Saginaw 3 Speed Question

tcb-1

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
Gang,
Sorry about yet another transmission question, but this is no where near my area of knowledge.

Getting my 3 speed Saginaw from my 6 cylinder rebuilt at the present. Once rebuilt with all new seals and bearings, it will go behind a mild 283. Estimated 250-275hp. Got to looking at my shop manual and the only difference in the L6 and the V8 Saginaws were the clutch gear. The L6 version appears to have a turn down and the V8 version does not. I spoke with the guy who is rebuilding it and he said as long as I’m not building an 800hp engine, there shouldn’t be a worry (he’s been building circle track Saginaws for 30 years).

The question is this. Why did Saginaw have two versions of this clutch gear? Other than torque requirements between the cross sections, what would have been the reason.

Trying to keep this car looking and feeling like it was built originally with a 283 instead of the 6 is interesting to say the least....

The picture is of the two gears. The top (6A) is the V8 version. The bottom (6B) is the L6 version.

525430BD-E675-40A0-B7C0-7CD9CE1B46D8.jpeg
 

1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Gang,
Sorry about yet another transmission question, but this is no where near my area of knowledge.

Getting my 3 speed Saginaw from my 6 cylinder rebuilt at the present. Once rebuilt with all new seals and bearings, it will go behind a mild 283. Estimated 250-275hp. Got to looking at my shop manual and the only difference in the L6 and the V8 Saginaws were the clutch gear. The L6 version appears to have a turn down and the V8 version does not. I spoke with the guy who is rebuilding it and he said as long as I’m not building an 800hp engine, there shouldn’t be a worry (he’s been building circle track Saginaws for 30 years).

The question is this. Why did Saginaw have two versions of this clutch gear? Other than torque requirements between the cross sections, what would have been the reason.

Trying to keep this car looking and feeling like it was built originally with a 283 instead of the 6 is interesting to say the least....

The picture is of the two gears. The top (6A) is the V8 version. The bottom (6B) is the L6 version.

View attachment 74021
probably a heavy duty vs a light duty part. The real question is which came first. Logic would say they have had the light duty version around for a long time (6 cylinder powered cars have been around a long time) and didn't need anything stronger until the V8 came along and they determined that the basic early design, which was likely carried over for 20 years, needed more strength.
 

tcb-1

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
Now I’m reassessing my thinking rebuilding the original Saginaw. I suppose time will tell whether I break it!
 

409newby

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 11
Years ago I had lots of Saginaw's only time any broke was high rpm launches and speed shifting but just normal hard driving never hurt any. Usually tore up first gear slider on launches and would break off the ring on the funky synchronizer when speed shifting most likely because my hurst shifter had no shift stops:dunno:dunno:dunno
 
Top