OT: 1500 W oil in early Dodge Bros. transmission

When the Dodge Bros. designed their own car in 1914, Studebaker had recently purchased EMF and, in order to keep their customers happy, had been required to spend one million dollars to redesign the EMF's transmissions and differentials. Since the problem with the EMF transmission involved wear of its constantly-rotating countershaft, the Dodge Bros. thought it good engineering practice to design the DB transmission so its countershaft didn't rotate when the car was driven in third gear.

This turned out to be a good and a bad idea. Although it does save wear on the countershaft and its bearings, it is overkill because constantly-running countershafts work fine if properly designed. And when the countershaft is stationary it has a difficult time coming up to speed on shifts, so you get some clashing (of course this is a non-synchro, straight-cut gear transmission). Also, the countershaft bearings can be deprived of lubrication if the car is driven in third gear for a long time, so the instruction manual advises you to stop and let the car idle once in awhile.

You are supposed to use super-thick oil in the DB transmission so the oil's viscosity will help bring the countershaft up to the speed of the mainshaft for smoother shifts. With 90 weight you get a lot of grinding and clashing. 600 W steam oil is the lightest oil that is recommended, and the best oil to use in the DB transmission is "LUB164" 1500 W.

And there's your OT antique car trivia for the day!
 
(quoted from post at 14:46:16 11/14/15) When the Dodge Bros. designed their own car in 1914, Studebaker had recently purchased EMF and, in order to keep their customers happy, had been required to spend one million dollars to redesign the EMF's transmissions and differentials. Since the problem with the EMF transmission involved wear of its constantly-rotating countershaft, the Dodge Bros. thought it good engineering practice to design the DB transmission so its countershaft didn't rotate when the car was driven in third gear.

This turned out to be a good and a bad idea. Although it does save wear on the countershaft and its bearings, it is overkill because constantly-running countershafts work fine if properly designed. And when the countershaft is stationary it has a difficult time coming up to speed on shifts, so you get some clashing (of course this is a non-synchro, straight-cut gear transmission). Also, the countershaft bearings can be deprived of lubrication if the car is driven in third gear for a long time, so the instruction manual advises you to stop and let the car idle once in awhile.

You are supposed to use super-thick oil in the DB transmission so the oil's viscosity will help bring the countershaft up to the speed of the mainshaft for smoother shifts. With 90 weight you get a lot of grinding and clashing. 600 W steam oil is the lightest oil that is recommended, and the best oil to use in the DB transmission is "LUB164" 1500 W.

And there's your OT antique car trivia for the day!

Interesting and I learned a couple things today ;-) I had to look up "steam oil" to see what it was.

TOH
 
In would like to see the inner workings of that transmission.
Do you know where there is an online diagram?,
DB had 12 volts in 26 but went to 6 volts in 27. Wonder why they did that?
Complexity of the start/gen system maybe?
 
Those are the kind of random things you learn from Jay Leno's garage. If you haven't gone to his website you should. There are millions of things to watch on there about all of his old cars.
 

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