There is no documentary evidence yet that this was the case (pun unintended) whereas McKinnon's own papers do reveal that they were asked by "the Government" in 1940 to produce 4-wheel drive arrangements.
However there is ample evidence [see below] that Ford's men in the DND and in Windsor in the Department tasked were calling for Marmon-Herrington drive, by say November 1939. Fords therefore either envisaged using M-H compinentry, which they did of course to a certain extent, or as with using McKinnon/Chevrolet axles in some multi-drive chassis, anticipated using McKinnon multi-drive components. This clearly was not sufficient in wartime. It was only in a discussion with Sandra Notarianni, Ford of Canada's historian, that I established that Ford had the facilities to manufacture transfer case components in Windsor. I have yet to see any DND papers relating to this although Clive or others may have seen them! However I have quoted some extracts below of DND papers which might answer some points.
Quote:
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On 30 September 1939, Stan Ellis cabled in code from the High Commission in London to W.R. Campbell who was by then the Chairman of the War Supply Board, referring to Carr’s enquiry to Canada House regarding the Guy Quad Ant. This vehicle had been designed throughout as a 4-wheel drive [4 x 4] 25-Pounder gun tractor and was also equipped with a Winch. Could Campbell explore the possibility of using the Marmon-Herrington front end drive on the Ford of Canada 101 [-inch] chassis with an off-centre to the left rear axle differential and a rear drive shaft from the rear side Marmon-Herrington front drive shaft takeoff position on the transfer case? It would be necessary to have an offset drive shaft to provide clearance for the Guy Winch which apparently could be mounted in the [Ford chassis] frame with offset Hotchkiss drive shaft as close as practicable to the left side spring. The Guy Winch was from a conventional drive shaft universal joint position: this was desirable unless a transmission power takeoff of 20 h.p. capacity was available to use with an Air Compressor [to use for tyre inflation]. The Guy Winch was the best type for their [Ford] design providing an off-centre drive shaft feasible. Ellis was mailing Blueprints of the Guy chassis and Winch and anticipated body details later. A photograph of the body had been mailed to Carr, as well as the drawings of the Dunlop wheel on the 22nd
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In a letter of 26th October Stan Ellis wrote to Sid Swallow and referred to:
Quote:
The “Lorries 30-cwt.” was clarified by stating that the chassis supplied for this classification should be equipped with heavy-duty springs front and rear, and it would not be necessary to reinforce the frame. As a considerable number of these would be required for cross-country purposes, it would be desirable to equip up to 1/3rd with Marmon-Herrington four-wheel drive, with the balance to be equipped with Eaton two-speed axles. In all cases the lowest gear ratio available was to be used.
...The “Lorries 3-ton” in Column (t) page 1 were all load carriers and should be four-wheel drive. Reference was made in the schedules to the use of the Eaton single reduction rear axle. It was Ellis’s understanding that the Eaton 1940 design was considerably stronger than Ford Standard and if this was the case it was advisable to use the Eaton type. In this connection it would be necessary for Eaton to provide a suitable gear ratio to coincide with the Ford Standard used in the front axle
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I suppose on reading this again this does hold out the suggestion of indigenous 4x4 componentry, though I think Ellis was talking about M-H components.
It would be useful to review past thread[s] on this subject in due course, as we did thrash this interchangeability issue before. This one is interesting:
TRANSFER CASE/AXLE THREAD