The car in my avatar has been in the family since I was 13 or about 44 years. The whole thing is one big farmer special. As is this car is a late 31 coupe body with a 29 AA engine and 4-speed trans and obviously a truck bed where the trunk used to be. I've spent quite a bit of time and money just to make it roadworthy and reliable. Besides the body hacks to make this conversion the drivetrain is in good condition.
Without going into a lot of detail I'm in the process of moving the entire running gear from this coupe/Pickup to another proper pickup. I'll then stretch the frame (so that the bed is out from under the body) and finish off the back of the coupe body (it's a bit drafty the way it is). Effectively making into a Model A Club Cab Pickup.
I've driven this car many thousands of miles and would occasionally hear a grumble or mild pop from under the floorboard area, always at low speed and typically decelerating.
Since this car has a 4-speed I believed (though never confirmed) it had the special bearing retainer and u-joint mentioned on Fordgarage.com, to put a 4-speed into a car/pickup.
http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/aafourspeedachassis.htm.
NOPE! Just another farmer hack job. See attached pics. The standard 4-speed bearing retainer was used, being 3/8" longer, the rear axle just being pushed back to compensate. Instead of using the special u-joint, it appears they used the standard 4-speed transmission yoke and with the laborious use of a file made a standard driveshaft yoke fit the larger bearings of the 4-speed spider. Then tried to stake everything together.
Well, I guess it worked. I know the car/truck was used as a utility vehicle in the orange groves of SoCal for many years before we owned it plus the many miles I've put on it. It was just a matter of time before something broke or came apart.
As a side note, I won't be putting the 4-speed into the new Pickup. I'll be using the Tremec T170, with the Goldilocks ratio, I've built. At that time, I'll document how I achieved the Goldilocks ratio. One of the reasons I’ve waited to write this up is that I may be deviating from what is commonly done in this transmission adaptation, that is using the standard Model A u-joint. Since this adaptation requires shortening and re-splining the transmission output shaft, I may do so using a standard 1310 series yoke and sealed u-joint. I’ve already got the driveshaft part of this worked out but still need to work out the details on the transmission side.