Come on Tom, finish your story! If I was sitting across the table at the coffee shop I'd have a few questions for ya, like; Where did you get your parts from? Was it a kit or did you just order individual parts? How long did it take to get all the parts together? What kind of problems did you encounter during the rebuild? Did you need any special tools? Did you have, or use instructions, such as a book, a manual a single loose leaf sheet, an exploded view, a photo description, just info from threads here on the forum? Have you re-installed the transmission and how does it feel? Did you find any wear on the shifting forks, the gears? Does it feel any tighter or smoother when shifting with the new synchros and bearings? Does it run any quieter than before? Did you do it with the engine and cab all in tact or do you have the truck all tore down to a bare frame? Did you replace the clutch and TO brg while you were in there?
Did ya do that huh, Did ya????
Excellent film booklet ya linked us to at tocmp Jim, I’ve never seen that one before, but that's the one I'm gonna have next to the camera on the bench when I tear into mine. I spose I'm gonna have to spend the rest of the morning downloading and printing it out. My thanks also to Shawn McLain & George Phillips. Do any of the vendors sell that booklet; I haven't run across it before.
Looks like I'm gonna need to spend a little time in the machine shop making up some new "Special Tools". That's half the fun of these projects. The staking tool for the reverse idler bushings looks like it’s gonna be the toughest one to make. And it looks like one will need to buy a reamer or better yet, take the idler to a auto-machine shop to get it honed after staking the bushings in place. (Keep line boring in mind here). That’s probably the best choice; I learned that after spending a couple hundred bucks on reamers for the front spindles.
A couple of things I find interesting, are the needle brg retainer, never saw one of those on the three-speed trans, I always just loaded the brgs with heavy fiber grease. Also they call for staking the front brg retainer nut but with today’s thread locker chems that are available, I think I’d clean the threads real good and use a dab of Locktite.
Are shifting forks available from anyone, they always show wear on the side shifters and can account for that slop ya feel in the shift lever.
God, I hope the replacement transmission parts are better made than most of the other reproduction parts I’ve gotten. I have to rework at least 80% of the repro parts that I buy.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 12/22/2007 1:40 PM.
