3 speed manual transmission

New to the forum????

I have a 1955 Buick Special 4 door (not hard top) with the original 264 nailhead engine. My transmission shaft is broke and it looks like its not the original transmission. Will a automatic transmission of the same year and model work? Are they the same bell housing etc. How much converting will i have to do, or would someone out their have the right 3 speed manual transmission out their i could purchase. ItÂ’s a colum shift and I really would like to keep it original. Every car i looked at for parts has been an automatic. I would really like to find a complete set up from the differential forward and put it back original.

1955 was the last year Buick used the lighter-duty select-shift manual transmission (has a 5-bolt top cover). The general design goes back to the '30s, and some parts interchange even with other GM transmissions of the era. There are still parts floating around out there on the net if we can identify the broken items.

With the unusual shift mechanism and torque ball output this one would not have been that easy to replace with a different transmission type. Have there been major modifications on the car to make some substitute transmission work?

What it looks like they did was use a Saginaw transmission. It’s a 7 bolt cover and 2 selector rods come out of cover. Used an adapter and bolted the original tail housing so they were able to put the torque tube back on. I will get some pics and post them tonight.

Here are some pics of the transmission i pulled out.