1964 Chevrolet Pickup - Done With Gears

Next, he returned the reverse idler gear and shaft onto the Muncie transmission case.

The trickiest part of the entire job was installing the Muncie reverse shifter fork into the Gear Vendors adapter housing. Here is a view of the empty housing.

With the adapter housing held in position facing upward, the next step was to place the detent spring into the housing.

Guillermo applied white lithium grease to the detent ball, then placed the ball on top of the spring.

He also applied white lithium grease to the shifter shaft, which he pushed outward until it almost contacted the detent ball.

The trick to compressing the detent ball is to fully open up a stainless steel hose clamp and use the opened clamp as a tool to slide under the shaft and compress the detent ball.

Here is how the detent ball appeared after it was properly installed.

To install the adapter housing onto the transmission case, Guillermo pushed the lever to engage the shift fork with the reverse gear shift collar. He pressed the pilot idler shaft by hand and installed the lock pin.

Here is how the adapter housing appeared on the Muncie with the linkage after the attaching bolts were torqued down to spec.

With the same fluid as the Gear Vendors OD, the coupler was pressed in and shimmed to mate flush with the adapter housing's surface.

Guillermo installed the Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive unit onto the Muncie and adapter after they were installed into the truck. Notice the stock '64 Chevy emergency brake linkage was retained without interference from the unit.

The speedometer cable extension and speedometer electronic calibration unit were included with the Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive unit.

Guillermo mounted the Gear Vendors computerized control box under the carpeting on the driver's side. He only needed a few wires to hook it up.

The Gear Vendors control box was engineered in-house and is manufactured on the premises. It has enough built-in optional functions that one part number covers all Gear Vendors' applications.

Instead of using this box, Guillermo ended up concealing the red and green pilot lights in the tachometer. The Gear Vendors overdrive switch is located in the Hurst shift knob available through Gear Vendors.

With the shortened driveshaft installed, Jerry's '64 was all set to enjoy a 23 percent increase in gas mileage and a lot more miles with less noise in the cab...and oh yeah, it's a lot faster now!