The GMC CCKW

Hello Everyone,

I sold my Tipper and bought a 1941 SWB. This new old truck may have been abused a little by the previous owner, or by the Norwegians, whatever. The problem is this: the transfer case is stuck in High Gear, it won't go into Neutral or Low Gear. It's not the lingage, I disconnected it and tried to move the shaft that goes into the case by hand, but there's very little life in it, maybe a couple of millimetres.

Am I facing major tranny surgery? It's a Split Axle Truck.

Arthur

I have had this happen and what I did was to jack up the rear end of the truck and allow the rear wheels to get the stress off of them . Then I would do the same with the front . Most of the time this would work. I have also had it stuck in low gear when in a parade, and while driving I would push in the clutch and pull both leves into neutral, let the clutch out, then depress it again and pull the levers into high gear. None of this might help you, but it may be worth a try instead of tearing the transfer case apart.

Jack up one front wheel, that will relieve any misallignment of shifting gears, or allow to relieve windup if stuck in FWD. Driving on loose gravel makes shifting Front Wheel Drive easier, as well as engageing while in motion.
Joel

Thank You for Your advice, I will jack up probably all the axles, as I have to change some wheels anyway. I hope it's nothing serious. I hope to be able to post some pictures of the Truck in near future, as it's quite an old one, May 1941, but has some newer parts, like a Cargo Bed made in 1952 by Herman Body of St. Louis. My intention is to have the Truck inspected and registred before the of the year.

Arthur, Finland

I hope you get your transfer case problem figured out.Is the bed on your truck an M series bed? I was wondering how coupling came about? Was your truck used my your military,did they mount the bed? I'd like to see how it works,I have a 40 CCKWXGoo that I might put a later bed on,but I'd like to see it. Good luck,Bob.

Bob, I will try to post a picture of the Cargo Bed. I really can't tell if it's a CCKW Bed or not, it looks right and good, but the date 1952 really is a bit strange. It's a Norwegian truck, all the good ones up here seem to be, but I don't know if the Bed was fitted by Vikings or US Army. Our own Finnish Army never had GMCs, they mostly relied on horses and bicycles during the war and after the war they had British, Swedish and Russian vehicles. Oh yeah, and bicycles.

Right now it's snowing, and the tranny has to wait a couple of more days!

Arthur

I imagine that this time of the year it gets very difficult to work outside much in Finland. Good luck on your transmission and thanks for the historical information.