VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Double clutching and grinding gears-1940

Got a call from Curt Kennedy Friday about the spring in the linkage shown in David's first picture. Curt felt that the spring David was using was to stiaff for the application. He was missing his original spring and wondered what the original one looked like. Here are two pictures showing the original spring. The approximate dimensions are 1 1/4th inch is outer diameter, 1.28" is the length and .069" is the thickness.

I am not sure that there is any correlation between David's original assumption that a stiffer spring improved shifting.

"the shift lever seemed a little "soft" inside so I replaced the spring in the picture and fooled around with the 2 bolted clamp above the spring...I was shocked to find that it has made a HUGE difference in the shift eliminating ALL of the grind into second and 95% of the grind into 3rd. Downshifting from 3rd to second still needs to be done at 10 MPH or less to avoid the crunch. A slow shift is necessary , no speed shifting. The spring is a 1 1/8 X 3 x .105 from Ace Hardware.....had to cut and try 3 times to get the right "feel" on the shift lever inside the car. This made my day and I hope it might help someone out there who is having the double clutching blues!"

I think David solved most of his problem with the adjustments he made in the linkage, and the speed of his shifting.

Thanks, Mike

I have always used the shop manual measurements and they have always worked. I have found that if the gears are grinding when I shifted, especially from low to second, it is because low gear is not in the true neutral position. So I make very sure the column levers are in neutral and the transmission levers are in true neutral (detents) and adjust the rods to fit accordingly and I have never had a problem with clashing. Finding neutral position on the transmission levers is relatively easy (detents) while finding neutral on the steering column levers is kind of guessy (position).

Matinomon, not that I disagree with you about the spring and its tension but my spring finally disintegrated at about 400,000 miles and I simply cut the ends off of a wheel cylinder internal spring (very weak spring) for use and it shifts fine. I suspect it was you "fooling" with the U clamp above the spring that made the differences. Any movement of that clamp up or down or sideways on the steering mast changes the geometry (position) of the sifting levers and especially the small control lever since its movement is so slight from low/reverse position to second/high position.

I did not answer why I think your short rod is bottomed out. I went out and took a look at mine and there are two differences from yours. First, my U clamp is much closer to the firewall (about 1/2"). Second, Your U clamp or steering mast appears to be rotated to the left when you look down at it. That rotation to the left would cause both rods to be shortened. There is a key (doohickey) on the steering mast and slot in the U clamp saddle to use for centering the U clamp in the upright position. Your steering mast may have gotten rotated slightly over the years.

My small rod is about 5-6 threads from being bottomed out.

But, if you've got it working to your satisfaction, I wouldn't change a thing.