Author Topic: 1953 Ford standard transmission  (Read 7701 times)

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #30 on: September 03, 2020, 11:43:53 AM »
Thank you George - nice to know that my deduktive skills hasn't gone completely down the drain (I had to look for a while though).

Looking forward to see how you will do the shifting mechanism  :cheers:

Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #31 on: September 09, 2020, 01:24:46 PM »
The next couple of pieces are the shift plate and the 2 shift quadrants. The shift plate is made from one piece of aluminum. It involved multiple setups which included setting up and removing the rotary table twice. The block was cut to size and the mounting holes and quadrant holes put in. The outer shapes were done first. I roughed the two bosses cutting to depth. Some of the mounting holes are on pads because of the angles surfaces so the plate was set up in the mill vise at the proper angle then the surface was cut, staying away from the pads. A fixture plate was drilled and tapped to hold the shifter plate so that it could be set up on the rotary table. Two bolts were made with a close fitting shaft and a 6-32 thread.
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #32 on: September 09, 2020, 01:31:19 PM »
The piece was turned over and the back side was cut. Stock was left for the 2 round bosses and the center square boss. The angled surfaces that match the outside shape were stepped off with a ball mill because there wasn't enough thickness to clamp the piece in the mill vise. The rotary table was then set up again, indicated and the fixture plate and part were mounted. The first boss was cut then the second. The square center boss is for a spring with .094 balls at each end the ride in the detents in the shift quadrants. The machining was completed then the part was filed and polished.
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #33 on: September 09, 2020, 01:41:33 PM »
The shift quadrants are fabricated from 3 pieces and silver soldered together. The plate was cut as a rectangle then the holes were put in, one for the center shaft, one for the shift fork and three for the detents. The shaft was made from .156 diameter drill rod. One end was turned down to .125 to fit in the plate the other end was threaded 3-48 to hold the shift levers. The boss where the shift fork goes was turned with a tiny collar to act as a stop when slid in place. The parts were assembled then soldered. After cleaning up I mounted them in the dividing head. I put .093 drills into the detent holes and indicated across them to get the part flat. There was no other way to get the part in the correct orientation for the milling operations. Using my CAD drawing I machined the curves and steps into the plate. Both were done this way then the additional radii and shapes were hand finished.
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Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #34 on: September 09, 2020, 09:33:38 PM »
Some very complex shapes and many way this could go wrong .... but I guess that you need the challenge to keep it interesting for yourself George  :praise2:

The square boss must be for the spring loaded 'locating/locking pins' that keeps the transmission in the selected gear  :thinking:

Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #35 on: October 05, 2020, 10:19:43 PM »
 It's time for an update on the transmission. Work is progressing well but it's time to machine the outside of the main case. This will involve a tremendous amount of stepping and blending of cuts. I made an adapter that bolts to the front plate of the transmission. This will allow me to cut the outside radius for the housing which goes over the mainshaft. The other half of the cavity has the same radius but is offset by .625 but there is only a small amount that needs to be removed so that could be stepped of rather than making another whole adapter to bolt to the front of the trans. I did need to make a second adapter which will allow me to cut the radius over the countershaft. This is a bulbous enlargement which needs to blend into the already cut shape over the mainshaft.

I started by bolting the front cover plate to the trans. To this I mounted the adapter shaft. The round adapter was first put in the dividing head and indicated true. It was then removed and put in a second and third time to see how accurate the concentricity stayed. The reason for doing this is because once the trans case was mounted to it I couldn't get an indicator into the tight space to check it. In doing this the part stayed concentric within .002.

I roughed the shape with a .375 ball mill then changed to a .187 ball mill. I had to stay away from the end flanges because the ball mill will dig in a little and if the cut is made right to the flange it will leave a divot. Once the cuts were made then the flange surface was finished. On the top surface there is a long boss which needed to be stepped over.
 
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #36 on: October 05, 2020, 10:44:49 PM »
 In working the other side of the radius it blends into a flat surface which tapers off to the far side. I kind of guesstimated a stopping point so that I wouldn't go to far into the bulbous projection.
With this radius work done or done to a point I took the trans case from the dividing head and removed the adapter mandrel and front face cover. The new front face cover was mounted and the mandrel bolted to it. Before bolting it up I indicated the mandrel like I had done in the beginning just to make sure it stayed concentric. I did.

