Transmission

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2013: Transmission
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Utphall on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 01:03 pm:

any words of wisdom for someone who's been through 2 transmission overhauls in less than 1000 miles?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By R.V. Anderson on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 01:14 pm:

What killed them off? Was it the same thing both times?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jack Daron - Brownsburg IN on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 01:52 pm:

Driver error???(G)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Utphall on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:15 pm:

first time we think the new bushings were too tight...2nd time we think the triple gears were mismatched...haven't torn it down yet...this time we're starting with an entirely new transmission..it's in really good shape and i guess we're a little uncertain as to how much rebuild to do.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:16 pm:

Don't adjust the bands too tight, and don't slip the bands when you are moving, and try to slow down on compression without overusing the brake.
Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Utphall on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:17 pm:

i really baby it when driving...don't spend much time in low..but we do more than drive them to shows :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Utphall on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:17 pm:

good advice Norm, thanks and yup...pretty careful about all 3 of those items


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Dufault on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:20 pm:

George,

Truly, I am not being sarcastic, I am just wondering....
you wrote..."this time we're starting with an entirely new transmission..it's in really good shape and i guess we're a little uncertain as to how much rebuild to do."

I have to ask, if indeed it is in good shape, why rebuild it at all...change the bands if necessary, put it in, and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Up here we say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Good Luck!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:43 pm:

Use wood band liners.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Walker, NW AR on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:47 pm:

NO, don't use wood bands, use Kevlar!!! They're the best!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. That one was just too easy.) :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 02:59 pm:

Model T transmissions like to run a bit loose. The most common mistake made when rebuilding them is making them too tight. If the transmission you plan to use looks good? Use it! Check it over. Maybe pull the thing apart and inspect the drums. Be certain the triple gears are running smoothly. Install and drive. Yes, there is some gamble in taking the shortcut. But so far, two rebuilds have't worked out really well either. Many of the longest and best driving Ts I know, have transmissions that had little or nothing done to them.

By the way, I know well the risk of the shortcut gamble. My first boat-tail, over twenty years ago, started on the road with a tired old engine I had. I took my time, and worked over a nice correct vintage engine short block. I had a major tour planned and set about to swap the short blocks. I was planning to use the transmission that was in the tired engine because it worked so nice and was very quiet by model T standards.
I had the transmission hanging on a hoist, flywheel up. Unbeknownst to me, the openings in the drum webs were lined up perfectly. While simply hanging there, one of the triple-gear pins simply fell out and hit the concrete.
Think about this for a moment. Those pins have a "head" on them and are designed to go in and out from the other side of the flywheel ONLY! The holes in the flywheel had wallowed out so badly that that pin simply fell through, head and all. So, I had to quickly dig out and fix up another transmission, flywheel and all. I have often wondered why that pin didn't slip out while driving. What a mess that would have been.
But even after that experience, and a few others I have heard about. I hear of more problems with transmissions that have been rebuilt, than I do of ones that have had little or nothing done to them.
That is just me.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Utphall on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 04:10 pm:

thanks gentlemen, good thoughts all the way around...we're wondering the same thing about the rebuild...engine's been rebabbitted and dome pistons and 280 cam...very nice strong engine...I like to be able to do a couple good sized tours each yr and some local stuff too. Just trying to make the old girl as dependable as a 25 can be.

problem is, I'm a music teacher/piano player, not a machinist...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Royce in Dallas TX on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 04:33 pm:

My dad tells a story about how he and one of his buddies went to a junk yard in Minneapolis in the 1950's to get some T transmissions to rebuild. Dad saw one laying in the mud that wasn't too rusty so he bought it for $5. His friend paid $10 for someone to tear down a motor to get one all clean and very nice looking.

Dad inspected his transmission and found it was just a bit out of factory specs. He wire wheeled off some of the surface rust and put it back together. The transmission was quiet and it ran many tens of thousands of miles.

His friend - an expert machinist named Norm - replaced every bushing and carefully machined every clearance to exact Ford overhaul specifications in his transmission. You could hear it from blocks away. It howled like a banshee. It grenaded in a short time.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 07:36 pm:

Royce,
Having been in this hobby for more than forty years now (Yee gads), I have heard that story a dozen times. About different people. People I have known. I think most of them are true.
One, over forty years ago, before I had my first speedster running. I went to see the Endurance Run and look at the cars. I knew several people there. And one fellow I did not know then, was being kidded about how his car ran. I thought it sounded okay. So a very good friend of mine explained how the year before, two weeks before the Endurance Run, this fellow had decided to put a car together and go. The engine and transmission, without the pan, had been taken out of a chicken coop. It was hosed off to remove most of the chicken dodo and feathers. Oil was squirted all over everything, a pan attached, final assembly and install to a car quickly thrown together. They did not take the rods apart, redo the valves or take anything in the transmission apart for that first year. For the second year, he said, he took up the rods and did the rings and valves in the car, nothing more. The joke going around was that he was still blowing feathers out the oil filler/vent.
He is still in the hobby, and I do see him occasionally. I should try to remember to kid him about that.
Model Ts are amazing.
Thank you, Royce, for sharing your story. I always enjoy reading these things.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Royce in Dallas TX on Friday, July 19, 2013 - 10:05 pm:

Wayne,

Neither me, my dad or anyone in their right mind would do what you suggest.

My dad and his friend both used to talk about the story together in my presence. If anyone else tells the same exact story perhaps they heard it from one of them.

Or perhaps, and more likely, they found that there is more to rebuilding a T transmission than just replacing old pretty good stuff with new questionable stuff.


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