The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop '50 3spd tranny rebuilding advice?

I have disassembled my tranny, and it will need some new parts. now my questions.
1. is it possible to rebuild it without putting in new needle bearings in the counter shaft, as the assembly looks okay, only one small chip on one gear is visible, and it appears to be tight, little play is detected.

thanks, Mike

I think all of the bearings and seals can be bought in a kit for about $80-90 total. I rebuilt the 3 speed in my 53 last year and she works great. My preference would be to lean toward replacing them. Youve got it apart and cleaned up, so why not?

I would guess the chip in the gear is on the first/reverse gear as that is the non-synchronized gear. When I tore into mine that gear was pretty beat up. It really didnt seem to effect it. I found another gear for cheap on ebay and replaced it.

Jeff

Yep, the first speed gear definately has alot of wear on it, as does the backside of the sync. gear. Not sure if the bearing surface area on the mainshaft is out of spec, I miked it and it is consistent in diameter, though the ball bearing is shot!

Will be checking ebay for some parts, if not I have a local source I found here on the website.

Geezer I thinks has a nice webshot page on his rebuilding the 3 speed!

Thanks, Mike

Funny, when I rebuilt my heavy duty 3 speed tranny, the countershaft gear had the needle bearings on it. But I purchased a NOS countergear off Ebay which had bushings in lieu of needle bearings. Since my truck will get very little mileage and will never pull a load, I used the shaft with the bushings. Sounds very quiet and shifts like a dream (of course after getting all the shift rods and steering column shift box crap right). Countershafts are easy to replace and are up for sale now and then on Ebay. If you need tranny parts, you can try WD Foster here on the Stovebolt page as he has a small supply of them.

Geezer, been to your webshots page, alot of help, may contact you later for some info. Have been in contact with WD Foster, great prices on NOS parts, and just lives a few short miles from here!

I guess my thinking of the countershaft was, that it appears to have less of a "load" on it, as opposed to the mainshaft. If I can find countershaft gear with bushing, all the better!

I can see I need new ball bearings, maybe a main output shaft, 1st gear, and the sync gear is chewed up on the end(near the mainshaft bearing)

What kind of puller is that you used to pull the mainshaft in/out of the bearing?

Many thanks, Mike

My neighbor's let me borrow his standard gear puller but it looks like I used some of the parts that came with my slide hammer kit along with a socket that fit over the end of the mainshaft. Guess I just got inventive??

Mike, if you like I can shoot you a copy of the 3 speed overhaul manual. Shouldnt take more then a few minutes to copy it.

Heres the kit I bought.

And heres the synchros.

You can replace the bushings in the countershaft, although the manual says not to. I took a dremel tool and honed them to size within tolerance to fit on the shaft. Then I cut two oil lines spiraling around the shaft and polished the heck out of it. Its very time consuming but I saw no reason to replace the whole assembly since it wasnt broken.

My first/reverse gear was extremely chewed up and still had no problems with shifting. One thing you can do is to flip the gear around and the chewed side will be used only in reverse giving you a better tooth for shifting into first. I replaced mine since it was chewed all to hell.

Jeff

I have the copy of the 3spd overhaul manual, thanks for the offer Rusted!! much appreciated!

Not sure whether to replace the whole syncro gear, it looks okay, or just the end pieces. the front part, which looks like a smooth tapered bearing(fits on the end of the clutch shaft), is loose in the end of the syncro gear.( it's not the brass insert piece, is it supposed to be loose?)

Just bought a new mainshaft,the output, and will keep an eye out for the clutch shaft. Trying to keep my costs to a minimum, and sometimes it's the thrill of the chase, looking for parts!

My 1st speed gear is for sure to be replaced, musta been alotta gear grinding in it's day

Geezer, thanks for the reply, you need to do a tech tip on the 3speed rebuild, great pics!

Mike

Jeff
If you are offering a copy of the 3 speed overhaul manual let me know. Hope I'm not starting a tidal wave here!
Bill

Bill, you have mail!

Actually, I have two more trannies in my garage with a few NOS parts and I'm thinking of doing just that! The manuals I had (two of them) were good but still left a bit to the imagination for shadetree mechanics. I might just do a total teardown this winter and a rebuild with lots of pics and how-to's. Believe me, this was the first tranny I ever did and it was more intuitive than difficult.

Looking at my truck manual, the part that I refer to in the previous post is the syncronizer ring, not suppose to be loose! Noticed it when I first took off the shifter cover.

Put it all back together last nite, seems to go together smooth, so I dont see a big problem in rebuilding it in the future.

Mike