Short Shaft Slip Yoke 727's in Old Airport Tugs?

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PROSTOCKTOM

PROSTOCKTOM

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I was talking with a friend tonight and he was telling me a story I wonder about. He claims that years ago he got some short 727's that had slip yokes, not bolt on yokes used in the tugs at airports that tow the planes around.

I've personally never heard or seen one. What say you all?

Tom
 
PROSTOCKTOM said:
I was talking with a friend tonight and he was telling me a story I wonder about. He claims that years ago he got some short 727's that had slip yokes, not bolt on yokes used in the tugs at airports that tow the planes around.

I've personally never heard or seen one. What say you all?

Tom
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Wouldn't surprise me at all.

After all, Chrysler did put a Hemi on an Air Raid siren


 
Our Ferry Corp bought about a dozen "retired" ones to move baggage carts back and forth from the ferry to the terminal.
I don't think any 2 were the same, "like a box of chocolates", everytime you lifted the hood, you never knew what power/trans/diff.
They were geared to "tug", - top speed, high gear maybe 10 mph, no suspension !
 
i've seen short tail 727's in four wheel drive applications that have divorce mounted transfer cases. also in some RV's

like SC said, anything is possible on them tugs!
 
I saw one come up on ebay several years ago. It has a Chrysler 331 Hemi in it, so they did have Chrysler power for sure. Seen them with slant sixes too. So the transmission story wouldn't surprise me one bit, especially since those things are short and stubby.
 
junkyardhero said:
i've seen short tail 727's in four wheel drive applications that have divorce mounted transfer cases. also in some RV's

like SC said, anything is possible on them tugs!
Click to expand...

Those always have a yoke that bolts on to the tailshaft with a bolt, not a slip yoke like a regular car transmission has.

I guess I can always buy an A&A kit if I really want a short transmission, but I think those delete the governor. Then you have to manually shift gears.

The tugs would have had a governor and would have auto shifted. Thus my desire to see if they actually made them with a slip yoke.

Tom
 
PROSTOCKTOM said:
Those always have a yoke that bolts on to the tailshaft with a bolt, not a slip yoke like a regular car transmission has.

I guess I can always buy an A&A kit if I really want a short transmission.

Tom
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yeah a lot of them are flange mounts. the slip yoke are out there, but seem to be quite a bit less common.

if you're in the market, there's one on offer up out here.
 
PROSTOCKTOM said:
I guess I can always buy an A&A kit if I really want a short transmission, but I think those delete the governor. Then you have to manually shift gears.
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It also deletes the parking gear, so you are then relying on a parking brake system to hold the car.
 
Years ago I bought 3 slant 6 727 transmissions at an auction. I was told that they came out of baggage tugs at the airport, they all 3 had short input yokes in them, and they use 1350 u joints. I still have at least one of them somewhere in my parts storage.
 
PROSTOCKTOM said:
Those always have a yoke that bolts on to the tailshaft with a bolt, not a slip yoke like a regular car transmission has.

I guess I can always buy an A&A kit if I really want a short transmission, but I think those delete the governor. Then you have to manually shift gears.

The tugs would have had a governor and would have auto shifted. Thus my desire to see if they actually made them with a slip yoke.

Tom
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Would these be the same transmissions used in The Little Red Wagon Wheel standers??

Mark Worman of Graveyard cars built one packing a bed mounted Hemi.
 
junkyardhero said:
yeah a lot of them are flange mounts. the slip yoke are out there, but seem to be quite a bit less common.

if you're in the market, there's one on offer up out here.
Click to expand...
I've never seen a short one with a slip yoke, but that means nothing, since I know I've seen a tiny fraction compared to some of these guys on here. Have you ever seen one? I've seen two styles of shorty 727s. One with the parking brake drum and the bolt on yoke and one without the parking brake drum and the bolt on yoke, but I've not seen a shorty with a slip yoke.
 
Tom, would something similar to this work if all you can find is the bolt on yoke?

www.forabodiesonly.com

Ball and trunnion to u-joint conversion?

Well, 4 years after having my ball and trunnion boot replaced, it let go in spectacular fashion on the freeway; it sounded like a blown tire was hitting the bottom of the car. So, I guess the reproduction boots aren't much good, so I'm probably going to convert to a u-joint. I think I've seen...
www.forabodiesonly.com www.forabodiesonly.com
 
There's one for sale right up the road

Screenshot_20240514_082622_Facebook.jpg
 
The trams at Worlds Of Fun in Kansas City had propane-fueled Slant 6's with short 727's. A buddy that knows what he's talking about (dart4door) has seen them. I don't know what kinds of yokes they used.

