Guest catzsnot Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Hi all - did these cars have the 'vacuum shift' transmissions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 catzsnotsome did and some didn't, I think it was an option. I think a lot of people took them off because they had a lot of problems with them.Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Oldengineer Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 I have a 48 Chevy Fleetmaster. From all the digging I've done in the manuals - The vacuum shift was standard on these cars throughout the 40's - until 49 - I've not run into any of the old manuals mentioning it as an option. My car had the unit on it when I bought it, but, I have since installed a conversion kit and eliminated it. Apparently this was fairly common back in the day when the vacuum units started malfunctioning.Regards:Oldengineer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 thanks Oldengineer for the information. I had two of them when I was a teenager. One had tHe vacuum shift and the Other one didn't. I haD always thought that It was an option. I guess the one that did not have it had already been converted by the time I got it. I do know that when they went bad they sure were hard to shift.thanks againWalker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Oldengineer Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Walker:The unit on my car not only made it hard to shift - it was leaking vacuum badly and made the engine run hot.Regards:Oldengineer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Old engineerI never thought about leaking vacuum,maybe that's why mine never ran real well.Was there a lot Involved in converting the shift to manual?thanks,Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Oldengineer Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Walker: The hard part is finding the conversion kit at a decent price. Chevy's of the 40's has the kit for $150 - last time I looked. I got mine off Ebay for much less. All it consists of - is a longer lever and an S shaped rod. To convert - you pull off the entire vacuum shifter unit, the shift lever its hooked to, and plug the vacuum port. You install the longer shift arm to the side of the tranny, the new shift rod replaces the old one hooked to the lever at the bottom of the steering column, and adjust the linkage so the tranny shifts correctly.Regards:Oldengineer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Oldengineer:Interesting,thanks very much for the instructionsWalker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest catzsnot Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Lot's of info there - thanks so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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