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Old 03-27-2020, 11:02 PM   #19
Isaiah92260
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Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Whittier, CA
Posts: 851
Re: Will a 1955 3 spd OD fit my truck?

Quote:
Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98 View Post
This reply is kinda long, but hopefully it will provide good information to you and other readers.

If you end up having to change the yoke, a local driveshaft shop should be able to provide you with what you need. That's the route I had to take, but I went from a 63 trans to a 65 trans. The driveshaft shop I went to had the yoke I needed in stock and they didn't even charge me to press the old off and install the new one. My U joints were still good, so I didn't need to change those.

On the cable, it kinda depends on what cable you end up with. On my truck, the cable was installed in the dash and used a factory knob. What I don't know is if my truck came like that from the factory or if the overdrive was a dealer add on. In the pic, the knob pulled out from the dash is the lockout cable. If you get a cable that has a T handle, most I've seen have been mounted to the bottom of the dash where my trailer brake controller is mounted.

The only way that I have found to repair the solenoid is to replace with a good, used unit, have yours rebuilt, or buy a new one. Here is a company that I found while researching during my overdrive swap. I think their prices have come down a bit since the last time I looked.

I'm not sure if there is a difference between the shift arms of the 60-62 trucks and the 63-66 trucks. I do know that the shift arms from a 63 trans and a 65 truck overdrive are the same. Important thing to know is that the overdrive transmissions have a lockout rod that locks the transmission out of overdrive automatically when you shift into reverse. If you have to swap side covers, you might not have that functionality anymore, thus you would have to use the lockout cable each time before going into reverse. If you try to back up without going into reverse, you'll turn your overdrive into some crunchy soup. The pin looking thing that is facing the front of the transmission in the picture is the lockout rod. The shift linkage inside the side cover is what makes contact with that rod.

Pick up the book about these overdrives. It helped me a ton when I was troubleshooting my electrical system and gave me plenty of pointers on what and what not to do.

I've had the overdrive working as GM intended for the past year, and I absolutely love it. Some days I wish I had gone for an s10 5 speed, but then I remember that I can just buy another truck some day and have both!
Thank you for the info! I’m going to start writing all this stuff down lol. I’m going to start looking into that wire harness kit they have on that website
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