54 and earlier so your 51 shift cover will not work.
If you use a 1955-59 truck shift cover the levers are correct for your 51.

the 57 shift stuff is a bit different than what would have been the 51 setup, there was a "bell crank" on one of the earlier shift rods that was dropped by 56-59, and the arms on the trans are different, so the relation to the notch on the column where the shift box sits may be different, and I think the length of the rod from the lever down the column will be different as the 57 box has a longer built in rod than the early box - those pics may help, probably could all be worked out easier than with a 51 shifter .... and you'll likely need to have a drive shaft made the right length

Bill

I stand corrected and confused.
I had a shift cover in my box of shift covers that I used. It had the correct width shift fork and the outside arms had one pointing up and one pointing down, as the 1948-54 trucks use.
I thought it was a 1955-59 truck cover. I will need to research this further.

In thinking about it know the cover must have been from a 1955 first series truck. 55 first series would still use the bell crank and the arms on the shift cover would be one up and one down, and they used the new open drive shaft transmission.
I guess it was just luck I had one of these in my parts box.

the 55 2nd used the up/down shift arms and the bell crank too, and possibly some early 56's

Bill

spoke with the seller, he had already bought the linkage and column shifter to bolt into a 58 project and will throw this in for fifty bucks, any problems just bolting this on to my 51 3/4 ton column that wasn't originally column shifted?

also thanks a lot for the pics and info appreciate the help
aubrey

only problem is the question of lengths as I mentioned above
and whether the column jacket has the holes for the 2 special screws that hold the shift lever collar, you might have to add those

Bill

Sorry I didn't see overdrive before my comment.