Borg Warner R10 Overdrive

F

FLSTF

Junior Member
I searched through many threads trying to find information about the Borg Warner R10 overdrive that's in my dad's 1939 Ford Deluxe. When I search on the R10, most times, you see it mounted at the back of the trans. My dad's is like Drbrown's (senior member on Ford Barn) as I attached his picture for reference. I have come across Lloyd Young "Mr Overdrive" and I wonder if the design that my dad and Drbrown has was Lloyd Young's creation since its not at the end of the trans? It has the shorter torque tube and all.


My dad's car has been all around the US through different owners (Texas, South Dakota, Pennsylvanian and now in Georgia) and not sure of the real history? It would be interesting if any of you know of this car :)


My dad bought it from a guy that was converting the car to 12 volts when he became ill and died of cancer. So we really dont know the history. In fact someone told us that it was a Columbia two speed, but with my own searching this site and looking on the casing its BW R10B-IL.



Thanks for any information.
Dave
 

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  • Driver Side - OD to Differ.jpg
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It is the BW R10 that was originally found behind 3 speed transmissions of several manufacturers' cars. The shown adaptation is attributed to Lloyd Young, I'm not sure if others did the conversion or not.
 
There are other similar creations that use the Laycock/Volvo set up and the Ryan ODs were all used at one time or another. Most all are torque tube set ups since the tube will hold the unit structurally .

The Columbias first started showing up in Fords in 1934. They are really a 2-speed rear axle but the affect is like an overdrive.

The Ruckstell dual high setup was probably the first OD for the model As.

Here is a link to Tom Endy's article. http://www.santaanitaas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1C-Borg-Warner-OD-Restorer-Mar-Apr-2005.pdf
 
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Looks identical to to the R10 convention in my 1934 Victoria. Sure makes the early V8s more fun! Brings the rpms way down. You can google and download the operating manual off the internet.
 
Thank you everyone for the quick reply. Sounds like we have a Lloyd Young setup. We are in the middle of our winter project on the car and will be testing out the OD soon. We are putting the blue paint stripe on the bumpers and new grommets. Then wanting to pull the front seat out and see if we can make the seat a little stiffer. You bounce around in the front seat while driving.
 
An old trick with seat springs is to put cotton or foam padding in between each circle of the coils. It slows the spring rate down a bit. Ford used light rate coils so that they would take some of the jarring out of the rough roads of the era. They also tend to fatigue over time too and get sloppy. If one or two coils break then it gets real sloppy.
 
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