Economic electric overdrive?

[Norse]

I was reading over the FE forums about how the Gear Vendors electric overdrive unit is basically copied off the old Volvo unit. And that finding an overdrive unit from a 70's to pre-1990 Volvo was a way to go.

Anyone here have any further information or comments on this?

[72BahamaBlue]

I was reading over the FE forums about how the Gear Vendors electric overdrive unit is basically copied off the old Volvo unit. And that finding an overdrive unit from a 70's to pre-1990 Volvo was a way to go.

Anyone here have any further information or comments on this?

The GV unit is the latest version of the Laycock overdrives, has some improvements over the older units. Not sure if the older ones could hold up with all the torque of an FE V8.
Adapting the older O/D to the Ford transmissions would be a challenge.

[fmartin_gila1]

As stated, kind of wonder if the older units would handle the torque. Back in the early 60s, a friend had a 50 something Austin-Heally sporty car that had a fairly good sized I-6 with a 4 spd trans and a toggle switch on the dash to control a Laycock OD behind the trans. As I remember, he could toggle between OD and standard in any of the gears.

Fred

[Norse]

Well I will just have to look into this for curiosities sake.
Next time I go to the salvage yard/s I will look for a late 80's Volvo and see if I can just snag it (Pick-Ur-Part tends to keep drive line parts together, so they may think the OD unit is part of the transmission).
If it don't work or won't fit, hopefully I will only be out date-night change.

[motzingg]

I dunno about the strength of the volvo units, but the ones that came on MG's are notorious for being weak. And that is with a 60 hp 4 banger. I think there was something about having to put oil in them separate of the transmission that people forgot to do and running them dry, but i can't remember.

The volvo 240's are pretty heavy cars, but they only have ~100 hp 4 cylinders. Then again, the amount of torque pushing a bumpside down the road at 70 mph is probably pretty close to the torque pushing a 240 down the road at 70 mph in overdrive. Also, volvo's are known to have pretty bulletproof drivetrains and a pretty tall rear end, I think if they had a problematic overdrive I would have heard of it.

The trick, of course would be mounting it. I have looked at enough of them to know they don't have a divorced OD, but i never have specifically looked at the trans to notice if the OD was a separate unit or how its attached. Maybe GV used similar bolting pattern and you can get lucky using their adapter pieces with the cheap volvo OD box.


I have a couple buddies that are heavy into volvos, i'll ask them whats up and what cars it came on. Probably in stock trim it was electronic controlled to only kick in for 3rd gear, but you could certainly hook it up with a switch to engage on any gear. Blowing it up in 1st or 2nd would be much easier to do however....

[Norse]

Thanks, Motzingg!

I remember that back in 1982 a high school friend of mine's mother bought a Volvo (turbo?) wagon with a 4-speed manual transmission. And on top of the shifter was a thumb switch for the OD.
If I remember right, it would only activate when in 3rd or 4th gear.

Seeing the engine I will be putting in my 250 will probably be in the 300-350HP range, that Volvo unit may not even hold up even IF it can be installed.
Add to the horse power I will be putting on the driveline will be the fact that I plan on pulling a recreational trailer at times.
I may just save my pennies and buy a Gear Vendors unit and then not worry about failure.

[motzingg]

well, the HAMB of course provided some additional info, because i was curious...


the 'one to get' is called a J-type, made by laycock of england and found in 200-series 4 speed volvos in the 70's and 80's. I know enough about volvos to tell ya that manual 240's are kinda tough to come by, but if you can find one you can probably get the overdrive for a hundred or so bucks.

they are bolted into the tailshaft of the trans, so you'd have to make an adapter. The tougher part from what i can tell would be adapting the output shaft. It would probably be best to start with a 4wd trans with a married transfer case and pull the t-case off and use the flange to make up an adapter and.... holy crap this is getting complicated!

There is a pretty good chance you can just get a 5 speed that will fit your engine unless you are putting in something weird. Seems to me like a trans swap is way easier at this point unless you really like doing things just to be weird or for some reason you really want to split gears. 300 hp is probably 3 times what the stock volvo was rated at, even turbo they only make about 120-140.

[Norse]

Thanks again, Motzingg!

Seems about the way I thought this might go, but I had some hope. Ah well.

Actually I want to keep the truck an automatic, so I will be saving my lunch money for a Gear Vendors OD unit.
As a comparison, installing a Ford AOD or AO4D or even a GM 700R4 overdrive transmission will cost about the same as the GV unit. So it's not worth going that direction IMNSHO.

[motzingg]

hmm, the GV units i've seen run 2-3K whereas you can get any trans you want from u-pull it yards for 150-200 bucks.

if you can wait patiently and scour craigslist you might be able to get a known-good trans that has been already removed for pretty cheap. It took me a few months but i finally found the 5 speed i've been looking for at a hell of a deal.

its your truck, so you gotta do what makes ya happy, but to me, putting a manual OD behind an automagic transmission seems kinda silly, is it going to be more likely to kickdown 3-2? The od wont kick off on its own, will it? Plus if you're running a c-6 now you don't have a lockup converter which is going to make your trans run hot under a load (aggravated by the OD) and you won't get the fuel mileage of a lockup trans. Seems like running the OD will just make your shift points screwy.


i'm not trying to argue or anything, just saying, keep your options open and don't rule out the modern OD trans'... ford and lots of other folks have spent the better part of 20 years making them strong and there is a good aftermarket.

[Norse]

Yeah, GV units are about $2200 from Summit Racing.

There might be cheaper ways to go with a Ford OD transmission, but after having to dish out $4700 to replace the one in my '95 F350, I am leery.
(admittedly yes, I had to pay a transmission shop for that repair, but the Jasper AOD still was more than the labor cost)

Everything I have priced out to go with a AOD or AO4D would put me at about the same price as a GV unit. Not including the cost of fabbing a new transmission cross member (of which I have never done).

For now I am going to live with the 3.73 gearing in the Dana 60 and just put a B&M transpak in the C6 along with a good trans cooler and call it done.

[motzingg]

bigger tires? haha!

[Donnie]

Let me see if I get this correct: you spent $4700 bux for an E4OD for your '95 F350...a Jasper unit? Where are you located?
If you are on a limited budget, get an AOD trans from 1988 until their demise----'91 or '92...or if you like electronic's...4R70W will be a nice way to get overdrive....The late AOD, cable controlled is a decent unit, a little weak in 3rd gear, but Raybestos makes a one sided clutch pack for that weak 3rd gear & a shift package for the valvebody........down the road .........Donnie

[Norse]

Let me see if I get this correct: you spent $4700 bux for an E4OD for your '95 F350...a Jasper unit? Where are you located?
If you are on a limited budget, get an AOD trans from 1988 until their demise----'91 or '92...or if you like electronic's...4R70W will be a nice way to get overdrive....The late AOD, cable controlled is a decent unit, a little weak in 3rd gear, but Raybestos makes a one sided clutch pack for that weak 3rd gear & a shift package for the valvebody........down the road .........Donnie

The job was done in Southern California because the old transmission gave out on my way home (400 miles away). The Jasper trans is their "heavy duty" rated transmission. The shop owner said he could build me a transmission that would equal the Jasper one for about $100 more (total), but his wouldn't come with a 3 year warranty. And I needed a better than stock transmission to go behind my 7.3 turbo diesel that I tow up to 10,000 lbs with.
Yeah, it was an "ouch", but desperate times and all that.

For now I am going to "back burner" this and review it again down the road. My long term goal is to totally strip the truck down and rebuild/paint it in about 3 years when I retire. That will be the time to look further into this I think.