 The trans case was then remounted in the dividing head and the second radius was stepped off. This shape is not only round but conical in form and has to blend with the first radius. Whew! While stepping it off I had to work around the two bosses, one on the bottom, a drain boss, and one on the side, a fill boss. When doing the machining on the case the holes for the drain and fill were put in so I marked the surface with a sharpie and put a plug in the same diameter as the boss. I scribed a line around it to give me a guide to cut to.

 Here is the procedure for cutting this shape. I had previously made up a step chart that followed the cone shape. With the part mounted in the dividing head it would rotate around this shape. I touched off the cutter and went to depth. I would rotate the dividing head until the cut got close to the first shape. Leaving my Z depth I would move the cutter over the first radius and rotate the dividing head until the cutter would just start to grab a piece of paper. (.003-.004) I now had the point where the Z radius would blend into the first shape so I would then move the table back in X until I got to the proper dimension for that step. It sounds quite complicated but in truth it's not. The biggest thing is staying focused on all the cuts.
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #37 on: October 05, 2020, 10:48:18 PM »
 With all the cuts really close, well close enough that I didn't have a large amount of metal to file off, I went back to the bosses and stepped around them. At each point around the radius I would have to go out onto the shape to set my Z depth then back in until I was close to the line.
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Offline deltatango

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #38 on: October 05, 2020, 10:52:12 PM »
That is a masterclass in staying focused!

I'm looking forward to seeing the final result.

Regards, David
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #39 on: October 05, 2020, 10:56:08 PM »
 Now comes the fun part, burring, filing and sanding. The whole part was painted with an ink marker then the filing started. The idea is to remove just enough metal until the marker line disappears. For corners round riffler files of various shapes were used to blend the shapes together leaving a radius in the corner. I'm guessing I have about 5 hours of filing and polishing to get all the marks blended out.
With all the hand finishing complete I tapped the holes for the drain and fill plugs. (5/16-24)
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #40 on: October 05, 2020, 11:08:07 PM »
 The tailshaft housing needed to have a motor mount on it. There was no way to machine it in one piece so the tailshaft was machined and finished. I then machined the motor mount bracket and finished it. To mount it to the tailshaft I set the tailshaft up in the vise and indicated it true and centered. I then cut a .150 x .565 slot with a .125 end mill and drilled and tapped 2- 2-56 threaded holes. When making the bracket I cut the radius that matched the tailshaft by stepping it off. I had to leave a small projection which would locate into the slot in the tailshaft. This required filing, fitting, filing and more fitting. I had the part on and off so many times that the small threaded holes gave out. The necessitated making a steel piece that would go inside the tailshaft housing with the two matching threaded holes. I finally got it to fit reasonably well. This was after about 4 hours of work. And people wonder why it takes so much time to build an engine or model.

 The last two pictures show the tailshaft mounted to the trans case.
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Offline MJM460

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #41 on: October 06, 2020, 12:59:49 AM »
Wow, George!  That takes the “step and incremental rotate” technique to a whole new level.  Who needs CNC?  And some complex geometry in that spreadsheet behind that simple looking column of handwheel settings.  I bet you didn’t need any interruptions to that sequence.

Another masterclass in your continuing series.

Thank you for taking the time to post that process in such great detail.

MJM460
« Last Edit: October 06, 2020, 06:46:59 AM by MJM460 »
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Offline crueby

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #42 on: October 06, 2020, 01:43:45 AM »
Took a while to get my jaw off the floor so I could type. Just stunning.   :praise2:

Offline deltatango

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #43 on: October 06, 2020, 02:07:43 AM »
OK, now I can see the final result! Wonderful work!
David
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Offline gbritnell

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Re: 1953 Ford standard transmission
« Reply #44 on: November 05, 2020, 04:33:18 PM »
Well a transmission is no good if there's no way to shift it so I borrowed an old shifter from a friend and made a drawing. After building and adjusting everything I realized that  the shift levers on the transmission were too long which allowed the shifter pin in the shifter to over travel and pop out of position so new levers had to be made that were about .200 shorter. The rods are 4-40 thread (.112 dia) which isn't a standard SAE size so I had to turn them from .125 diameter stock. The longer one is 3.25 long so it needed a center as it got farther out from the collet. The shifter ball is .625 diameter. Using a radiused end high speed tool bit I stepped the front part of the radius off then filed and sanded the shape smooth. I stepped off the back side getting close to cut-off then parted it off. The ball was then mounted on a 4-40 mandrel and the radius finished. The ball was then buffed and polished.
In the old hot rodding days this is what would have been used to convert a column shift car to a floor shift. In the day there were quite a few companies making these the most notable was Hurst.
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