Jump to content

Torque Fluid Drive


Guest

Recommended Posts

I have a 53 New Yorker Newport, I am trying to find out if it has Fluid Dr. or Torque Fluid Dr. Is there a code on the firewall that tells this or does anyone know how to find out. The car is not running yet. Thanks, Bill.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Bill:

That your New Yorker is a V-8 model means it's definiely not Fluid Drive, and I would be surprised if it's Fluid Torque either. If it's a modern fully automatic transmission like today's cars have, it's a Powerflite.

If it is indeed a semi-automatic transsmission with a clutch pedal on the floor that you shift by momentarily lifting your foot from the accelerator and waiting for the click, this is the M-6 transmission with Fluid Torque Drive.

Fluid Drive was a simple fluid coupling that allowed the car to come to a stop with out pressing the clutch pedal. Fluid Torque Drive was a truly modern torque converter like today's cars have and was used on V-8 cars beginning in 1951. Behind these fluid couplings were three different automatically shifting gear boxes. There was a version of Fluid Torqe hooked to Plymouths with manual transmissions called Hy-Drive.

JON

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I had a 1953 Windsor T&C station wagon with Fluid torque drive. I could not stand driving it in traffic. Tried to find manual trans from Desoto or other car to switch. That long, long pause waiting to hear that click that indicated it shifted, then you got to brake hard and start over again! Main reason I sold it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello RiverSlim:

Allow me to defend these cars for a moment. I've been driving them for 20 years, and I've discovered how to deal with a few of their quirks.

The long pause and the hard braking tells me your idle adjustment was set too high. These transmissions were very sensitive about idle speed because the idle needed to drop far enough for them to sychronize. The engines need to be tuned really well to they'll idle good and strong and a very low RPM. With the idle set slow enough, they shift in about one second, and they don't brake hard.

I've made this adjustment to many of my Fluid Drive buddies' cars, and I've wondered how many people were sold bogus transmission repairs 50 years ago when, in fact, all the mechanic did was adjust the idle. The same goes for cleaning the parking brake which, when out of adjustment or dirty, can feel and sound for all the world like a transmission or rear end going bad.

Did your T&C have that horrible shared-oiling system between the engine and the torque converter?

JON

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Jon,

You seem very knowledgeable on the Fluid Drive and I have a problem that I do not understand. This problem is not unique to my 1950 Imperial it happened on another I drove in the '50s.

My is fine with regard to "Tip Toe" shifting. Just let off on the accelerator and a click occurs and the transmission shifts. The problem is that with out warning sometimes the transmission shifts violently as if going into a lower gear. This happens on deceleration mostly, it feels like a mule has kicked the car. What is happening and why?

Dudley

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dudley:

What's happening is that the transmission is jumping out of High and into Third, and Third is a freewheeling gear that allows the engine to drop in RPM when you let off the gas to shift. If the trans back shifts at the wrong time, the engine RPM will drop below the speed of the car, and when it re-engages--BAM!--the trans grabs the engine and slams it back up the RPM it should be doing for the speed the car is going. It's horrible. It's like putting in the clutch while driving, letting the engine drop to an idle, and popping the clutch without having first revved the engine back up to speed.

There are two things that will cause it. If a piece of the tranmission wiring is bad and groudning out on something, it will backshift like that. Of course, a bad governor switch will do that, too. Low oil level in the transmission gear box is the other cuprit with the big clue there being if it tends to wrongly backshift while making a hard left turn.

This is another of those problems I fought years ago, and I'm glad to spread the information around to save other guys the trouble. These transmissions really give very little trouble, and when they finally get a little sick, the cure is usually super-simple if you know them well.

Once again, I'm glad your Imperial is heathly again and that the vacuum advance was the simple answer.

JON

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jon,

I have found a new governor, just in case. However, in the Shop Manual it says that only the top part (the points) go bad and their replacement is all that is necessary "as the governor rarely goes bad."

That being the case, cannot the top part have new points put in? If so, do you know who does this?

Dudley

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Autosaur:

I've never seen a set of points go bad in one of these governors. It's a lot more common for them to become slow to react because they're dry and dirty.

Even if it seems to be working OK, unscrew your governor from the transmission, take the top off of it by removing the four little screws on the top, spray in the insides out good with carburetor cleaner, lubricate the cetrifugal weights with white grease, and put it all back togeter.

You might be surprised how much better the car downshifts. With the inner parts of the governor clean and lubricated, the downshift will happen at just the right time and be smooth and sure. Again, I've wondered how many people have paid for expensive transmission repairs when all they needed to do was clean the governors.

Give it a try, and it'll probably be good for another 50 years.

JON

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

JON,

Thanks for the tip on cleaning the Governor on the Fluid Drive. Did it and the car shifts like new! Your help has been invaluable and I hope others have followed your advice and found how simple a fix there is for some problems!

DUDLEY

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi to the guy with the Newport does it happen to be a 2DR Ht and is it a Custom that would mean it has wire wheels.

I ues to have one that I bought back in 1965 or 66 and it had the trans you are talking about but it and the engine were in the trunk and a shed.

So when I got it I put in a 354CID hemi and a 2 speed Power Flight automatic with the push buttons. I put the button were the head light switch was and put the switch were the cigar lighter was.

That old car ran like a charm and I drove it from the Saskatchawan to the east coast of Canada and back Alberta with no problems, I also converted it to 12Volt but left the starter at 6v it sure did crank over and didnt bother the starter other wise I just changed the generator and votage reg and the light bulbs.

Good luck with the trans, by the way you cant put a automatic on the back of that engine as part of the flywheel housing is cast on the back of the engine.

Chuck53

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...