Yesterday I finished scraping the heavily layer of grease off the glide. I hit it with 2 applications of commercial grease remover; glass bead blasted it and then primed it to stop further rusting before I rebuild it etc. See the photos for what I found. I was surprised by the white numbers and find myself wondering if it is the original transmission or not. The square drain plug is slightly rounded so I know at a minimum the fluid was changed at some point. There are numerous places with different casting numbers; some places have GM 6 on them while others have GM 9. The only information GM vintage services has is that the car had a Powerglide from factory, no number or identifying information. Can anyone shed any light on this?
What car do you have? I'm nobody's expert but it's clearly a cast iron powerglide. You should have casting numbers (and date codes) on the bellhousing and the trans case.
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
oh yeah, it's cast! If someone can't tell by looking they sure can when they try to lift it! To the best of my knowledge all 283's, which I have, had cast glides and the 327, new that year, had aluminum as an option. Here are photos of most of the number that are available. There is one on the bottom side of the bell housing that I didn't get, too lazy today. I thought I'd include the Chevrolet tag that was on the right side of the bell housing. I wasn't use to seeing it and accidentally broke the plastic pin that held it in place all these years. I will find a way to reattach it before it gets installed.
oh yeah, it's cast! If someone can't tell by looking they sure can when they try to lift it! To the best of my knowledge all 283's, which I have, had cast glides and the 327, new that year, had aluminum as an option. Here are photos of most of the number that are available. There is one on the bottom side of the bell housing that I didn't get, too lazy today. I thought I'd include the Chevrolet tag that was on the right side of the bell housing. I wasn't use to seeing it and accidentally broke the plastic pin that held it in place all these years. I will find a way to reattach it before it gets installed.
I see two date codes, both read L281 which translates to December 28 1961
L = 12th letter in the alphabet, therefore 12th month - December
28 = day of month
1 = year of decade
I agree. One would then guess that'd align with a car built sometime after the middle of January 1962. Do you have any numbers from your engine that would align with the late December 1961 tranny (note the spelling) cast dates?
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Awesome guys, thank you so much! The car has a build date of January 15th 1962 so it lines up nicely. George, thanks for the link to the site. It was an interesting read. I downloaded and saved it as a pdf.
If I read the article correctly it would appear in need a rebuild kit specific to 62 due to changing the shift pattern sequence that year. Looks like I will spend the afternoon looking for one. Suggestions welcome there as well:)
Still curious why there was a 3 written on the top of the case. Any guesses?
Thought I'd update this post. I got brave enough to tear the glide down, actually went very well. I spent a lot of time watching video from a guy with and Aussie accent showing the rebuild of a glide from 1957 Chev before I started my tear down. I have the shop manual and with the help of a parts book I borrowed from a new member, Donnie Harvie, I was able to figure things out. I spent a lot of time online and on the phone trying to source a kit for a cast iron glide, lost of places have kits for the aluminum glides but cast iron's are getting scarce. I found one at Classic Transmission. Like most complete kits, theirs only comes with the front and rear bushings. They also sell a complete bushing kit and they said rather than see me double up on the front and rear bushings they would remove them from the bushing kit and reduce the price accordingly, very thoughtful.
My research unveiled the 61 and 62 cast iron glides use different steels than previous. The earlier ones have 6 teeth and these have 12, something to keep in mind when you are looking for parts.
Upon removal, I confirmed the parking pawl and parking lever shafts were bent, a victim of when the car hauler threw it in park after the brake line blew. That maneuver also took out every gear in the rear diff. Finding the two shafts was proving impossible until I found NOS ones on eBay at Vegas Classic Parts so I snapped them. I'm feeling lucky that I am doing this work now and not next year as I may not have been able to find new shafts anywhere.
The engine is in getting bored 30 thou over and I'm buying Power-Pack heads from Don MacKinnon and can't wait to get this on the road!!! The only mechanical thing not being rebuilt or replaced so far is the defroster motor, now you see why I often call it "My New 62".
Now if I can find a way to speed the body work along. Plan is to have it on the road for its 60th birthday. Sorry for the long post.
