Sorry for the long post that this will be. It's taken a bit of effort and hopefully will include some info that I wasn't able to find prior to attempting to build an O/D, LD 3speed for my '53 215 F100. I'm hoping my path will help someone in the future.

Saturday I finally got my O/D conversion to act properly (mostly.) Beginning with an eekBay trans with O/D, my intentions were to gut it, use my 10 spline input trans, drill the case and use the O/D parts and tailshaft. (Near as we can discern, the eB trans was from a '51 or so Ford car.) Yeah, well, best laid plans... Turns out the input bearing bore is way larger in the truck case vs. the car case. Since I'm not a fan of extended pilot bearings, etc. I figured there had to be some combination of parts that would yield a Frankentranny that would work.

So, a trip to see Mac VanPelt in Cincy (about 6 miles from where I grew up) yielded the parts I needed and some good advice. Great guy! He had an input shaft I could use in the car case that would mesh with the countershaft and fit the reduced input bearing diameter. Some additional small parts and I was heading back home in an hour.

3 speeds are 3 speeds and about the simplest transmissions to build. If you have good mechanical skills, can follow directions and have a few more tools than it takes to repair a garden hose (a press, a bearing splitter and a pair of transmission snap-ring pliers will make your experience much easier) you'll not have any/many issues.

Regarding the O/D portion: you can find all kinds of info on the web but it comes in bits and pieces, a little here, a little there... The unit itself is simple yet elegant. However, you need to pay attention to the little details. My P.O. had decided to 'rebuild' the entire trans himself. Well, thank you. I'm still going to tear it apart and look around, trust is earned not expected. I caught a number of small items that weren't quite right and missed one that caused me to pull the trans out two additional times. But I actually had to pull it three times to get it right.

My first issue was not knowing the difference between mid-plates. After first assembling the unit and installing it (everything worked great on the bench) I found that the solenoid was in a position that would not allow the clutch equalizer bar, actually the clutch pedal, to travel more than about 3/4". (covered in another post, when it happened) I'm not certain how many different mid-plates Ford used but I was aware that station wagons and convertibles employed different solenoids. The F-100 utilizes a mid-plate that positions the solenoid that is rotated further down, avoiding contact with the clutch equalizer. So, a week's delay while waiting for that little gem to show up. And a tear-down of not only the O/D unit but also most of the trans because of the way it's assembled. Gr*&%*&%#. Oh, well. It is what it is.

Stuffed the trans back in, not bench-checking it as I only changed the mid-plate. Duh, on me. Everything worked perfectly except it would not go into overdrive. Wiring, o.k. Solenoid clicking in and out at expected speeds (~ 30 mph in, ~ 23 mph out.) Free-wheeling when it should. Cable functioned correctly. Engine still screaming its little lungs out at 60 mph. Back to home for more beer and web research. Beer helped (my attitude, briefly), web didn't. Called Mac on Monday. He was also perplexed, suggested that maybe the solenoid was weak and gave me some insight on how to check it.

So out comes the trans, again. Upside is it takes longer to rack the truck than it does to remove the trans. After an hour or so of fiddling, etc. I found the **** on the interlock shaft that precludes the pawl from locking into the balk gear was protruding about 1/16" too high and just barely catching the edge of the pawl. I'm not certain if the P.O. had inserted the wrong interlock shaft from another vehicle or if the mid-plate (which was a N.O.S. part, complete w/Ford part tag) was a bit too thin (Ford has always been a huge utilizer of 'select-fit' parts.) So, with judicious use of my whizzy-wheel, I reduced the height of the **** on the interlock shaft to just allow the pawl to pass by freely. I stuffed the trans back in and finally had O/D. Woohoo!

I do, however, have one little item to correct. The first time I installed the trans I could hear the solenoid click in and out at the correct speeds. But now that it actually works on the road it clicks in at ~ 42 mph and out ~ 38 mph. I have absolutely no freaking idea how or why that changed. The governor contacts are beautiful, it's completely pristine and free-acting inside. I dug out the sealer around the adjustment screws but haven't been able to make any changes in the actuation speeds nor find any info online regarding adjustments. I'm happy it works as it does but I'd be even happier if I could drop the engagement speed down to where it would allow 'automatic' 2 direct - 2 O/D shifts around town. If anyone has any insights, I'm all ears.

I took a number of pictures while I had the trans apart (not normal for me) and have some part numbers to help. But I get up at 4:30 a.m. and it's been a long day. I need to forage for some dinner and hit the Carl wash (not necessarily in that order) before posting them. Maybe later tonight or the next day or so and I'll finish this up. Thanks for sticking with me through this long post.

BTW. I feel now I can mount the 'Overdrive' badge on the truck. I've noticed through a number of posts that it seems '53 F-100s mount on the grill bar while later years mount on the hood. My issue is the grille bar is not flat while the badge is. Has anyone mounted their's this way and if so, how did you compensate? I'd kinda like to mount it on the grille as it wouldn't be as much of a pita to wax around...

 

Congratulations. I find a working overdrive transforms a vehicle.
I don't have any works of wisdom on the governor speed issue though. I always set mine up with an on-off switch and manually control overdrive engagement and disengagement.

