Hello all I need some help on what I think is a Browny trans. My son-in-law and I were out to the swap meet in KC and then went scraping. I found a 1939 COE in ROUGH condition. I believe that it has what I have heard you guys and gals call a browny. Will this fit behind a 235 and will I need that bell housing? And, ofcourse what's it worth? I think I could get the whole truck for $100 to $150. I did say Rough... the guy quoted $200 and he wasn't going to help load it!!!!!! Are there any draw backs to this trans? Thanks for the help in advance. 51 Papy Mike
Brownie Box Yes , those are nice and you'll need the entire driveline to scavange parts off of . Expect to need to go through it and replace all the bearings and etc. , they're pretty simple units . It isn't going to fit your 1/2 ton rig . I have no idea what it's worth if anything , of course there's a few Big 'Bolt lovers who're always " On The Hunt " for this typ of stuff...
Man I,m talking ROUGH. No fenders motor locked up on the last trip in and he lost the breaks and CRUNCHED the front. The steel plate on the bed looks pretty good...the doors are rusted thru ... no floor boards and not very many parts. I'm not sure that there is $100.00 worth of rust and scrap metal. This truck has set to close to the creek for the last 25 years. To much project for me! 51 papy Mike
I would still love to tackle it if it were over here, bit of history for you on the 'browny' trans, Originally developed in 1929 and made of cast iron with bronze bearings they were used in very limited run in 1931 trucks on till 1933 but they were very weak and prone to breaking the gurgley cross pin drive, so chevy went back to the drawing board and used a relatively new unobtainium metal for the main casing and swapped out the bronze bearings for square roller ones, they also spent a lot of time re designing the gurgley drive and thanks to a Sampson Clackhandle (a Yorkshireman from England) in the design team, they came up with a simple yet complicated idea of using a diagonal, not cross pin, for the main drive. All this added up to an incredibly strong trans with only two drawbacks, 1, unobtainium is incredibly heavy and 2, the trans worked by multiplying the engines torque and to do this it ended up with the driveshaft rotating the wrong way, so all 'browny' trans equipped vehicles have a left handed axle, that means if you ever swapped out the 'browny' with a standard trans you ended up with 4 reverse and 1 forward gear. The re vamped trans was called the 'clackhandle' and was sold as a factory option in 1937 with much success but a problem soon arose, due to the incredible weight of the trans, they were very dangerous to remove or install and chevrolet dealers reported losing many a good mechanic to these heavy beasts, over time they were withdrawn as a trans on chevy trucks and dealers offered a free upgrade to a normal 4speed, this led to many mechanics living in fear of picking up the jobsheet and seeing clack for munc swap on there, so much so that many often had accidents as they read those words, and thats where the nickname 'browny' came from, and it stuck. ________ ARLINGTON ASSEMBLY
my god, you just about had ME having an accident as i read YOUR words!! you should write an encyclopedia of this stuff!! jon
Just So ! I remember it like yesterday : we had a full load of freshly bailed hay on a '42 COE down in the lower pasture when the Brownie Box got a hamstring pull on the giddyap gear ~ what to do ? we needed to get the hay in out of the snow (it was August , dig) and I was only a pup ~ Farmer John called in the local dealer mechanic and gave him a clean pair of drawers said 'get to it boy ' ~ we lucked out as it turned out that the Rectubular Extrusion Bracket was bent (a common thing back n 1962) , so adding a new Ambehilical Hexnut got it going again so no more brown drawers that day
Nate I guess you knew I wasn't going to ask why it wouldn't work on my 1/2 toner. Thanks for the explanation, I had no idea I just knew from ealrier posts that it was a brownie. I guess it would have better to admit my lack of knowledge but when you said it wouldn't work I knew "it wouldn't work". As Glenn said some of us read a lot more than we post. Thanks for all of the info you guys share... it keeps some of us out of trouble. 51 papy Mike
Hey Brit, Were you born like this or did you acquire it along the way? I think we should search the forum for your writings and bind them for sale! Gater
Actually.... You could use the rear cover plate off the COE's Muncie tranny on yours then fit the Brownie Box and replace the rear end with one from a G or P series van with the 3.72 ratio and then you'd have a real Road Burner on your hands...... I dunno if you want a 1/2 ton rig with all that shifting going on tho' . -Nate
You seen 'over the hedge' thats me Hammy a rabbit squirel, i haven't been on here so often recently as my shoulders are really playing up, all that dislocating of them to get to the buckles on the end of my sleeves round the back. ________ Big Dick Young
Nate I think I'll stick to the plan and keep the trany I have. I guess I was looking for the next project, haven't got this one close to done. Thanks for the help 51 Papy Mike
