transmission swaps

[cletrac (RIP)]

I don't see why anybody would want to change them over. There's something neat about driving one of those old gear crunchers with their telltale noise and all.

[Yeo.NT]

I'd say if you are going to the trouble of changing the transmission go with a possibly easy route. Change everything (ie Engine, Transmission and Transfer case) I know of a 30cwt that runs a chevy 350 with a TH400.

[Matt Baker]

Gday,

I have a CCKW five speed gearbox fitted to my C15 radio van and it works great + it gives me a higher cruising speed which i haven't worked out yet due to no speedo drive, mind you it keeps up with jeeps ok.

[Phil Waterman]

This topic comes up from time to time, but one thing I always wonder about is the matching the ratios of the transmission and axles to the peak torque of the engine.

While lowering the engine RPM in 4th gear over the road for the original 216 engine is kinder to the engine, without and increase in power don't really think any of the bigger CMPs are going to travel faster.

Has anybody matched up the ratios of the different synchronize candidates?

I saved the transmissions and bell housings from the 235 and 261 cubic inch Chevy engines I have. Both are synchronized transmissions 4 speeds.

Briefly considered going the full engine and transmission transplants into the C60L and C60S but the list of modifications concerned me as some of them require modifications to the trucks which I didn't want to make.

As mentioned the bell housings for the synchronized is different, engine mounts different, clutch fork location different, and of course the short shaft would get even shorter.

Matt with the CCKW in your C15 Radio Van which engine are you running? I didn't think the CCKW transmissions were synchronize so the advantage in that swap is the 5th gear?

Cheers Phil

[cletrac (RIP)]

Any of those older trannys will be 1 to 1 ratio in high gear. You have to get well into the 1970s to get a five over. Ratios in the lower gears wouldn't make much difference with everything that slow speed. If you use a non Canadian military bell housing the clutch fork sticks out on the wrong side so clutch linkage would be a nightmare. Those old straight cut trannys will last forever so I can't see any reason to make the swap.

[Matt Baker]

Gday Phil,

As far as i know my engine is a standard 216 but i was told a while back that it could be a splash 235 because it has a TR engine number but i am not too sure of this?

Cheers Matt

[Phil Waterman]

David

I have had good luck in converting standard Chevy left hand bell housing to CMP right hand clutch fork. With extra CMP bell housings being scarce I needed to convert a US Chevy NOS housing to accept the right hand clutch fork location. While the conversion is not as easy as converting an original CMP bell housing to left hand, the original Chevy bell housing were cast for either side and only the machining determined which side.

To convert a bell housing for the other side it is just a matter of carefully drilling and tapping for the clutch fork ball stud and cutting out the side opening for the fork arm. Alignment of the ball stud is rather simple with a couple of center bolts and compass the location can be copied from a CMP housing. In my case I used the very tired and very cracked housing from my C60L. Cutting out the rectangle for the fork arm is done by carefully drilling each of the corners then cutting between the drill holes, careful cutting don’t go past your pilot hole to prevent a cracking point. So as to take up the strain of the ball stud I made a tapered washer so that the lip of the ball was flatly grounded all the around.

If anybody needs more details I’ll post better pictures.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Matt Baker

Gday,

I have a CCKW five speed gearbox fitted to my C15 radio van and it works great + it gives me a higher cruising speed which i haven't worked out yet due to no speedo drive, mind you it keeps up with jeeps ok.

My sweetie gave me a dashboard mounted GPS reciever for Christmas. It gives a speed across the ground, which shows that my car speedometer is underreporting by a few km at 110kph.

[Lynn Eades]

I drive two Toyotas (not at the same time) and a Holden. All read faster than the gps.