Posted by Clint Dixon on Saturday, August 14, 2004 at 8:55AM :
In Reply to: Did early military style civilian PWs have 1.5:1 Low range posted by Jim Chance on Friday, August 13, 2004 at 10:46PM :
The "1946 Dodge General Purpose Model WDX Advance List of Parts" #D-11112, dated November 1945, is very incomplete and tends to list mainly parts that had not ever previously been listed for Dodge trucks. In the Transfer Case section of Group 21, there are only 10 part numbers listed for the transfer case. These numbers are for bearings, gaskets, shims, oil seals, etc. No gears are listed. Of these 10 numbers, 9 are new (having never been listed for Dodge trucks before). This would lead one to believe that the rest of the parts being used (including gears) were straight from the 1-1/2 ton transfer case and carried the same numbers.
The first true parts list: "1946 Dodge Power Wagon (Preliminary) Parts List Model WDX" #D-11091, issued December 1945, gives a complete listing of parts for the transfer case. Most of these parts (including gears and shafts) are shown with part numbers which had not previously been listed for Dodge trucks.
The second true parts list: "Dodge Power Wagon Parts List Model Series WDX" #D-12004, Revised February 1948, shows all the same numbers as used in the previous parts list #D-11091. The part numbers now do not carry the symbol indicating having never been used before.
The informatiion from these three pieces of literature would tend to support the theory that some early cases may have been assembled with 1-1/2 ton 1.5:1 gearing before Dodge tooled up to mass produce the 1.96:1 gear sets. It is also possible that, during the course of production, that small numbers of trucks were outfitted with the old 1.5:1 gearing if production of the 1.96:1 gearing could not keep up with demand.
Clint
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