Think my tranny is going

[Normspeed]

Well, no matter how solidly I shift into reverse, I'm getting quite a bit of knocking when I back up. First gear seems pretty quiet though. I hate to go through the R&R again but better to attack it now rather than out on the road somewhere. Mine is a 53 3 speed with R 10 OD. I have a spare 3 speed non-OD that I could use for parts. I'd love to have George Asche go through mine but shipping it back east would be a pain. I'm hoping I might locate a 3 speed locally that I can put in while going through my original. Anyone in Southern CA have an extra?

[TodFitch]

Are you sure its not your universal joints? The old ball and trunion type universal joints will sometimes knock when moving one direction but not the other.

[blueskies]

Norm-

Sounds like maybe your reverse idler gear may be missing a few teeth? If so, that metal is probably floating around in the rest of the system...

Mine was missing teeth too-

I rebuilt my '55 threespeed OD, and I used my original '50 three speed for parts. The transmission stuff was the same between the two, except for the synchro types. One had the pin type, and the other strut type, and they aren't interchangeable. I used all the gears and shafts from the '50 to replace the worn out stuff from the '55.

The rebuild was fairly straight forward, I think you could do it yourself and save a wad of cash to spend somewhere else... I did mine is a weekend's worth of time, spread out over a week or so.

Pete

[mikemaker]

Hey Norm, I have a rebuilt spare in the garage. I'll send ya an email

[Normspeed]

Tod, I'll double check to make sure it isn't the u joints but I'm pretty sure this is coming from the tranny. And Pete, I may be picking your brain a bit when I tear into mine. I haven't disassembled a trans since the 60's.

Mike, I checked my Hollander book and the 3 speed should fit. Hollander isn't always right but it says other than the change in synchro types, the manual trannies are considered identical and interchangeable from 1941-56 except for the p17, p19 and p22 2 door sedan and 3 coupe. And in the notes it says the 3 speed will swap with the OD trans. The length measures the same overall so no driveshaft issues. The only difference they note is that on the 41-48 the speedo cable is on the right and 49 up it's on the left.

Thanx guys.

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

Pete may have hit it. I bought a 48 Chrysler once that backed up with a series of leaps and clunks. Turns out the reverse gear had some missing teeth, or was it the idler? Mind is going, but it was one of the two.