The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 3 speed transmission rebuild

Is there anyone out there that can rebuild a 38 chevy truck 3-speed? I am in northwest Ky.

I'm sure their is someone, probably close to you. I had a 37 rebuilt several years ago and I found out something interesting. The gears in a 38 are "straight cut" geats. In 54, the same gears were used in that transmission as a 37 on up and they are "cross cut" gears. If you find someone to rebuild it, there may be two good things you can do. Try to find a good 54 transmission with the gears you need or get new gears, if possible and rebuild your transmission with those gears. Mine ended up being a very good, smooth shifting transmission after rebuild. I can help you with one other thing. I have a NOS 37-38 transmission case which has fresh bearing surfaces. With this case and the grears I mentiononed, you should and would end up with best possible transmission.

Only first and reverse gears are not helical cut gears in the 1937-39 transmission. 1940 went all are helical cut.
All the gears and shafts from a 1940-46 PU will fit in a 1937-39 transmission but the splines for the U' joint got finer 1n 1940 so U' joint conversion is needed. This is an advantage if installing later 3.5 diff gears.
There is nothing special about 1954 transmission in fact the main shaft is to long.
Many of the parts will fit though:
The cluster gear is the same from 1940-63.
Low-Rev slider 1940-54.
I could go on but it all depends on which way you go.

Not sure what I want to do right now, I stopped by s local transmission shop, but they wouldn't touch it. I think I could do the work, but I don't have the needed pullers. I have the engine to build to, so, I'm wanting to farm this project out maybe.

most 'transmission shops' nowadays deal with modern automatics, maybe check around some long established auto repair shops and see if any would do it or know a shop that would

Bill

Don't be afraid to try and tackle this yourself. If you can R & R the trans yourself, you can probably rebuild it. They are not too complicated and if you have a shop manual it's just a matter of cook booking it together. And don't think you have to have all the fancy tools shown in the manual. Most of the procedures can be done other ways or a simple stand in can be fabricated. I just rebuilt the 3-speed in my '50 with none of the tools shown in the manual. The only "specialized" tool I used was a bearing splitter to remove the clutch shaft bearing. I made the tool to spread the lock ring on the main shaft bearing out of a piece of steel strip stock and made a simple puller to reinstall the main shaft out of steel bar and a bolt. If you're going to replace the bearings you really don't have to be that careful removing them. A brass punch and hammer goes a long way. You'll get plenty of help here if you need a question answered.

Bob

I started into he tranny, got one of the shafts out, started into the back shaft and couldn't budge it. Broke one my pullers in the process. Back to the drawing board. I then started looking for a puller that would remove the shaft, but haven't found one yet.