When I was at R&R Salvage right before they closed, they had a dumpster full of 8 3/4 housings with the ends cut off. All the ends and axles were still there, in the pile. I asked about it and he said that they pulled all the pumpkins and sold them to amusement parks, because the pumpkins were used to drive the roller coasters.

ETA a grainy-*** tiny picture
1715690535268.png
 
RustyRatRod said:
I've never seen a short one with a slip yoke, but that means nothing, since I know I've seen a tiny fraction compared to some of these guys on here. Have you ever seen one? I've seen two styles of shorty 727s. One with the parking brake drum and the bolt on yoke and one without the parking brake drum and the bolt on yoke, but I've not seen a shorty with a slip yoke.
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in my travels i've seen a handful out in the wild. eons ago i bought a 74 W200 with a 440 that had a shorty w/ a slip yoke and a divorced NP205. the 440 and NP205 were absolutely how it left the factory, but i can't say with 100% certainty that the shorty 727 was there from the start, although it looked to be unmolested to my eye.

besides that one the others i saw were a shorty box van/ice cream truck (P200?) and late 70's van chassis motorhomes with small blocks. any of the others were loosies in parts lots/swap meets, etc.

the flange mount style is the much, much more common variety-- both with and without the p brake. i know around here the 4wd guys covet those shorty slip units (along with 46/47RH) so they don't come up often.
 
Demonracer said:
Years ago I bought 3 slant 6 727 transmissions at an auction. I was told that they came out of baggage tugs at the airport, they all 3 had short input yokes in them, and they use 1350 u joints. I still have at least one of them somewhere in my parts storage.
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Do tell

I would be very interested in that if you still have it around.


RustyRatRod said:
Tom, would something similar to this work if all you can find is the bolt on yoke?

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No, and thanks, but that's not the type of setup I am after. It has to be a factory built short tail housing with a slip yoke.

That way I can still have a governor and a parking paw on the output shaft over using the A&A kit.

Tom
 
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PROSTOCKTOM, I'd have to do some serious digging to find them. I'm pretty sure I have them, but I don't remember where I saw them last.
 
I think that A100 vans and trucks also had short shaft transmissions in them. They had a lug on top of the tailshaft housing that the transmission mount bolted to.

Edit- I just went and looked thru @Jim Kueneman thread on his A100 truck, and the pic of his transmission shows it to be a ball & trunnion style. Not sure if the later ones would be a slip yoke, but I seem to remember my buddy having a V8 truck with a 727 and slip yoke shorty transmission.
 
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bdrut57 said:
SMR transmissions
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Thanks, but they don't have anything.


JDMopar said:
I think that A100 vans and trucks also had short shaft transmissions in them. They had a lug on top of the tailshaft housing that the transmission mount bolted to.

Edit- I just went and looked thru @Jim Kueneman thread on his A100 truck, and the pic of his transmission shows it to be a ball & trunnion style. Not sure if the later ones would be a slip yoke, but I seem to remember my buddy having a V8 truck with a 727 and slip yoke shorty transmission.
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As far as I know all of those A100's had a Ball & Trunnion style.



Thus the reason I started this thread. I don't think there were ever any short slip yoke transmissions used in highway application vehicles, but there might have been in vocational application like the airport tugs. @Demonracer might be the only hope in my quest to find out.

Tom
 
PROSTOCKTOM said:
I was talking with a friend tonight and he was telling me a story I wonder about. He claims that years ago he got some short 727's that had slip yokes, not bolt on yokes used in the tugs at airports that tow the planes around.

I've personally never heard or seen one. What say you all?

Tom
Click to expand...
These DeLorean (Yes, same DeLorean as the car) T40 tugs might have a slip yoke shorty 727. Our shop tug was one of these when I was in the Air Force. It had a /6, shorty 727, 7.17 Dana 60 and reduction gear box. It's been almost 30 years since I've seen one, but since the tug was pretty small, this might have been the perfect application for a slip yoke shorty since there was very little room to work with since the reduction gear box was pretty big.

Screenshot (227).png
 
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