Transmission / Overdrive: Help required - 1938 Commander -Vacuum assist gear change adjustment

[Primrose]

Hi All,
This is my first post, so thank you in advance for any information or feedback that may assist my gear shift problem. I have a 1938 Commander convertible that came out to Australia when new as a factory right hand drive - the war broke out and luckily she stayed here in Australia. Remarkably she still only has 90000 miles on the clock. I've had the car for about 25 years after the original owner a Miss Joe Anderson who was a dear family friend and neighbour. Anyway the car has just started to play up with the vacuum assist gear change. How surprising! (an Evans I think) When shifting she is trying to pick up reverse gear when moving from first to second gear or even from second to third. I hope this is as simple as the linkage shift adjustments and not the valve and pump side of things - as previously this was working very well. Does anyone have any information/personal experience on the Evans vacuum assist unit and it's linkage adjustments that may help my diagnosis.

Kind regards from down under.

Graham

[rkapteyn]

Do you have a 1938 Shop manual?
I have these for sale.
Check this out!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1937-AD-National-Cash-Register-Co-Evans-Vacuum-Gear-Shift-/150854847065

Robert Kapteyn

[jclary]

I knew my dad's '40 Chevy had vacuum assist shifting. However, I've been a Studebaker fan for over thirty-seven years and this is the first I knew of Studebaker having the feature. Were all the ones on Studebaker cars after market, or were they endorsed and supported by Studebaker?

[9echo]

My father took one of these 1938 Studebakers in on trade on a 1950 Ford. We ( my brother and I ) used as a date car for a while. We sold it to a gentleman in town and he seemed to like it except for one thing. He had the habit of shifting it into reverse before he shut the engine off, and then when he went to start it he would pull it in to neutral. The problem was that the transmission would stay in reverse and he could not figure how to get it to move.
Dad sent me up town many times to show him that he had to start the engine before he took it out of gear. He never got the drift of the thing and traded it some where else and told people about this dud car that we sold him.
This is the same car that had the hood pop up one night while I was on my way home from a date. I never drove it again.

[nvonada]

You might try cross-posting on the Antique Studebaker Forum. Most people there hang out here as well but you never know. Good luck!

http://forums.aaca.org/f126/

Nathan