Mating up Saginaw 3 speed to 235

[73kay]

Hey guys found a 3 speed Saginaw today at the junkyard and thought I'd use it for a while until the perfect t5 comes my way. So I already have a ford 9in rear end and a 53 ad truck bell housing with the 235. My question is there a way to get it to mate without having to get the bell housing circle widened a bit? The Saginaw bearing lip sticks out just a bit. I thought maybe just use the old 3 speed lip but I don't know if the bolts will line up.

Also once I get this puppy mounted with a crossmember how should I
Measure to find a driveshaft? I read that the safari driveshaft was dead on for a t5 and I believe the t5 and Saginaw are the same length?

Thanks for your help!

[chopit]

I don' have tranny answer but might have suggestion for driveshaft.

Since you don't have a slip yoke yet for tranny (I am guessing?)

You don't want slip yoke bottoming out at back of spline in tranny. If could damage tranny do to rear end flex from leaf springs when driving.
I back off 1"

So slip something thin in next to spline til it bottoms out, mark it at back of tranny tail housing, measure it and subtract 1"

then measure from back of tranny tail housing to driveshaft yoke on rear end. (that will be the center of the u joint on driveshaft)

Ad the 2 measurements and you have your measurement including slip yoke. If the driveshaft you find is a hair shorter that is ok as long as it will grab plenty of the tranny spline but cant be longer. (remember you only allowed for 1" of play)

(If you have slip yoke, Just slide it in all he way, measure yoke to yoke and subtract 1")

[franken]

The hole in a BH for a truck trans is typically bigger than that for a car trans. Sounds like your BH has the smaller hole.
There are spacers to use a car trans on a truck (the hole in the BH centers the trans), but there's no magic for putting a round thing in a smaller hole.
Troll the swapmeets for another BH?
Sorry if the above sounds a bit smutty

[73kay]

Appreciate it guys. I have a yoke for it chopit.

Franken, I would think that the input shaft wouldn't be far enough into pilot bushing to use spacers? I'll give it a look tomorrow morning. Thanks!

[mr48chev]

You just need a 51,52 or 52 pickup bellhousing I'd have to look but they changed from that small bolt pattern that matched the cars to the bigger bolt pattern that matched the three speed you have and even Muncie M21 four speeds somewhere along there.

Photobucket is down for maintenance so I can't show the photo of the one out of a 51 1-1/2 ton I have. Someone close to you should have one and it shouldn't cost a lot.

I am pretty sure that the center hole that the bearing retainer fits in is the same size pickup or bigger truck up all through the AD trucks.

Getting out the Ebay cheat sheet your bellhousing bolt pattern probably looks like this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1416700...chn=ps&lpid=82

The one you need looks like this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-49-50-51-...p2141725.m3641.

[73kay]

From what I read last night, the bearing retainer was widened from 4.xx to 5.xx on the saginaws to match the granny 4 speed larger bearing retainer. Car Saginaws were still 4.xx. I'm not sure what year my bh is but it probably has to be 49-54. The truck was a 49 but the motor was a 54.

My plan is buy a smaller car retainer for $20 on eBay. That way I don't have to cut anything.

This is what I read on chevytalk last night so we'll see how accurate it is but it makes sense to me.

[mr48chev]

I didn't measure the truck one I have last night because it was too late but I'll drag it in when I get home and take a caliper to it.

As far as I know the larger bearing retainer diameter didn't come about until the mid'/late 60's on the trucks.
Cars had that small bolt pattern trans up thrugh 54 and what he may have is a car engine and trans in his truck.

I still can't find that page that tells when CHevy changed from the small bolt pattern to the larger one but my 48 had what was supposed to be the stock 48 3 speed bolted to a V8 bellhousing behind a 194 Chevy II 6 when I bought it. It was my understanding that Chevrolet changed the bolt pattern on truck transmissions in 48 to the larger pattern that matches the open drive Saginaw and other transmissions.

[73kay]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I didn't measure the truck one I have last night because it was too late but I'll drag it in when I get home and take a caliper to it.

As far as I know the larger bearing retainer diameter didn't come about until the mid'/late 60's on the trucks.
Cars had that small bolt pattern trans up thrugh 54 and what he may have is a car engine and trans in his truck.

I still can't find that page that tells when CHevy changed from the small bolt pattern to the larger one but my 48 had what was supposed to be the stock 48 3 speed bolted to a V8 bellhousing behind a 194 Chevy II 6 when I bought it. It was my understanding that Chevrolet changed the bolt pattern on truck transmissions in 48 to the larger pattern that matches the open drive Saginaw and other transmissions.

ya that sounds about right. I found the smaller bearing retainer that I needed on ebay and it was 1 hour away, so I called the guy and rushed over there and got the part I needed. He had a whole warehouse of trannies and muncies, it was pretty cool. Anyways got that part and finally got the yoke disconnected from the two part driveshaft from the scrap yard. Gonna install the tranny tomorrow and measure up a driveshaft. It looks like I may get lucky and not have to remove the rear crossmember at the end of the tranny where the torque tube meets. Well see. But I did get all my brake lines squared away so she will stop, now she just needs to go! Thanks for the help as always!

[73kay]

Quick update: measured and was looking for about 55in driveshaft. Went the wrecking yard and found a 85 caprice driveshaft at 54in I think and fit perfect. Even the universal joints connected to the ford 9in no problem. I have a a but more than an inch of slack which I kinda wanted in case I bottom out but super excited to not have to cut, balance, and get conversion joints.

[mr48chev]

An inch should be ok. I wouldn't go any ore than that though.

I'm guessing you figured out the bellhousing thing but here is the promised photo of the one out of my 51 1-1/2 ton and a somewhat accurate photo of the measurement of the hole. figure + - .005 on that with the caliper in one hand and camera in the other.