Ford Liquamatic auto trans in '41 Merc/Lincoln- has anyone seen one?

[mercman from oz]

Page on the Liquamatic Drive in the 1942 Lincoln Sales Brochure

Page on the Liquamatic Drive in the 1942 Lincoln Sales Brochure

[TomC750]

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

Those Chrysler/Dodge units had a torque converter in the mix. You could literally stop the vehicle in gear with your foot on the brake pedal while the engine continued to idle.

Coop


.

Not a torque converter, but a liquid coupling. Engine oil and coupling oil were a common sump.

TomC750

[signsup]

I read a little about the Hydromatic transmission and how it did not work out and am in the process of acquiring a 42 Mercury Town Sedan and feared it may have this transmission in it. The seller assured me it is a standard three on the three and I am relieved.
My 46 Packard Clipper has some sort of semi automatic transmission in it as well, but it is a project car and not here at the house for me to look. But some sort of similar set up where you could shift without clutching. But, of courrse, this is the same car that you start by pressing on the gas pedal.

[mfirth]

Packard had an electric clutch, my dad used it only once on his 48 Super Eight Victoria convertible because it was fatser to manually shift it by clutching it himself. He LOVED SPEED & Packards . Drove them till 1958 when he bought a Lincoln. Drove lincolns the rest of his life and was a died in the wool FORD Man.

[ford38v8]

Originally Posted by signsup

I read a little about the Hydromatic transmission and how it did not work out and am in the process of acquiring a 42 Mercury Town Sedan and feared it may have this transmission in it. The seller assured me it is a standard three on the three and I am relieved.
My 46 Packard Clipper has some sort of semi automatic transmission in it as well, but it is a project car and not here at the house for me to look. But some sort of similar set up where you could shift without clutching. But, of courrse, this is the same car that you start by pressing on the gas pedal.

If that Mercury has a Liquamatic transmission, you’ll have the only one in existence. The only Liquimatic transmission known to mankind is in the V8 Club Museum. Still, another may show up someday.

[signsup]

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Read about the semi auto trans on the 42 Mercury I am acquiring and was relieved to hear that the car is standard three on the tree. I guess it was an option on the 42 Town Sedan and glad it was either not installed or removed at some point in time.
I've got a 46 Packard Clipper awaiting it's turn in the shop that also has some sort of semi auto trans that I was told you could shift on the fly with no clutch, but still needed to shift. Don't know what the Packard trans system was called as the car is not here at the house. But, this is also the same Packard that starts by turning the key and then steppin on the gas pedal to energize the starter.

[ford38v8]

Originally Posted by ford38v8

If that Mercury has a Liquamatic transmission, you’ll have the only one in existence. The only Liquimatic transmission known to mankind is in the V8 Club Museum. Still, another may show up someday.

Well, I got slammed for saying V8 Club Museum. It's the Early Ford V8 Foundation, and although the V8 Club's own Jerry Windle advocated and nudged it along nicely, became it's hard working leader in it's infancy and for many years thereafter, the Foundation is most definitely a separate entity from the V8 Club, not connected in any way but the mutual admiration of Ford Motor Company Automobiles. There. I said it.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by mercman from oz

1942 Mercury V8 with Liquamatic Transmission attached.
On display at the Early Ford Foundation Museum - Auburn, Indiana

That Transmission used to be at the California Auto Museaum in Sacramento Ca

[ford38v8]

Brendan, it’s not just the transmission, it’s also the block which has a unique bell housing matching only the liquimatic.

[38 coupe]

Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked

Interesting! The unit doesn't match the drawing - at least the rear half. There is no OD on the example shown. Really weird that it had both a torque converter / liquid coupler AND a clutch? I kind of fail to see the point of it - other than I guess it automatically shifted???

The V8 Times articles are interesting and explain a lot about the Liquimatic. My memory is that all Lincoln Liquimatics had Borg-Warner Overdrive behind the transmission, thus the drawing with overdrive (same unit used that was an option in the normal three speed Lincolns at the same time). All Mercuries used a three speed only version of the Liquimatic, thus the unit on display at the V8 Foundation Museum.

The rest of the auto makers were desperate to develop some kind of automatic shifting transmission after GM brought out the Hydromatic. All sorts of weird setups based on self shifting three speed manual transmissions were offered by many makes (Mercury / Lincoln, Hudson, Packard, etc.). The Liquimatic was simply Ford's last minute half-baked attempt at offering something. The self shifting feature ended up with both second and third selected at the same time, with an over running clutch between the second gear and main shaft of the transmission. This over running clutch failed frequently and doomed the transmission design. A much better explanation can be found in Dave Cole's articles in the V8 Times, available as PDFs on USB from the V8 Club website store.