 

Ah, yes, six speeds forward. I had my 52 Mercury set up that way.

 

What axle ratio are you running? Is it possible the governor is for a higher ratio, and just isn't spinning fast enough with your ratio? As I recall, cars with OD in the Shoebox era came with 4.10 axles, while those without came with 3.7x. Cars also had smaller diameter tires.

 

3.92, haven't yet looked at what cars of the era had. Trucks with o/d Used a 4.07, I think. Funny though, the first time, on the rack, it was clicking in/out at around 30 & 25 or so.

 

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Thanks, Bill. Looks like anywhere from 3.92 to 4.27. By way of online calculators the difference would only be around 5 mph difference - so my 42 would be around 37 with a 4.27 ratio or 44 with a 3.73. Still not near the 28/21 of the intended speeds. I guess I'll be spending a few more hours on the rack Saturday. Maybe if I can't utilize the screws to adjust I can try some creative adjustments to the flyweights. Or maybe I'll use a cordless drill and a photo-tach. Too bad there aren't several speedo shops in every city like there used to be...

 

Supporting pics:

Obviously we have to begin with two trannys on the bench and some extra parts (how many input shafts can you find?)
Ending in this (after visiting Mac VanPelt):

 

Usually governors are adjusted by changing the spring tension. Are their anchors bendable?

 

My first clue (a.k.a. crushing letdown) was the realization that there was more than a difference in input shaft length and spline count at the clutch end. The mainshaft extension that supports the bearing(s) in the input shaft have very different dimensions. One uses free rollers the other caged rollers. This precludes (at least in my case) simply swapping the input shafts. Whether or not the swap will mesh with the countershaft is now a moot point.:

 

Also, notice the difference in the input bearing diameters between the truck and car shafts. Drilling the case for the interlock rod and lube ports is easy but making the car case bearing hole larger to accept the truck input shaft isn't:

 

Following my visit with Mac VanPelt I hustled home and finished building the trans. Worked great, on the bench. After installing the trans into the truck and before beginning the wiring I figured I should check out how things were going. First, I lowered the truck and pushed on the clutch pedal only to find it would only travel about an inch. Well, crap! Now what?


The clutch equalizer (a.k.a. the clutch 'u' bracket) hit the solenoid and wouldn't allow enough travel to release the clutch.

 

After some parts book wrangling (and buying a '50s era Ford car catalog online) I discovered there's a difference between car and truck mid-plates (well, at least some models. YMMV) My truck uses a AB-7660-A which rotates the solenoid farther counter-clockwise allowing the equalizer adequate clearance. The required plate is on the right, seen as looking form the front to the rear:

 

Mac also advised me to pay particular attention to the gasket at the rear of the mid-plate. It seems some manufacturers supply one that doesn't quite seal up below the interlock rod. I don't seem to have a picture of that but if you pay attention you'll easily see the problem area.

My last hurdle came when I drove the truck only to find everything worked perfectly EXCEPT it wouldn't go into overdrive. Free-wheeling, shifting, solenoid clicking in and out and manual lock-out all worked great. So, another removal and disassembly yielded that the **** on the interlock rod that precludes the pawl from engaging the balk gear was just about 1/16" proud of the mid-plate and just enough to keep the pawl fully moving into the balk gear. Sorry, no pics of that but I used a whizzy wheel (technical term - a.k.a. hand-held cut-off tool) to reduce the interlock **** just enough to allow the pawl to engage properly. Installation and some finger crossing yielded some extremely welcomed success. The picture shows the hole next to the pawl where the interlock rod passes through. The step inside is actually the rear face of the main case. I'm not certain if the rod was incorrect, as supplied by the P.O. or if the N.O.S. mid-plate was the culprit. I'm just happy it all works now. BTW, that's a tear-down pic, I wouldn't assemble anything that dirty that wasn't headed for the scrap pile.

I've come to realize that even when the O/D didn't work the over-running/free-wheeling clutch is almost as rewarding as the overdrive ratio. Yeah, the reduced rpm at higher speed was my initial goal but I've found the free-wheeling to be an in-town convenience in its own right. I've been thinking if I can find an extra flywheel I might try shaving a few pounds from it, allowing the engine to spool down quicker...

 

Fred, I couldn't agree with you more. The truck is at an entirely new level. And even for an impish 215 the truck is now faster than a vehicle from this era needs to be. And I find it amazing how quick and smooth the kick-downs are. Woot!

Ross, there are two screws buried beneath some goompenpucky on the governor cover. I dug them out and played around just a little but it didn't do much, if anything. One screw changes the stationary point height, the other possibly the click-over spring tension (kinda hidden where it contacts.) Height change is obvious but difficult to discern any change in tension. If the screws don't yield any changes I'm considering altering the weights. Not sure how I'll accomplish that as a 1/4 oz. tape weight would probably equal what's already there. Another idea would be to change the gear, as one does the speedo drive. But I'm thinking, "Yeah, fat chance you'll ever find a selection of those gears." LOL Another idea is to drill and tap the weights for screws of varying lengths, causing longer, quicker throws.