2 ton ruckstell

[burnette]

i am repairing a 1942 ford 2 ton truck. one of my projects this winter is to hook up my ruskstell lever. when i bought the truck the rear axle had been replaced and a vaccumed operated ruckstell was fitted. i would like to reproduce the mecanical system. all i have is the lever in the cab. in my searching i found that the lever was connected to a rod ,which at some point is hooked to a cable. i guess the cable is needed for suspension travel. i never seen or found a picture of how the rod is hooked to the cable,and if there were some pivot or supports for the rod. would a spring be needed to help or hold the arm in the high or low positions. i had tought of using a pto cable which is quit ridget . if anybody has information or pictures it would be helpful.


thanks brian.

[Bob C]

I looked in the green Ford parts book and it doesn't show a cable just rods.


Bob

[truckdog62563]

Is this what you’re looking for? This is from the Chassis Catalog.



The old mechanical two speeds just have a lever as pictured in the first pic. The third pic is of my beast Detroit-Timken 300 series two speed double reduction. Stu

[burnette]

thanks guys ! yes thats what i,m looking for. i had seen a picture of a 2 speed axle that had a cable. i suppose that with the amount of spring leafs theres not that much flex.

[burnette]

i see the picture says 38 to 39 , is it possible they changed the system in 40ies!

[qmdv]

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Did Ruckstell actually produce that two speed or are you just using that term to describe a two speed rear end. I thought he only made them for T's and TT's

[burnette]

no sorry i think its my mistake. the one in my truck is a eaton, foun the picture of the cable ,i will try to post it.

[burnette]

[Bob C]

Originally Posted by burnette

i see the picture says 38 to 39 , is it possible they changed the system in 40ies!

The parts book shows the rods used up till 1944, 1945 on shows vacuum control.

[burnette]

thanks for the information Bob C . maybe the cable was something somebody built. i don,t have much information on the truck in the picture.

[rotorwrench]

Sometimes cross members are added that are in the way of the control rod path. There were a number of aftermarket bed manufacturers and some may have been modified for dump boxes & such.

[burnette]

stu you wouldn,t happen to have a picture of that pivot point on the frame. so i can built something that looks somewhat original.

[truckdog62563]

No, I saved that pic off eBay and don’t recall there being a better pic of the mounting bracket. The diagram in the Chassis Catalog is as good as I have. Stu

[burnette]

bumping back to the top ,in case someone has more information !

[burnette]

bringing back up again just in case !!!

[burnette]

truck is in the shop . bumping again !!!

[COE Dan]

Greetingss, I'm adding a couple of diagrams that might be helpful. Stu's post shows the 38-39 mechanical linkage and a 38-39 axle connection without the cable used in the 1940 and younger trucks. The 1940-44 mechanical linkage cable is contained in a housing held in place by two brackets: one mounting to the axle which your photo shows and the other to a frame crossmember.



In the 1940-44 linkage diagram, the frame crossmember bracket is part no. 4057M and the axle bracket is 4120M. I've included a picture of 4057M.



My 47 COE originally had the vacuum controls. The diaphragms are nearly impossible to get and they do not lend well to rebuilding as the diaphragm canister is crimped rather than fastened together. I'm switching to the mechanical controls and fortunately I found a guy parting out a 42 COE with the complete linkage. I do however need a new flexible cable unit as the outer housing is shot (anyone have one in good shape?)



I'm also including a diagram of the 1945-46 vacuum controls (which also fits the 47 models (my diagram came out of a Feb '46 Ford manual) in case anyone reading this is interested in the differences.



I can provide more pics or dimensions of the linkage parts I have if you need assistance or info developing replacements. However, I do have the COE levers/rods/brackets which are different from the conventional trucks so I'm limited there.



Good luck with your truck!


Dan

[burnette]

thanks dan very helpful. i think i will try installing a cable seems like a better set up. probably a rod to that crossmember bracket. somekind of pto cable from bracket to differencial. i had read somewhere that the mecanical differential had a ball and spring detent to hold arm in position.

[COE Dan]

burnette,

I can't say for sure but I think the 1940-44 mechanically shifted axles are the same as the 45-47 vacuum shifted axles with one difference: the shift arm is either different or mounted backwards. I don't think this matters with keeping the axle in high or low gear.

Reference the attached cutaway of the 2-speed axle:
No.23 is the shift fork shaft - it appears star-shaped here as you're looking topdown (end-on) the shaft) - this is what your shifter will move
No.24 is the shift fork
No.25 is the shift fork plunger
No.26 is the shift fork cover

Note that the cover has 2 detents in it. The shaft, when moved by the lever or vacuum unit, will overcome the spring tension in the plunger and pop the shift fork over to the other position. Wear in the shift fork cover and/or plunger and/or a weak plunger spring may cause the axle to shift without input. I'd check these parts when installing your axle.

That's how I think the axle is supposed to work. Hope this helps.

Dan

[burnette]

thanks again Dan.