Warford Information

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Over this past winter I rebuilt a Warford overdrive to use in my 1929 AA truck.

I've put the Warford into the truck and I'm quite happy with it. My truck has the high speed worm drive rear end and the addition of the overdrive is nice.

As far as speed goes before the overdrive I had a comfortable cruising speed in 3rd gear of 29 mph. Now while in overdrive I am shifting out of 2nd at 29 mph.
As far as how fast will it go... I'm not sure. I roll along at 40 mph quite comfortably and have had it up close to 50 mph. There is still some additional speed available but it's a truck and at speeds higher than that if I had to make an evasive move due to some other persons poor driving etc... it might get a little more exciting than I want so your probably not going to see me on the interstate.
The Warford has an under drive, direct drive and the overdrive so it really opens up a lot of options for driving.
Before I put the Warford into my truck it had the optional dual high transmission. Installation of the Warford is pretty straight forward as it replaces the dual high with no modifications needed.
Just take the dual high out and put the Warford in... well it sounds simple but you need to take the entire drive train out to make it happen.

The gears in the Warford were pretty good but some of the bearings were toast and the cluster gear shaft was shot. I had a new cluster gear shaft made and replaced all of the bearings.

I added an oil seal in the main drive gear housing that wasn't there originally. It fits in there really nice and seems to be doing the job. One has to remove the bearing race to put it in place but it is well worth the extra effort to do it.
Thanks go to AAholic as he shared his knowledge in the addition of this oil seal.

I sourced the bearings from Steve at South Shore Bearing in Quincy Massachusetts.
(617) 471-7800
Steve is an exceptionally nice and helpful person to work with. If you need bearings he is the go to guy.

I have 45 pictures of the Warford in various stages of the rebuild on one of the albums on my homepage that some might find helpful. Too many to try to post on the open forum.

[rotorwrench]

The Warford was a popular set up for model AA trucks to get them to pull a load better with the limited horse power. My Granddad opted for the International Harvester Corp 6-speed Specials since they came with an Eaton 2-speed rear axle from the factory. The bed hoist options for trucks of this size were sparse. My Pop and his siblings got good with scoop shovels since they didn't have bed hoists. Some farmers modified the beds so they could use a chain hoist to lift the bed but this took a lot of work to reinforce and hinge the bed plus a structure to hold the hoist.

[Jack Shaft]

Twin stick,the best anti theft device there is...impressive speed increase,return on the investment of time and money is satisfying.

[Bill Cilker]

Dave
I have a Warford in my Late 1931 AA. They are harder to put into a 30-31 because of the brake cross shaft.
I assume that your Warford has 6 spline input and output shafts, because I believe they were for the 28-29 AA trucks with the 3 speed main transmission. The warfords with 10 spline input and output shafts were used on the 30-31 AA trucks with the bevel gear rear axle and the 4 speed transmission. The input shaft and the cluster gear are not interchangeable between the 2 warfords. I have seem a 2 speed warford (straight through and overdrive) for a late 29 with a 4 speed transmission and a worm drive axle.
Enjoy your higher speed.

[Doc Holliday]

Can a Warford be used behind a Model B trans?

Thanx

[David R.]

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How difficult are they to come by? Working on a ‘30 AA now.

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Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

Can a Warford be used behind a Model B trans?

Thanx

I don't know if it can. In my 29 I just needed to remove the dual high transmission and bolt in the Warford. Direct switch. (It is simple but takes a lot of work)

Originally Posted by David R.

How difficult are they to come by? Working on a ‘30 AA now.

They come up for sale once in a while but not very often.

[redmodelt]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

The Warford was a popular set up for model AA trucks to get them to pull a load better with the limited horse power. My Granddad opted for the International Harvester Corp 6-speed Specials since they came with an Eaton 2-speed rear axle from the factory. The bed hoist options for trucks of this size were sparse. My Pop and his siblings got good with scoop shovels since they didn't have bed hoists. Some farmers modified the beds so they could use a chain hoist to lift the bed but this took a lot of work to reinforce and hinge the bed plus a structure to hold the hoist.

Even back in the 70's the place we hauled grain too still had the lifts for trucks without dump boxes. Lots of farmers bring grain in so no time to scoop it out by hand. Never crossed my mind to ask how long they had been installed back then.

[Mike Peters]

Dave: You do very meticulous work! Great project. My 29 AA also also cruises at about 29 MPH. I thought I had the low speed rear end, but apparently not. Happy discovery. Thanks for all the good info. mike

[JamesD176]

I know this is an older post but i am currently repairing the same type of warford and all your photos and information were extremely valuable. So was the contact at south shore bearing!

Thank you all so much!

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Glad that it was helpful.
Hope you will be on the road with yours soon.

[Chris Haynes]

Originally Posted by Bill Cilker

Dave
I have a Warford in my Late 1931 AA. They are harder to put into a 30-31 because of the brake cross shaft.

There is a real simple fix for that. Simply cut out the center section of the shaft and replace it with a deeper loop.

[redmodelt]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

The Warford was a popular set up for model AA trucks to get them to pull a load better with the limited horse power. My Granddad opted for the International Harvester Corp 6-speed Specials since they came with an Eaton 2-speed rear axle from the factory. The bed hoist options for trucks of this size were sparse. My Pop and his siblings got good with scoop shovels since they didn't have bed hoists. Some farmers modified the beds so they could use a chain hoist to lift the bed but this took a lot of work to reinforce and hinge the bed plus a structure to hold the hoist.

When I was still in High School, early 70s, the place we took our grain to has a hoist that lifted the trucks without dump beds. Shovels may be ok, but when it's harvest season and there is a line of trucks waiting to unload...