Paragon Transmissions
We work on Paragon transmissions. On the channel you'll find the HJ7 (including a 2.5:1), the older HJ, and the P34 and PV water-cooled V-drives. Usable parts can be hard to come by. On one HJ7 job, Chris had taken three of them apart and was getting very little he could use from the transmission portion. On a P34 that had him stumped, he sent it to his cousin Barry, who worked on these from the 60s into the early 2000s.
Pump problems and rotation
On that same HJ7 job, both pumps had slime inside, the pump bodies were scored up and the gears were chewed up.
Changing rotation on a Paragon is a different job from the cast-iron Velvet Drives. You take off the plate held on by two recessed bolts, one on top and one on the bottom, and you don't touch the bolts that hold the pump on. Hold the input shaft down while you lift the plate, or it can pull the input shaft up and break the sealing rings. See changing pump rotation for the details.
Fluid
Use Dexron III in Paragons, the same as the old Velvet Drives. No synthetics, additives or stop-leak. They swell the O-rings until they break apart.
