School me on 3 speed manuals
- Thread starter vkh
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I forgot about the Astro vans, but those didn't get the Saginaw 3 speed. I saw one that was a 2.5 with a 4 speed Borg Warner of some sort and another that had a Borg Warner T5 and a tbi 350 swapped in. I'm not sure if the T5 was original or not.
But the '87 I saw was a weird one. It was a G10 conversion van with manual windows and locks, along with that 4.3/saginaw combo. The column shifter was removed and had a hole hacked into the floor for the aftermarket floor shifter.
Dougnsalem
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Yeah, I have seen just one of those early Astros (mid/late 80's?), with the factory floor shift. I can't remember if it was a 4 or 5 speed. It sure was a weird setup though. The positioning of the lever was real odd...
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With all that room between the front bucket seats and the flat floor, the shifter location was great. You could easily put your beer back in your ice filled cooler every time you had to shift.
Lol
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lol, that's what I remember hearing about it too, the odd shifter arraingement.
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Yeah, it was like way too forward. The customer always had crap in the dash cupholders, or whatever it was there. A real bitch with theirs to get into first or third... Lol
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Forward? The ones I saw had the shifter back next to the seat. Like way back. The area where the dash met the floor was the "dog box" removable cover. It exposed the rear of the engine, where the trans was bolted up.
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Yeah, exactly. The dog house had a couple bolts under the hood you had to loosen to remove it. Like 15 or 17 MM ones. Right? Same rig? It had a little ledge where you could put stuff on. The customer always had tons of crap on it. Lol. Made it hard to pull it in the shop. This one was way forward, and it sure looked OE. Who knows, maybe it wasn't....
We are talking about a 30 year old rig, and this was 20 years ago, so sure. Too far forwards. Too far back. Whatever- it was in a jacked up place to shift it....
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Beats me. Every manual trans rwd van I've seen, whether it be full size, Astro or even Econoline furds, the shifter was next to and almost behind the seat. Not actually behind, but it feels that way when you drive it.
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I worked at FDRs little White House in the late 80s and my boss ordered a new shortbed 2wd pickup with the three speed on the column.
I’m not sure about the Chevys but on the old fords the way you adjust the linkage is
Replace all the bushings you can find on all the linkage
Put the column the shift linkage in N
Loosen the nuts on the levers coming out of the transmission , rock the levers back and forth until you can tell they are in Neutral
There is a small hole in both levers under the hood
Find a drill bit that is a tight fit sliding thru both holes to line them up
Tighten the nuts on the transmission
I’m not sure about the Chevys but on the old fords the way you adjust the linkage is
Replace all the bushings you can find on all the linkage
Put the column the shift linkage in N
Loosen the nuts on the levers coming out of the transmission , rock the levers back and forth until you can tell they are in Neutral
There is a small hole in both levers under the hood
Find a drill bit that is a tight fit sliding thru both holes to line them up
Tighten the nuts on the transmission
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Or install a replacement floor shift. If you do it right, the hole in the floor is only a slot 1 1/2" wide by 4" long.
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Column shift is fun though. And so odd by today's standards.
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Thanks all for the replies. Got some really good info. Sadly it looks like the guy sold it without replying to me.
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I see where you didn't get the truck, but maybe the below info will help someone else in the future.
My 82 C10 had 3-on-the-tree when I bought it. The shifter linkage was very sloppy because many of the internal steering column parts were worn out. I can tell you from hours upon hours of searching, 75% of the parts are simply are not available. I ended up shimming the IDs of a few steering column rotating parts, which helped a lot.
However, the killer for me was a pot metal "shift bowl" that was cracked where the shift handle is secured by a pin. The crack was epoxied, but I didn't trust it. I never was able to find a new shift bowl anywhere in the country. I advertised my column for sale and pointed out its last remaining problem, and actually sold it to a guy who happened to have a new NOS shift bowl! What a great deal that was for him and me.
I converted to a TH350 trans, but had I kept the Saginaw I would have used a Hurst floor shifter and a "blank" shift bowl bowl for the column. I have that P/N somewhere if you need it.
As for the Saginaw 3-speed transmission itself, virtually every part is available for it. Simply google "Saginaw three speed transmission". There's are some reputable shops that sell professionally rebuilt ones for around $600, as I recall. Keep in mind there are 4 sets of gears ratios available. The 250 six uses a very low 3.50:1 first gear to get the truck moving, but that gear wouldn't live very long behind a V-8. The 3.11, 2.85, and 2.54 ratios are used behind the 292, 305, and 350.
Grooves on input shaft:
None
2.85
1.68
1.00
1 Groove
2.54
1.50
1.00
2 Grooves
3.11
1.84
1.00
3 Grooves
3.50
1.89
1.00
My 82 C10 had 3-on-the-tree when I bought it. The shifter linkage was very sloppy because many of the internal steering column parts were worn out. I can tell you from hours upon hours of searching, 75% of the parts are simply are not available. I ended up shimming the IDs of a few steering column rotating parts, which helped a lot.
However, the killer for me was a pot metal "shift bowl" that was cracked where the shift handle is secured by a pin. The crack was epoxied, but I didn't trust it. I never was able to find a new shift bowl anywhere in the country. I advertised my column for sale and pointed out its last remaining problem, and actually sold it to a guy who happened to have a new NOS shift bowl! What a great deal that was for him and me.
I converted to a TH350 trans, but had I kept the Saginaw I would have used a Hurst floor shifter and a "blank" shift bowl bowl for the column. I have that P/N somewhere if you need it.
As for the Saginaw 3-speed transmission itself, virtually every part is available for it. Simply google "Saginaw three speed transmission". There's are some reputable shops that sell professionally rebuilt ones for around $600, as I recall. Keep in mind there are 4 sets of gears ratios available. The 250 six uses a very low 3.50:1 first gear to get the truck moving, but that gear wouldn't live very long behind a V-8. The 3.11, 2.85, and 2.54 ratios are used behind the 292, 305, and 350.
Grooves on input shaft:
None
2.85
1.68
1.00
1 Groove
2.54
1.50
1.00
2 Grooves
3.11
1.84
1.00
3 Grooves
3.50
1.89
1.00
