Growling 1st gear
- Thread starter edhd58
- Start date
JSeery
Member Emeritus
Did you work at a used car lot in a previous life?
Lawson Cox
Well-known member
Based on my memory, which isn't all that good any more, a lot of the early transmissions WERE VERY LOUD in first gear. If it were me, I'd go with it until it gets loud in ALL gears. My 2¢.
edhd58
Well-known member
rockfla, its all apart now, guess I'm ready to fix it, lol
Lawson, I actually had considered that but was worried it might be a basket case at that point and I already had it out of the car. I just didnt want metal dust in all the bearings and have things go BOOM one day when I was in the middle of nowhere.
Lawson, I actually had considered that but was worried it might be a basket case at that point and I already had it out of the car. I just didnt want metal dust in all the bearings and have things go BOOM one day when I was in the middle of nowhere.
Old Henry
Well-known member
My first gear has been growling since I ran it at maximum RPM trying to get through this mud hole on my Moab trip three years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWEHZQpuiwI
Now it's got to the point that it not only won't stay in gear, it's hard to even get it in gear. I'm looking at my third open ****** surgery real soon now.
Getting the ****** out of the car and getting it back in is much worse than rebuilding it once it's on the table.
Now it's got to the point that it not only won't stay in gear, it's hard to even get it in gear. I'm looking at my third open ****** surgery real soon now.
Getting the ****** out of the car and getting it back in is much worse than rebuilding it once it's on the table.
Alaska Jim
Well-known member
If you can rebuild an ATV 5 speed trans , you can rebuild an early Ford 3sp. I did them in high school at 17 with only an old motors manual for instructions/ help. it is not that hard. just pay attention to clearances, and the trans will out last you if you treat it nice.
JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy
I was guilty of this 2 years ago. Knew something had made a strange noise while backing up the '35 fordor on a slight incline during a 2014 trip to Springfield, Illinois. Thought I had backed over something, but when I looked under the car, couldn't find anything, so dismissed it as maybe the driveshaft to pinion coupling pin had failed again, and there was no real need to fix that right away. WRONG
This eventually lead to a complete differential failure on Thanksgiving Day, 2015, while heading to a car show. Not much of that rear was salvageable when it came time to make that repair. Lesson learned?....maybe.....we all tend to procrastinate when we shouldn't.
Edit: The actual cause of failure was the rear pinion roller bearing. The cast iron support for this bearing, inside the banjo housing, also broke and all of these pieces were ground up or broken into smaller bits and pieces. The only differential parts salvaged were both axles, and the axle housings
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Old Henry
Well-known member
How's this for a failed differential?
Caused by running it with just the oil you see in the bottom of the banjo:
Not mine. It was old Chuckles' from up the street on our Death Valley road trip: http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705
Caused by running it with just the oil you see in the bottom of the banjo:
Not mine. It was old Chuckles' from up the street on our Death Valley road trip: http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705
JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
LOL, ....not sure what.actually caused that rear pinion bearing to fail, but something was not quite right with that rear since 2013, when I replaced the 4.11 gears with 3.78. When that failure occured in 2015, I had put around 20k miles on that rear, including a 7200 mile crosscountry trip, a 2000 mile trip to Springfield, IL, and a 1700 mile trip to Dawsonville, Georgia.
I have heard other folks talk about having premature failure with the newer replacement rear pinion roller bearings.
john in illinois
Well-known member
There are NOS rear pinion brgs available. About same cost as repro's.
John
John
edhd58
Well-known member
Found a complete trans CHEAP that the man said was a good trans when he swapped in a modern drive line in a late 40s Ford.He opened it up so I could look at everything, and everything looked great. It turns out however that evidently a V8 and a 6 uses different trans cases, something I didnt even think f or to look at when I was looking at the trans. To make a long story short, All the gears are swapped into my case and all feels good. I am waiting for seals and gaskets and then it goes back in.
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alanwoodieman
Well-known member
you have indeed dodged a bullet, do not throw the 6 cylinder case away. I sold one for $50--man said he would have paid more! I did not tell him I got it for free!!
JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
Congradulation on getting the job done yourself!
I don't know that much about the early Ford six cylinder vehicles, and was wondering if their transmissions were different than the eight's.
The '40-'48 V8 side load transmissions are pretty easy to find at the swap meets around this neck of the woods, and I often pick them up as gear donors for the earlier top load transmissions.
Let us know how it goes when you get everything back together.
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