[rotorwrench]

I think it was late in 1941 before the liquamatic was offered. The unit was bulky and overly complicated so it had bad teething problems. They were trying to keep up with stuff like the Hudson Electric Hand shift system which was also complicated. The Drive-Master came along for 1942. GM was also developing the Hydromatic in that time frame which ended up the the M5 Stuart light tanks for WWII where it was very successful after working a few bugs out.

Ford went to the Borg Warner electric overdrive in the Lincolns first and it was a sort of semi-automatic transmission. The halt of auto production in February of 1942 delayed any consideration of use till after the war but the Ford cars didn't get overdrive till the 1949 models were introduced. The delay was due to the scramble to get new models into production. The transmission had to have a reverse lock out feature to safely use the overdrive and this took further development.

The Columbia Overdrives were also available in the years that the banjo rear axle was in service so Ford wasn't too excited about keeping up with Hudson and other new designs. FoMoCo used the GM 1st generation Hydramatic in Lincolns after the war at least till the plant burned down anyway.