Ford Data Plate

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Colin Alford

By October 1944, Chevrolet was using separate levers for PTO and Transfer Case Operation. The Transfer Case lever only had three positions, High with front axle disengaged, Neutral, and Low with front axle engaged.

My Dec '41 Chev Portee has one Transfer Case lever that moves through 3 gates like an inverted "U" (or is it "W"?) to give High 2wd, High 4wd and Low 4wd.

Back and to the left is H2, Forward to the left and middle row is H4, and middle to the back is L4. Halfway along the H/L shift, you can move the lever across to the right and back to put the transfer in neutral AND engage the PTO Winch.

These Oct '44 changes must have involved a redesign of the transfer shift linkage to eliminate H4 and co-ordinate the front axle engagement with the gear reduction change inside the transfer.

To be honest, I have not seen a late production Ford transfer case to know if it was also done on those vehicles. I don't recall ever seeing any Ford without High 4wd.