Hudson overdrive gearbox

Trevor J

Here is an interesting one which I am sure someone on the forum will be able to answer. I have acquired an overdrive gearbox that I know came out of a 1939 Hudson coupe that was going to be rodded.   The overdrive box is a Laycock Normanville unit found on many English cars. Initially I thought this was a made up unit however it appears to have a factory cast unit to take the overdrive.  Has anyone seen one of these before possibly they were made in England.   The coupe is right hand drive.

Trevor

Park_W

Englishman John Dyson in the Railton Club several years ago set up to cast and machine the special parts for a Laycock installation in his Railton.  A feature article in the Railton Owners' Club magazine was done on the conversion in 2000.  I have a copy of that piece.

But Dyson's installation was totally different from the one pictured here.  His approach was to "insert" the Laycock unit in the driveshaft.  The unit was mounted on the back side of the X-frame "tunnel," so there was a short shaft on either end of it.

Jon B

The bell housing, while open as on most Hudsons, doesn't seem as "spindly" as other pre-war ones.

The transmission is similar to the '32-40 ones but doesn't have the vertical lockout bars.  It does, however, have the removable cast plate on the top, which has the Handi-shift levers mounted to the top (I believe that was typical of '39 and '40).  This plate and the levers, could be removed and a standard late-thirties floor shift lever installed.

So the whole setup looks like a strange assemblage of several years' worth of Hudson stuff.  But, strangely, it looks like it was made to fit together.

Glowplug

As an aside, our HET owners in OZ and NZ are very adept at making do! From the pictures it is apparent the match up was well thought out from an engineering point of view. I would lean way forward on this being a locally completed product. In good tic the unit in use should put a smile on any 30-40s Hudson owners face.

Trevor J

Hi Thanks for your comments.

Geoff Clark has had a look at the box and  his opinion is that the adaptation looks more factory than a home made adaptation .. He thought it may have been made in England given that the overdrive is English.  It may remain a mystery

Trevor J

Of course this unit would possibly work well on my 35 Hudson 8 coupe 

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Trevor J

Hi Thanks again for all the comments.  Hi Wesley we are looking forward to our trip as well we are heading to Aussie next week for one of our sons weddings so we have a busy year coming up . Re the overdrive I am sure it would work well in the 35 however it may be difficult to fit into the cross in the chassis centre we will see.

Hydraulic actuated that's interesting.

Regards Trevor