overdrive gears available soon

m-35tom, I sent you a PM, did you get it?

FMJ

January 11th, 2008.

The thought of an overdrive gear change would be interesting, given that my 1971 M35A2 empty maxs out at 53 MPH with the original 9:00x20:00 NDT's. She is, however scheduled for conversion to six 1100R20 Goodyear G177 Unisteels M+S Load Range "H", which give a single rating over 7,000 lbs each. Given that the truck is designed for 23,500 LBS GVW, and the tires can handle 35,000 lbs safely, I do belive there is a greater margin of safety then with the NDT's. However, I am curious as to the Goodyears speed rating, and I do realize that the increased diameter is going to increase the road speed, but decrease the torque output accordingly.
The conversion is being done for two reasons, FIRST: tp increase traction on wet and snowy roads and to lessen the chance of getting stuck in mud by "Floating" on the rear duals, Secondly: to reflect the next step conversion that would have occurred in the late 1990's/early 2002 period of truck scheduled for Operation Iraqi Freedom. This truck was by then seconded to the 88RRC, 300th QMC in Illinois, but it had participated in Desert Storm in 1991, and there are several areas that reflect that operation evident on the truck.
Keep up the good work, and if your OD gearing holds up in service, you may want to intice some of the equipment dealers to carry them in the future.

Thanks Again,
Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan

1963 Mercedes Benz S404.114 Unimog (Swiss)
1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare" Vietnam and Desert Storm Veteran Deuce

gear cutter came in last week. main shafts are back from heat treating and are at shop for grinding. needle bearings are made. 2/3 hubs are made. blanks for gears are being made this week or next. gear production schedualed for middle of febuary.

web site: http://waterloospecialties.webs.com/

Did you do your load test with your truck?

i have run it in hills of pa on I83 with 11 deuce trans (220 lbs ea) in back and a 150 lb fuel tank enpty, so about 2500 lbs. plan to run it tomorrow with a real load on a 2.2% grade. i am making an indicator to show actual real time fuel rate setting from 0% to 100%. not where the throttle is, but where the ip is calling for fuel. should be interesting.

So, where does this project stand at the moment? I'm definitely interested...

2 of us contacted you about a year ago and indicated we would like a set. Hope we are on the list?

Gotta ask a neub question. Would your load cap be lower when running with over drive gears?
and running faster with no load still over load those tires?

Wish I had the bucks, I would be a player!

I think this project is dead

it is not dead I heard from him a few days back stating nobody in the states would take the small order but e was having or had them done overseas. they would be ready end of jan.

Well, any news? Website says "Early 2009," you say January. It's now June.

I'm really hoping these start taking off, I'd really like this setup, but no deniro right now. Does me no good if he's not making them anymore when I finally have the $$$$....

How difficult are these to install? I only have a driveway to work on and the neighbors probably don't want a 2.5 ton truck sitting there in pieces for weeks on end. I have a floor jack, bottle jack, jack stands, and very little help if that helps answer my q.

the project is not dead, in fact i hope it is just getting ready to really come to life in a big way. samples have been made and are being inspected and analyzed. anyone who is not on the 'list' should e-mail me directly to get on it, waterloospecialties@hughes.net progress has been slow at times, but as it turns out, the finished product will be even better than originally designed, and there has been much time any many $$$ spent to ensure this. i have had a set in my truck for 2 years now and you will be very happy with the changed ratio for several reasons.


more info when it is in production.

tom

Glad to hear it! I'm really excited about this project. I hope it takes off for you. (And I'll be emailing shortly).

Sounds cool, but why not just swap-in another transmission, maybe using a custom adapter?

jesusgatos said:

Sounds cool, but why not just swap-in another transmission, maybe using a custom adapter?

Click to expand...

For a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is finding another tranny with more gears that still puts the PTO in the correct spot for the winch.

Thanks. I'll start another thread to ask more questions about transmission swaps.

anyone know the difficulty level of this? I would like to do this but not sure if I have the know how to do it. transmissions kind of scare me. Tools and space are not a problem.. I am willing to learn though if its doable.

thanks for the help

to address a couple of questions, if you can get the trans out of the vehicle and on the ground, you are 70% there. this is a very easy, simple transmission to work on. i plan to include instructions with each kit and provide free phone support. you need to have a small puller to remove the rear bearings, a small shop press to change the gear on the counter shaft. 2nd gear on the mainshaft comes assymbled with its needle brngs and the new 3-4 syncro hub.

of course if you have bearing noise or your syncros don't work well now, this is the time to deal with that as well. if everything is working well now, it is just inspection time and put it back togeather.

one important thing to note, with this upgrade you MUST use 40 wt oil in the trans and there are 2 data plates supplied with this info. 1 for the trans and 1 for the dash.

download this manual and look through it
TM 9-2520-246-34


tom