Chrysler Kokomo Transmission Plant During World War Two
Kokomo, IN
1937- Current

This page updated 4-5-2023.

With the 1925 demise of the Haynes Automobile Company in Kokomo, IN, its former plant on Home Avenue lay dormant.  In 1937, Chrysler purchased the plant and began manufacturing transmissions for its vehicles.  Chrysler occupied the former Haynes factory until it built a new transmission plant in 1955, on a 154 acre site a mile southeast of the Haynes facility.  Chrysler then utilized the former Haynes factory as an aluminum die casting plant.  Chrysler is still a major employer within the Kokomo area. 

This view of the Chrysler manual transmission plant on Home Avenue is looking northwest.  Home Avenue is in the foreground.

As of March 2023, the plant which housed the former Haynes Automobile Company and later Chrysler transmission operation stands empty.  The last known occupant was an automotive recycling company.  While looking a little ragged due to lack of attention, this 100 year old plant still stands proud.  This is one of several plants in Kokomo, IN that helped win World War Two.  Author's photo. 

Between 1937 and 1955, the Chrysler Home Avenue plant produced 5,124,211 manual transmissions, just like this one on display at the Elwood Haynes Museum in Kokomo, IN.  Author's photo.

The display is set up so visitors can turn the crank and watch the gears as they mesh inside the transmission.  Author's photo.

This image shows the Kokomo plant had the capability to make and cut gears.  This capability was put to use during World War Two.  Author's photo.

Chrysler Kokomo Plant World War Two Products:  Information is limited on how the Chrysler Kokomo plant helped win World War Two.  An informational placard at the Elwood Haynes Museum notes that the plant made "parts for tanks and Bofors guns."  The "War Industrial Facilities:  Authorized July 1940 - August 1945" published by the Civilian Production Administration on July 30, 1946, shows that the plant made "Gear Boxes."  Gear box is another term for transmission.  Therefore, the tank parts the Kokomo plant made were, most likely, gears and transmissions for the M3 Grant/Lee and M4 Sherman series medium tanks that Chrysler built in Warren, MI.  Army Ordnance provided $247,000 in capital funding for the Kokomo plant for tooling to make the gear boxes. 

This is a transmission from an M4A2 Sherman tank display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.   This is very similar in construction to the civilian manual transmissions made by the Kokomo plant.  Conversion of the plant to make and assemble the gears into a tank transmission would have been rather straight forward.  The driver's seat can be seen in the background.  Author's photo. 

This and the next four images provide detailed information on a typical Sherman tank transmission.  There were a lot of parts that went into the construction of this transmission for the Chrysler Kokomo plant to have made for the war effort.  Image added 4-5-2023.

Image added 4-5-2023.

This and the next image show two of the several different subassemblies in the transmission. Image added 4-5-2023.

Image added 4-5-2023.

The transmission shown above is in this cut-away of a Fisher Body-built M4A2 Sherman tank.  Several different companies built Sherman tanks powered by different engines, but items like the transmission were standardized for ease of production.  Author's photo. 

This is the differential on the Sherman tank.  The transmission mounted inside the tank connects directly to the differential on the front of the tank.  The Kokomo plant could also have been making many of the gears for this assembly.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

The M4 Sherman tank was not the first tanks built by Chrysler in Warren, MI.  The M3 Grant/Lee tank began production in July 1941.  Table 1 shows the monthly production of the M3 series tanks and how many transmissions per month Kokomo provided.  The M3 and M4 tanks used the same transmissions.

This M3 tank was built in July 1942.  Author's photo.

Different versions of Sherman tanks not only had different engines, but the main gun armament was also different on them.  Main gun armament included 75mm and 76mm guns and 105mm howitzers. 

This 4A3E8 is armed with a 75mm cannon.  Author's photo.

This 4A4E8 is armed with a 75mm cannon.  Author's photo.

This 4A3E8 is armed with a 76mm cannon.  Author's photo.

 This 4A3E8 is armed with a 105mm howitzer.  Author's photo.

40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft Gun Parts:  It is unknown which 40mm Bofors gun components were produced at the Kokomo plant for the.  Kokomo was one of twelve Chrysler plants that made parts for final assembly at the Plymouth plant in Detroit, MI.  The Plymouth plant produced 14,442 pairs of Bofors guns for the U.S. Navy and 30,095 single Bofors guns for the U.S. Army.

Chrysler built 14,442 Dual 40mm water cooled Bofors Guns for the US Navy under license from the Bofors Company of Sweden during World War Two.  After Chrysler engineers set up the manufacturing and assembly based on mass production techniques, the weapon could be assembled in ten hours.  Bofors in Sweden was taking 450 hours to assemble a weapon. 

Chrysler only produced the barrels and the breech section of the weapon.  The gun mounts were provided by other companies.

Chrysler also built 30,095 Single 40mm air cooled Bofors Guns for the U.S. Army.  This was 86% of all of the Bofors built for the U.S. Army.  As with the Bofors for the U.S. Navy, Chrysler only manufactured and assembled the firing portion of the weapon.  The carriages were built by other companies.  For the weapon shown here, Chrysler shipped the finished barrel and breech assemblies to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, OH.  Firestone then mounted the gun assembly on its carriages. 

Post World War Two Era:  The Home Avenue plant returned to making civilian vehicle transmissions after World War Two and continued to do so until 1955 when a new plant was built a mile southeast of the Home Avenue plant for the production of the new three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission.  Home Avenue became a die casting plant and operated until 1969 when a new casting plant was built in Kokomo. 

This chrome plated TorqueFlite transmission is on display at the Elwood Haynes Museum in Kokomo, IN.  Author's photo.

This image shows the new TorqueFlite transmission plant under construction in 1945.  Even before it was completed, production of the transmission began.  In the background is the original U.S. 31 Kokomo by-pass.  However, there were no restrictions on access to the highway.  Kokomo became known as the "stop light city" for any travelers attempting to go north or south through the city.  The state highway department learned its lesson, so when it put in a new U.S. 31 by-pass east of Kokomo, it came with limited access.  The field to the east of U.S. 31 in the photo later became the main production area for Delco Electronics.  Unlike the transmission plant, the Delco Electronic facility is mostly vacant.  Author's photo from the Elwood Haynes Museum.

This image is looking southwest with the original U.S. 31 by-pass in the foreground.  The new casting plant that was built in 1969 is in the upper right.