Okay...bit the bullet and decided that, while I had my strong son home from college, I would just go ahead and pull the transmission out again and attend to both the clutch shaft 'fix' and the side cover.
I'm getting much better at dropping this transmission and disconnecting all the ancillaries along the way. I wasn't rushing things and, even given the amount of time I took to build a
small jig to more safely handle the transmission on my floor jack, I had it out in less than an hour.
Another shot of the two 2x4 jig I built (with an indexing hole for the drain plug; An idea I borrowed from COSMO).
Checking the
innards for any issues, I found that all was in great shape. The gear oil had air bubbles in it, which I hadn't expected, but I did drive the truck to warm up the oil in preparation for draining this time.
Tried to remove the clutch gear without disturbing the roller bearings.
No such luck. Spent the better part of 1.5 hours making DANG sure I lifted all of the roller bearings out with a magnet and praying they did not drop into the sump. If they had, I would have needed to completely disassemble the transmission. I counted the bearings at least twenty times to make sure I had the required 24 front, 14 rear. Left out the 14-stack thrust washer to make up for the planned reward relocation of the clutch shaft, then pressed off the bearing, added a 1.4" snap ring, pressed the bearing back on, reassembled and made new gaskets for the bearing retainer and side cover. On the side cover, I changed out the ball bearing spring and tightened up the detent system as much as it would allow.
Now assembled, I put the jig back onto the transmission and my son and I hefted it into place on the truck. Reattachment took some time, but no where near as long as putting more 90-weight oil back in at 38 degree ambient temperature. Literally slow as molasses. Remember that now as we take out first test drive...
The
first test drive we did, before the transmission was up to temperature, was disappointing. The transmission popped out of third under load around 64 mph. Not as noisy, but it still popped out. I say 'around 64' because I did not hold my mouth right when reinstalling the speedo cable and it did not work until I stopped at the gas station and reinstalled it.
The
second test drive however, was more encouraging. With the trans up to temp and shifting very well, I tried to get it to repeat the previous behavior. Went up hills and down, rocked the trans by varying the speed with the accelerator, and drove around 60-65 most of the way. It did not pop out of third. You can hear me say "Thank you Fred" at the end of the video (if you waited that long...sorry for the length of the video). And I meant it.
Thank you Fred. Incidentally, you can see the red shop rag I tied around the shaft of the OD lockout handle I installed. Another reminder to a feeble mind not to allow the OD to engage before it's time. Probably not an issue since the solenoid is not yet powered, but better safe than sorry...
So, right result. I will be test driving it more in the near future. I will also be adding the electronics next week and will report on both of those tests.
Jim
