Hey guys I have been converting the Saginaw 4 speed with Patricks conversion kit. I have come this far ; All the inside work is done , poured the right amount with fresh 80-90 hypoid oil in it and i mounted the sidecover. I have taken of the old tailpiece and exchanged it with a shorter one from the Patricks conversion kit. Questions i have are; How must i install the speedometer drive gear (metal type without the clips) The old plastic type had a clips to keep it in position. The Hurst Competation plus gearing unit whas mounted at the end of the old tailpiece(driverside) and the 3 levers where mounted on the cover to activate the gears wich is on the same side. Sinds the new shorter tailpiece does not have any mounting holes for the gearunit on the driversside, it has to be mounted at some other place but where ? The levers are shorter then the original ones. Attached a picture to show how it whas in the beginning. Do you have experience , pictures or advice be kind to share this with me! Thank you Martinius.
You may have problems with that shifter hitting your seat. A friend ran into the same problem when switching to a Saginaw trans. You may want to do some measurments before installing. Les
The output shaft for the metal drive gear has a shoulder for the front of the gear to seat against and a snap ring groove in the shaft behind the gear to retain it. It should be a snug fit to the shaft and if so clean the shaft and the gear with laquer thinner or other good degreaser, put a film of bearing lock on the shaft and tap the gear into the correct position. The outer edges of the gear teeth bend very easily so a piece of pipe big enough to fit over the shaft is the best way to drive it into place. The bearing lock with hold it permantly and will need heat to remove it. You can use a U-bolt to attach a shifter mount plate at the rear, and drill and tap the tail housing for a mount tab at the front. Use a U-bolt that just fits the tailhousing just in front of the rear oil seal "bump". Use counter sunk bolts if you bolt through the plate itself because the shift must fit flat against the plate. Also use thread sealant on any drilled and tapped holes. The shifter rods are easy to fabricate if you align the notches (or holes) in the levers and run a 1/4" (6.3mm) rod through all of them. This locks the shifter into the neutral position so with the three shifter arms on the trans in the neutral position you can just measure the distance from the shifter arm holes to the lever holes and shorten the rods to fit or make new ones. Bench test it to make sure the rods don't clash or bind when going through the shift pattern.
Sorting out the new arrangement No it is not the actual shifter shown in the picture i am going to use. I do have got a new one wich looks very similar. New Shifter Levers; 8,4 inch = 21 cm , 5,1 inch = 12,4 cm , 3,4 inch=8,1 cm. Gear shifter; Hurst Competation Plus with welded iron bracket with connecting angle of 90 degrees for stick. New bracket for gearshifter install onto edge of new Tailpiece. New cabin floorcover with square lasercut hole (bolt on) for new floor boot arr.. Stick made by Patricks fore the new arrangement (bolt on metal bracket with 90 degrees angle). The differences in lenght between the old tailpiece and the new one are large Old original tailpiece is aprox. 12,5 inch=31.1 cm New tailpiece is aprox. 4 Inch= 12,2 cm You will notice that everything must be there including the belonging bolts and nuts ect. I just need to find out how i should put all of this together ? Pictures would have helped a lot. Martinius.
Saganaw 4-spd i took the same Saganaw and put it in a 57 chevy. Bought a Hurst 4-speed shifter from a junk yard for 15$ I had a welder/mechanic cut a piece of angle iron ~ 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" to where the tailshaft attaches. This made it short enough to have a bench seat. The guy cut and bent the shift rods to fit. It cost more than the transmission and salvage shifter together to mount and adjust the shifter. Back in the late 70s you could buy a worn out Vega for $75 and the transmission was still new. The cars were junked by 40,000 miles. It can be done & done well if you have the talent, vise and torch.
I am going to make pictures of what i have tomorrow and show you guys! Its 5 o clock in the night and i could not sleep. Well i`d thought why not write something on chevy talk. The postman has just been here at the farm with todays newspaper and i am drinking my coffee. The cat is walking around and wonders what is going on here? We have 2 cats actually, Diva and Elvis are there names. They are great animals keeping me in compagny when they need my compagny. I `ll found out that the best idea is to shoot some pictures of the arrangement and show you guys what i am dealing with. I `ll hope that i can get some more advice or some pictures from anyone whom knows this arangement ? Trying to get some more sleep. Goodnight or rather saying good morning!!!
Saginaw 4 speed, Patricks conversion kit! My son made some pictures of the saginaw conversian today. As you will notice it is `nt quite finished yet . I wanted to show you guys what i am dealing with. The standard longer tailpiece is shown here to , i want to give you the understanding about the differences between those to. The rest speaks for it selv i`ll gues ? Be kind to give me the needed advice in how and where to mount the shown parts. Thanks very much Martinius.
Oops, completely misunderstood your problem. Thought for sure you had gone to an open driveshaft. Shows how uninformed I am on the Patrick's conversion. You should be able to use the rear housing bolts to hold a mount plate for the shifter. I'll repeat, once you have the shifter mounted and you have the three trans levers in neutral and the three shifter levers held in the neutral position then the distance between the rod holes in the trans shift arms and the holes in the shifter levers is the length the rods will have to be. It may be easier to use new smooth steel rod to fabricate the shifter rods than to modify the ones you have. It's too bad we're an ocean apart because of the many things we do in the shop design and fabrication is the thing I like the most. I'm disappointed when a customer carries in motor mount brackets, alt mount, ac brackets, p/s brackets and so forth. Just bolting stuff on feels like I'm on an assembly line somewhere.
For those of us that don't have Evans skills, Patrick sells his own shifter kit for this application ($250, Hurst Comp Plus). Since it is his design, I bought the shifter kit to go with it and it was a clean and neat job. For me, all this is new since retiring from the Medical Corps in the service. I do enjoy the satisfaction of fabricating when I do something on a very small scale. On the other hand why reinvent the wheel. I always admire Evans handi-work.
Flashlight is absolutely right about buying a ready to go kit when one is available. The two things I like most is wiring and design/ fabrication. It disappoints me when something comes through the door that's getting a Chevy or Ford engine because everything can be bought off the shelf and I feel like I'm screwing on lug nuts on an assembly line somewhere. On something like putting a 392 Hemi in our Cajun friends 64 VW Beetle or the 400sbc in an MGB makes it to where I can't get to the shop early enough or stay late enough. Unsolvable problems must wander around in my head at night (there's plenty of vacant space) because the solution usually comes while I'm standing in the shower in the morning.
Coilover So true , so true But in my case living on the other side of the pond things are`nt allways that easy to find out. But as the Beatles once said "just with a litle help from my friends" things are more easy to solve today. Homecome you maybe wonder ? The help i get is mostly from this forum , by finding information on the intenet, reading manuals or books , talking to our vendors, insight information, commen sens and knowledge ect. For instance this week i got tremendous good help from Patrick Dykes Sr , you know the guy whom ownes Patricks antique cars and trucks from Casa Grande. He explaned with comen words how and what i needed to do with my Saginaw tranny to finish it ready for use. Great help is invaluable. Have a great day at work Martinius.
