Were the 68 OW transmissions made in batches in reference to the unit numbers engraved on the trans plate? If so is there any documented range of numbers associated with the OW trans manufacturing? I found a car with a VIN 2125 cars apart from mine and the trans unit number was only 4 off each other so that just peaked my curiosity. Thanks

 

Could you post a photo of the tag?

 

Unit 1405 and 1409

 

Is this a Hurst/Olds or a W-30?

 

Both W30's

 

I'm going to speculate that all engines and transmissions were built on "mini assembly" lines ahead of a chassis going down the final assembly. "Scheduling" determined which orders were to be built and put into a slot in the production mechanism. Engines/transmissions sat it cradles til that particular combination was needed on the final assembly line. As the chassis moved down the final assembly line, the engine/trans unit was Q'd on a seperate conveyor line to meet the correct vehicle. This system also married the correct differential with gear ratio to the appropriate chassis.

I don't think you can draw any conclusions from VIN numbers and the Transmission tags or Fisher Body numbers and VIN numbers..

 

From what I understand, all V8s were made at Lansing in the engine plant, including those shipped to other plants, so any sort of correspondence of production sequence of engine to body or VIN is not significant.

I don't know where the TH400s were made, perhaps Willow Run. The issue is I don't know how GM loaded its transmission plants. Did they make all divisions' transmissions? That production number is probably off compared to body or VIN as well.

I have seen pictures of the Lansing "meat locker" where painted engines hung on hooks until needed.

Ralph is correct. In a final assembly shop, one typically picks an engine from a pallet, one of several pallets, based on manifest, and puts it on a pedestal on a conveyor belt. The transmission is flown in, hung, and then the drive plate connected (or a big heave and the thing tightened over the clutch.) It then goes down the rest of the engine dress line. Meanwhile, a frame is picked, and lines have built up the rear axle and front knuckles, and the frame is typically assembled upside down. It then gets flipped, and the powertrain is landed on the motor mounts, bolted down, and drive shaft connected. That is the chassis line. The body from Fisher would come in and land. Then the fenders and hood would be put on. At least, that's how my OEM does it.

If anyone cares about automotive plant data details, we run into a problem sometimes. Like Ralph said, the cars combine at marriage, so you count backwards from there. My plant sends the AVI (assembly vehicle information), once the painted body is "lifted" from paint and sent to the assembly shop. The difficulty is that the number of pitches (positions to build the car) may be greater from Engine Marriage back through the lifter buffer, chassis sub lines, engine line, and transmission build line, than it is from Engine Marriage back through the chassis and trim lines and paint lift buffer, especially if that buffer is low from paint. If that's the case I remember transmission pick being stopped because the car for that transmission had not yet been picked and "decided on" so the data was not there yet, and they had no idea what to pick next. Since then, we put in a new trim line with 20 more pitches, so it hasn't been a problem in years.