Trans repair

[Jordan]

In the process of swapping out the chain drive transfer case.

The reason:

Engine out

Something else interesting happening. The clutch spring were rubbing on the flywheel bolts

I have to pull the diff to lock the gears in place for disassembly so I figured I'd swap out that belleville washer as well as either change the reverse gear or the engagement arm as it is pretty chewed up.

[Mezzanine]

Jordan, how did your pristine engine bay get so dirty?

Interesting wear on the flywheel bolts- I've never seen that before! I presume you are using the stock master?

[SwedeSport]

That happened to me once. I had the disc in backwards.

[99Super]

I've noticed that depending on the clutch disc, the flywheel bolts may have a thinner head.
I've ground them down in a pinch...

john

[Jordan]

Jordan, how did your pristine engine bay get so dirty?

Interesting wear on the flywheel bolts- I've never seen that before! I presume you are using the stock master?

Mostly from the belts.. I had the alternator mount bolt loosen up and it got cockeyed and the belts threw off a lot of dust. Also, you make quite a mess actually disconnecting the engine!

Yeah the flywheel bolts are weird. I think its a combination of a milled flywheel and maybe too tall of a flywheel bolt. Someone told me they used different ones. The clutch disc was just a good one I had lying around, not sure what it was from exactly. Definitely not in backwards.

No, I'm using a wilwood master, but I don't see how that would change the clearance from clutch disc to the flywheel. They should be able to be sandwiched together tight.

I'll investigate more later. Maybe document the disassembly. John Groo came by with a 5-speed manual and showed me how to take the "parts" trans apart to get the front off. But I'll see if I can remember!

[Mezzanine]

The only reason I ask about the master is because I was curious if it could somehow allow the slave to have a longer throw, but that doesn't make much sense... If the flywheel was ground, that certainly sounds more logical.

[Jordan]

Ok a little more progress.

The diff gets pulled out to gain access to the countershaft. Because its a Gripper it has to be split inside the case.

With it opened up, both belleville washers were still intact, but I have very few hard miles on it.

Popping the side cover off I see the reason for my crappy reverse. It looks as though the reverse gear mod has already been done...I guess I need some new gears.

The reverse selector is removed, the reverse gear is slid forward to engage and the transmission is put into gear to lock it.

The input shaft nut is loosened and the whole bearing assembly is removed.

The snap ring on the idler coupler is unlocked and the coupler slides forward. The countershaft is then pulled out the back. The idler gear is removed.

The primary housing bolts are taken off and guide pins are knocked into the housing. The housing gets pulled straight out.

On a side note, I had some funny wearing inside the diff. it looked like something (the washer?) was wearing against the splines and was flattening them making it difficult to remove the clutch pack. I had to hand file the edges down in order to get the stuff out. Whats up with that?

Clutch pack. drivers side at the top.

[Geoff]

It looks like the Bellville washer was contacting the splines inside the diff. There isn't anything in the diff to locate it and prevent it from moving out there. The only thing I can say is to try to line it up dead center when you put the side cover back on upon reassembly. If it is off center and contacting the splines it will spin and contact all the splines. There's a chance that if it's assembled dead center it might not drift out to the edge and contact splines.

The new Bellville washers have a slightly larger OD....

[airsweden]

I was able to get the gripper in and out of the meatball (claude's old iceracer, now kip's) in one piece.

Who was it that had cracked splines there where the driver slides in.... Chris or Luke, I can't remenber?

[Jordan]

I was able to get the gripper in and out of the meatball (claude's old iceracer, now kip's) in one piece.

I actually forgot whether you could or not, at least you have to take the ring gear off. Knowing that will make it easy to center everything on the bench, since I can't exactly rotate the whole trans now.

Who was it that had cracked splines there where the driver slides in.... Chris or Luke, I can't remenber?

I was pretty sure that was Luke, but maybe both. I know everybody else broke the washers. Mine were looking sort of heat cycled, but I forgot what they looked like before.

[Jordan]

So apparently you cannot put use the primary case for a 91+ transmission on 90- transmission. Well not without some modification to follow...

[nutcase]

What's the differences? I know ~1986-1988 there was the extra bearing, but was there anything else?

[Jordan]

I thought the extra bearing was only on '85s (at least in this country), but the difference is in the 3/4 (I think) selector shaft. The 90- transmissions have a turned-down end to locate it in the primary case, where the later ones have a larger hole , drilled through and bushed with a steel sleeve.

I think I should be able to drill out the smaller hole to make it work, its just a question of whether I can achieve tight enough tolerances with the tools I have. I have two covers so I'll try one and it that doesn't work I'll have someone machine it out.

edit: oh and on the flywheel bolt issue. The bolts I have may be from a b-engine and it seems as though the h-motor bolts are shorter heads.. 4.5mm vs. 7mm or at least its some variant of the h-motor the bolt is shorter.

[nutcase]

Ah ok :) The extra bearing infor I have is second hand. Been trying to find out why they deleted it for someone, and if there is any info on replacing it on a rebuild or just ignoring it.

[Jordan]

So I was able to drill out the case properly to match the later housing. Luke told me there were some differences in the transfer gears throughout the years (not sure if that is the correct word), but its the one that gets the input from the bottom chain gear and transfers it to the countershaft/cluster gear.

Anyway, I took some measurements for the record. It looks like you can mix and match them (in sets) and have another variable in gears 1 -4 without affecting 5th.

'87 Turbo box 34/15 big/small gears and a 16.75mm thick big gear
'90 Turbo box 34/14 big/small gears and a 18.75 thick big gear
'91 S box had 39/16 big/small gears and 18.75mm thick big gear


So. I haven't decided which one I want to use yet as I wanted to figure out how that would affect the end ratios.