Well,
Still have parts on order. One for the OD end and another for the front end. At the front, I decided to replace my synchro rings because I think the two lugs that engage with the main shaft helical gear are worn out. You can see that they are worn to the point that they have developed a 'step' in them in this
photo. This may be part of why my trans popped out of third a few times.
I was waiting to start reassembly for everything to come in, but changed my mind. I am finding that, as I start to tinker with the parts in prep for reassembly, I am finding their flaws. So, I installed the
idler gear and
countershaft gear today. The idler has one set of teeth that is chamfered at the forward edge (which must go to the rear of the case), so I had to watch that as I installed it.
The idler went in without a hitch. SWEET measured the wear on the idler shaft bushings with my feeler gauge set and found them within the .002" tolerance, so we're good to go there. I installed the thrust washers and honestly expected more trouble from it than I got. New idler
shaft pin, and we were good. Managed to get everything in with the help of
this stuff. It holds things really well and adds some wear resistance until the oil gets in and around things. Installed a new front idler hole
plug. Even though the new one and the old one were marked with the same size, the new one was sloppy in the hole. I squished it a bit in my vise and it tightened up enough to install with confidence.
The countershaft was installed with the 25 new roller
bearings fore and aft. I had some initial confusion because the shop manual said to put in the countershaft with the "flat" installed horizontal, and at the bottom of the case. This was apparently critical, because it was in bold. Now, being new to mechanical stuff, my first thought was 'I wonder which 'flat' part they mean? The flat raised area, or the flat depressed area.' Fortunately, I had taken good pictures as I disassembled this thing with SWEET, and could tell that I had installed it wrong way up AND backwards. No picture of this in the manual. Reading farther in the manual, I found out that if you have an OD unit, you need to install the 'flat' the opposite way up. Here's how it looks when
assembled (looking from the rear). I think I have the 'flat' thing figured out, because the adapter plate for the OD traps the countershaft so it won't spin in the case. You can see an impression of the end of the shaft in the
adapter plate.
So, onto pressing on the new bearing onto the
main shaft and installing the thrust washer onto the shaft, sandwiched between the bearing and the second gear cluster. In my trans parts kit, the new thrust washer (with its oil slots) was about half the
thickness of my original (
here too). Fortunately, I picked up a NOS small parts kit from a local guy and got the right thickness thrust washer. I am not sure if this was on purpose, because it's better for the trans, or if it's just cheap engineering. But I preferred the feel of the NOS washer, so I went with that. Had more confusion deciding whether the dang thing faced fore or aft since it only has slots on one side, but again, had a picture of my disassembly to guide me. Fore it is. Plus, that lined up nicely with a channel in the main shaft that I think feeds the oil to the slots. Would have been nice if the manual explained this though. One thing I did notice was that my original bearing came off the shaft with hand pressure, but I had to press on the new one (as the manual says). Guess my old one was slipping a bit. And after I assembled the shaft, it was clear that if I had used the new skinnier thrust washer, I would have had about 1/16th of an inch of slop in the assembly.
Installed the main shaft onto the adapter plate with the new snap ring. No problems there.
Here's the assembly.
When I get my new synchro drum rings, I'll do a side-by-side picture of the old and new and put it up here.
Even though I had not intended putting this thing together this weekend, I really enjoyed the process. The more I tinker with the parts, move them around to fit them up and see how they mesh, the more confident I feel about working on it.
More to follow...
Jim
