Normanville type J overdrive?

[gamudslinger88]

I was looking through ebay and came across an overdrive unit made by Laycock de Normanville for an 70's model volvo. I did a little research and it seems that this is the platform for the gear vendors units. My question is has anyone adapted one of these to our trucks. How stong are they and how much of an reduction are they in final od? Its got my gears turning up in the ol'noodle

 

[FordGuy100]

Did you try to google it? If its not to much money then maybe its worth buying and experimenting with it.

 

[gamudslinger88]

Yea I googled it and found that they were used on many european and some ford and crysler cars behind a manual trans. I couldnt find any more info other than they were made in England and are no longer in buisness. They arent expensive so I may try and see. I was more worried about how strong they are and if they can stand up behind our diesels? Only one way to find out I reckon

 

[Jake S.]

I have had a few volvos in the last years. They are strong enough for a 9-10k weight, same bolt pattern as a GV. The sticky thing is the GV unit has a spline that sticks out on the input side and the volvo has the output shaft of the trans slide in to the od. The mounting pattern is the same as a GV, so they're adapters would work for mounting. The only other hurdle is a output yoke. The volvo is a bolt on spline. I have two of them in my garage and still wonder about using them.

 

[gamudslinger88]

Aint nothing a couple of cold beers, MIG welder, scrap iron and some good ol redneck enginuity cant fix.......I will have the duct tape and bailing wire on hand just in case!

 

[Jake S.]

Don't forget the bubblegum!

 

[Agnem]

I believe it is a known fact that the J type are not that strong in our application. Probably could make it work, but reliability may be an issue.

 

[gamudslinger88]

Don't forget the bubblegum!

It isnt cold enough for bubble gum here in the south, it just gets gewy and slides off

 

[Jake S.]

Up here it freezes before you can stick it.

 

[gamudslinger88]

Which would be a better choice then?

 

[RLDSL]

I always get mixed up which are the later ones, I guess the P are the later ones, you can find those in the later 740 volvos, the big problem is getting an adapter, because, guess what, Gear Vendors will not sell you one. The only way that you can buy an adapter from those clown is to trade in an old one of theirs, if you haven't got one, they won't sell you one, and if you do have one to trade, it's $700+ for an adapter in trade. they do that just so people won't get old volvo laycock units and do just that. The J unitsw are the same as the early GV units.
There was a guy around here somewhere making adapters for laycock units but he's gone quiet. I hope GV hasn't sent the legal dogs on him for good this time.

If you can make your own housing you'd be good to go.

 

[Dieselguy123]

It might be nice if you could make a remote mount system, (yoke in front and back) Then it could be used with just about anything. I have always wondered if you could could adapt one of those volvo units to use with a ford.