Re: shifting pattern 38 straight 8 fire truck

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2014/10/4 7:56:57

I may be wrong but didn't the PMCC more or less abandon the truck market (some might add "prematurely") in the early 1920s? I do know that later they sold engines to be used by the White Motor Co. (Cleveland OH) for use in some of their smaller trucks. I believe that many of them were the outgoing six cylinder motors that had been modified from the last Packard taxi cabs in the last half of the 1940s. But the fact that this is a 1937 fire truck of some sort throws me. Could it be that a Packard engine was a ready substitute at some time for another brand that had failed?

It also sounds like the transmission is a heavy duty one, possibly a four speed with a "granny gear" first. We have some older Peterbilts (1987 era) with Fuller transmissions that have that creeper gear (a nice thing to have in a fire engine for unusual terrain situations) down and to the left of the typical H pattern. The same is true with several of our older GM TopKick trucks.

I agree with O-D that some careful searching and experimenting with the gear lever shouldn't hurt. Be prepared for gear noise and whine and double-clutching is most probably required. Learning that technique is the second hardest thing about driving an old car or truck with a manual transmission.

There's currently a YouTube video of a beautifully restored 1930 Duesenberg Phaeton being driven. The gear noise is substantial; enough to wake the neighbors. And the driver in this video apparently has not yet passed his test in double-clutching. At this point, it would be appropriate to point out that Packard introduced "silent (helical) gear transmissions" to the industry. Probably the best thing since sliced bread.