33-35 Rear gears or 40 overdrive

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
I have a stock 34 Terraplane rear end with 4.11 gear ratio. I had heard someone makes gears for Railton owners that are around 3.55, this sounds great. The only other option is sticking in a 40 overdrive. Oh yes their is one other that was done to my other 34, and that is putting a later model rear end in? This 34 is way to rare for this and in great shape so please send me any info on the first two choices, Iwant to drive it safely!!!!!!!!

Thanks now for any help,

Glen

PS Stopping with the old brakes will be next!

Comments

  • oldhudsons
    oldhudsons Senior Contributor
    Pat McDonald, an Englishman with several Railtons, has had those rear axle sets made. Whether he has more I don't know but contact Ivan Zaremba, and HETer & ROC member as he's in close touch with Pat & should know if Pat still has some.

    If you can't come up with those guys e-mail addresses let me know as I have Ivan's & probably Pat's.
  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    Pat has them fabricated in bunches of ten...so if you missed the last "run", you can get in line for the next one. I believe Ivan is Pat's agent here in the States, and might even have a pair in stock. Before the US dollar dipped in value, the gearsets were running about $600 each (more, now). But it's a neat and "invisible" way to get highway speeds out of your '34. One minor warning: the ring gear may not fit into your rearend housing at first; you have to grind away a small bit of the opening in order to stuff it into the housing. Or so I've been told.



    I knew one guy who put a StepDown rear axle from an automatic-transmission-equipped car, into his '37. Those have REAL good highway ratios on them. Problem is, the "track" is narrower than the earlier cars, I believe, so you must put in spacers to push out the wheels from the brake drum. When you change the rear axle, you can always keep the original one nearby and retro-fit it whenever you want to go back to "stock".



    Charles Gfroerer of Ohio managed to fit the rearend gears from a Ford-O-Matic-equipped early 50's Ford, into his '35 Terraplane rear axle housing. Gave him a 3-5/9 ratio, I think. Just a minor bit of fiddling was needed with the "internals". The drive shaft didn't have to be shortened or anything. I don't know if this works for a '34, though, so you might want to contact him (he's in the H-E-T Roster).
  • junkcarfann
    junkcarfann Expert Adviser
    If a 1934 axle housing is the same width as a 1936, a Ford Explorer rear axle fits nicely. The wheel bolt pattern is the same, so you can use your Hudson wheels.



    I put a 2004 Explorer axle in a 1936 Terraplane, and the width was about 1/2" narrower, which is only 1/4" per side.



    The front yoke had to be exchanged for an earlier one, which allowed the Terraplane driveshaft to be used as is, with the Terraplane U-joint bolting up perfectly, and the length the same, so no alterations were required.



    Even the Ford bolt that holds the hydraulic brake tee fit the Terraplane tee, and was in the same location. (1934 cars don't have hydraulics, so that is not an issue).



    The only alteration was removing the spring perches and radial arm brackets from the Ford housing, and having a welding shop fabricate perches Hudson style.



    The shop that did the welding had both the Ford and the Hudson assemblies side by side, so they could measure the angle that the perches had to be (with the pinion about 2 or 3 degrees pointing downward, if I remember correctly.)



    Also, I used a universal e-brake kit from Lokar (a hot-rod supplier) to make up custom e-brake cables that connected to the Hudson e-brake assembly.



    The advantages of this is the brakes were like new, and it does not have the problem of the Hudson rear axle bearing, which is no longer made and very expensive to buy.



    The only problem would be hooking up your mechanical brakes, but you might want to look into converting to hydraulics.
  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    The '34 -'35 rear ends are different than '36, being narrower, having afour-bolt drum, and mechanical brakes. However, the differential assembly is identical, so the high-geared set from the
  • Park_W
    Park_W Senior Contributor
    There IS one other option ... a British Laycock "switch on, switch off" overdrive, as used in some Healys and Jaguars. This compact unit goes between your original tranny and the differential. Requires cutting up the old driveshaft (or a spare one). Only technical obstacle is it's 12v controlled, so you'd have to use an inverter to get the 12v (it doesn't draw much current). Again, the Railton guys know about these, and there was a nice article in the ROC newsletter a few years ago showing how to install one. Oh, there is one other little issue ... price is probably $1,000 at today's excnage rates.
  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    The '34 -'35 rear ends are different from '36, having a 4-bolt drum, and narrower track, with mechanical brakes. However, the centre assembly is idnetical, and can be swapped with any '34-'47 unit, hence the high ratio gears available from the R.O.C. can be used, or possibly other makes transplanted, as mentioned above. The only difference is in the pinion flange, which on '34-'34 is a four bolt flat flange. If you used a later nugget you can just transplant the flange. There were 3-5/9 and 3-8/9 factory supplied gears, but I have never seen either of these. You cannot successfully use a '40 overdrive, as the chassis is too narrow, so you would have to hack things around. Good luck,

    Geoff.
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