1932 BB overdrive?

I've never seen one or found one in orig. Ford lit. What you might do is find an over/ under unit out of a 28 AA truck, it mounted where the short drive shaft if behind the main trans. I forget the ratio but they were made to speed up the old worm drive rear ends.
 
Everybody calls those 4 speeds "boat anchors." Could two of them be bolted back to back?
 
I would think a Mitchell could be used ---unless you are using the truck to haul very heavy loads or pulling a heavy trailer
 
I don't believe that I have ever seen a '32 Ford BB, or for that matter, an Early Ford V8 1ton/1-1/2 ton truck with an aux OD trans and/or two speed rear end.. Of course many of the old time "farmer" type mechanics, were very good at adapting aux transmissions into the drive-lines of light trucks..
In the early '50's I worked for a shop in a small farm town in Idaho, the owner was very skilled at modifying trucks to give them more power and/or more speed.. We used regular 3 speed transmissions, sometimes mounted frontwards, sometimes backwards to either speedup the gearing and/or reduce the gearing..
In the early post WWII years, modern, i.e. new trucks were very hard to get, of the ones that were available, most of them were badly underpowered with small six cylinder engines.. Studebaker and Dodge were the worst.. Of course the Fords were not much better because the V8 was strictly an RPM engine, very poor low end torque..
Farming in the years following WWII was quickly becoming automated, tractors and combines were quickly replacing horse drawn plows, etc..
I remember one '47 Studebaker were modified with an aux trans.. With the hand throttle set at about 1,800/2,000 RPM the truck would "pull", in a plowed field at a speed less than a normal mans walk.. The truck was used to harvest spuds... Potatoes to you city people....
 
A Warford over/under add on transmission would be nice to find but may not have quite the effect you are looking for. I'm guessing your final drive is 6.67. I have a 4 cyl BB with a "high speed" 5.14 running 6.50x20s and I think it is geared close to a model A, as it goes 50mph without strain. In any case, I am guessing it would be easier to find a high speed axle than it would be to find a useable Warford. I would love to find a Warford if only for novelty sake!
 
The top trans in the picture is an AA Warford and the bottom one is a Brown-Lipe for a BB.
The AA drive line is 1 1/4" and the BB is 1 3/8" so you have to take that into consideration.
Miss Victoria on the Model A board is making a 4 speed OD conversion for the AA.
 

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The aux AA 28 trans is different from either of the above. It uses a rocker pedal to shift.
 
The Dual High aux trans for 28 AA,s was a direct & underdrive trans that fit in place of the coupling shaft.It would have to be modified & installed backwards to work as an overdrive.
 
Several years ago I saw a '34 Ford 1 1/2 truck at the car show at Petit Jean state park in Arkansas with a Columbia 2-speed axle. I have photos somewhere. It was the standard big truck Timken axle that Ford used from '29-'52 with one half of the split housing replaced with a special Columbia housing. If I remember correctly it had Columbia Axle Co. cast in the back of the housing. It is the only one I have ever seen, I wasn't aware that Columbia made 2-speed kits for trucks.
Mark
 
There used to be Browny conversions with the Brown Lipe Chapin two speed box but I don't think they became popular until after 1932, sometime in the mid 30s. The two speed truck rear axles were available in the late 30s so the Browny boxes were used more for conversions after that. I remember seeing old dump trucks with all sorts of levers in there.
 
There is a truck in a scrap yard that has an extra gearbox in the drive line. It uses regular V8 couplings. it shifts with a lever out the side. I think it is about 15-20" OAL. It is probably available.
 
Andy, what year (approximate) is the truck in the wrecking yard? I'm also interested and am within driving distance of Kerrville. Please reply here or message me about this truck and wrecking yard.

Thanks!
 
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