Tranny Rebuild - More Serious Questions

Wrecked944 · 06-30-2002, 08:18 AM

Sorry about all of this seriousness...I promise to post more of our stupid mistakes shortly (we are committing so many mechanical faux pas that it is getting hard to keep up - good thing we have a video recorder)...anyway, we have the two shafts removed from the differential casing and they are sitting on the workbench like shish-ka-bobs at a Borg cook-out...we haven't removed any nuts or gears since we spent about an hour just MARVELLING at the beauty of the engineering. No kidding, this stuff is just amazing to behold...and to think they designed this stuff with slide rules !!

Anyway, here is the question: Before we remove any gears, nuts, bearings, etc, what should we be measuring and recording and why? I see posts by people who have rebuilt trannies making all sorts of measurements and keeping lots of records...but why? I'm not being facetious...we really don't grasp why this stuff won't just slide off the shish-ka-bob and then slide back on...also, if I need to make precision measurements, what tool should I use? I have a cheap caliper from Sears...not even Craftsman (I think it is "General")...do I need to get some sort of high quality measuring tools from Snap On or SK (hmmm...Pelican doesn't seem to sell calipers...)?

Thanks,

Wrecked944 · 07-01-2002, 07:54 AM

Bump

john walker's workshop · 07-01-2002, 08:21 AM

no special measuring required at this time. you actually didn't need to remove the forks from the shafts to remove the gear cluster, but no harm done. next move is to pop the shift sleeve on the mainshaft into 3rd, leaving the pinion shaft in neutral. the two 17mm wrench sized bolts, with the springs and detents under them need to come out too. then lift both shafts out together. (i believe you've already taken off the nuts on the bearing retainer plates). there's a detent bean in the diff housing between the two shift rod bores. it needs to be in that position on reassembly of the shift shafts. there's another one in the end of the center housing that needs to be in the right place too. if they're not in the right place, you can engage two gears at once. a simple jig, available from various suppliers, is needed to hold the shafts so the shift forks can be centered, after you get the gears back on the diff housing.

Wrecked944 · 07-01-2002, 09:37 AM

John Walker: You've answered so many of my (sometimes inane) questions with so much patience and generosity that you're making me wear out the "T H A N K Y O U" keys on my computer !!

Thanks again,

john_colasante · 07-01-2002, 10:02 AM

Janus,

I'd love to see photos of your progress. Any plans to get that website going soon?