That's it !! and the race is in the housing

i think you are mistaking the seam in the cages as a crack. the seam can be seen just above and below only one of the needle bearings, and should not be able to be pulled apart.

Thanks, JW. I had one that was definitely pulling apart and one that was close, but I knew that all 10 between Marc and me could not be bad.

Olivier

What's the update Oliver? Got that beast back together yet?

I am getting my last (I think) batch of parts next week, and hopefully I will not spot anything else I am tempted to replace during that reassembly attempt.

What happened is, each of the two previous times I have started reassembly, I have found some slight wear, etc. on another part of the tranny. In the last case it was on the 3&4 syncros, which I had originally dismissed as fine since there were no symptoms driving.

After all the time invested, and seeing how expensive the parts can be that wear after the (1st gear) syncro got really bad, I just could not bring myself to put it back together with even the slightest defect I knew about.

After all this time, and now that the mainshaft is in pieces, I have to classify this as an almost total rebuild. I am worried about reassembly due to the fact that it has been so long, and the assemblies I originally planned to keep together have now been taken apart and reassembled a few times already.

We will see. What I do know is that, if it works, I will be amazed just driving down the road that the car even moves forward (hopefully it will move backwards occasionally, too) after all this. Forget performance and handling, I will feel lucky that it is not an immovable object!

Olivier

Testing it before reinstalling
 

Looking ahead a little, is there a way to definitively test that everything is working in the transmission before reinstalling it in the car?

I plan to add oil and shift into all the gears with the t-handle I have, but I wonder if there is a more challenging test I should do to make sure I can't get two gears at once, etc.

Olivier

I'm sure with JW's help and all, it will probabaly be perfect. I hate to ask, but for your full rebuild, how much are you into? I want to hear the worst-case scenario before I do ANYTHING :)

You should ask my wife, she is close to killing me over this:

4 syncros ~$200
3 bearings ~$270
brake bands, thrust blocks, brake blocks, etc. ~$150
1st gear dog teeth ~$150
1/2 sleeve ~ $150
1/2 shift hub ~$120
fluid ~$40
seal kit ~$40
tools (t-handle, fork alignment) ~$40

~$1260? Close to a rebuild, but I have to think most of those don't do bearings and a lot of the smaller pieces. You can see that replacing the syncros as soon as they are worn protects a lot of expensive but "wear" parts.

Nice breakdown O, it really helps to put things in perspective as far as a rebuild. I was hoping to get away at about $700 by doing the work myself, but it appears that may be a pipe dream.

I wouldn't say that, I replaced at least two bearings that I probably did not have to, and I was pretty picky at first concerning the 1/2 slider hub (I would probably put it back in now that I found other stuff to replace)

My only symptom was no syncro for first, so I could have gotten away with just the syncro band, brake bands, 1/2 sleeve, and dog teeth. Probably $500 for parts and tools.

It is the bearings, etc. that get expensive, so I can't believe they are included in the typical rebuilds.

Olivier

bearings in a 915 tend to survive pretty well. the 1st/2nd slider, even though it may look fine to the naked eye, can still be reamed out from rubbing on the syncro, and the leading tip of the teeth are certainly not as nice as they were when new, from gashing against the syncro teeth on the gearsets, so it's really not a good idea to try to reuse it, as well as the one for 3rd/4th. the 5th/rev slider is usually ok.

I got my last batch of parts and the mainshaft is back together. I still have to get the final torque on the shouldered nut.

I would like to replace the race in the housing, since I am using a new bearing at the flywheel end.

Are there any tips on how to get this out? I do not think I can heat the entire diff housing to 250, and there also seems to be a circlip of some kind behind the race. It seems that it needs to be pulled out, but I am not sure how to do that without damaging anything.

Thanks,

Olivier

the snapring is basically a stop. it can stay there. there is enough of the race showing beyond it to get a short punch in there and tap it out. shouldn't be too hard with the case cold, but they pretty much fall out when i take them out of the hot parts washer.

reassembly...issue
 

After JW told me which way to drive the race, it did come out very easily even with the housing cold.

Reassmbly went fine, and then I decided to "back up" and take the middle cover back off to take some pictures to post here. I had been mindful of JW's advice to watch the detents, and the cover went on smoothly.

The second time, however, I noticed that something was blocking one of the holes for the guide rods. You can see it in the picture below. It is the backing for the spring detent for the 5th/rev guide rod, and I think it is supposed to be retained by the small roll pin visible just to the right of the blocked passage.

I was able to get the roll pin out, get the spring compressed enough and lock it back with the roll pin, but it did come out again at least once. It seems to somehow squeeze by the roll pin. It is in there OK now, but I think it may get by the pin again. The other shift rod will prevent it from totally loosing tension on the 5th/rev rod, but it would have to be reduced significantly, I think.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1077082738.jpg

I am even more worried about the fact that the spring detent that should be in the blocked hole, (left side of the picture, it was sticking out the first time I installed the cover) now seems to be 'lost inside the hole. I cannot see it or get it back out, and I am worried about what could have happened. It may have fallen out, but I doubt it.

Does anyone have any tips? I have not tightened down any of the covers yet, because I want to make sure I get this part right.

Thanks,

Olivier

Reassmbly pics
 

Here are the shots I took. From my last post, you can see that going back to take some of these may have been a big mistake. The cover went on perfectly the first time, but now I have some detent issues.

Olivier

Input shaft in progress:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1077082934.jpg

Input and pinion shafts:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1077082960.jpg

Input and pinion shafts:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1077082980.jpg

With middle cover, 5th/rev in place:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1077082997.jpg

O:

I just pushed the pin down toward the bottom of the bore. If the small detent above the shift shaft hole fell out (which I don't think is possible) I'm in trouble as well.

Marc,

So, could you see a "pill" shaped detent sticking out from the left (in the picture) side of the hole in question? I could have sworn it was sticking out the first time I assembled it, but it is MIA (stuck in it's hole) now.

Olivier

looking at the above picture of the detent, it needs to be all the way to the right before installing the housing over the gears and shafts. there is a T shaped plug on the outside of the case, visible at the left, that can be removed to push the detent thru. it's common for the detent to slip over into the bore below the plug, and be forgotten when installing the case. then the trans will eventually get stuck in 2 gears at once.

I'm screwed . . . . time to revise the rebuild page and pull the engine again . . . . oh well I had nothing else to do this weekend :rolleyes:

Now I finally understand what John told me at least 5 times . . . .

Hey . . . . no one ever accused me of being smart.

pry off the plug and look in the hole. if you see the detent, you're screwed. you should only see the side of the shift shaft.