3 speed saginaw rebuilding

[66gmckid123]

I been looking through my spare transmission, and for the life of me I cannot figure how the needle bearings in imput shaft are supposed to go in. Because there are skinny and fatter ones. And is there a trick to getting them to sit on there? This is something that's giving me issues? Help would be appreciated.
Andrew

[murdoc]

is this a 4 bolt or a 7 bolt side cover? either way, I have had most success by coating the whole inside of the clutch gear (im guessing thats what you mean by bearing on input shaft) with a heavy grease and then pressing each individual set of needle bearing into place. the grease will hold them all in place. there are two sets in there. The larger needles (14 count ) go in first, then install the small I.D. spacer. After that, install the large I.D. spacer followed by the smaller needles (24 count).
Your brave, they can be a real pain.........

[kizer]

Yep everytime I've messed with needle bearings it was using some grease.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Vaseline holds them real well.

[aboz]

Boy, I learned that one the hard way. Thought I could slide the rear extension case out to get to the speedo drive gear. All the needle bearings fell out! I wanted to rebuild it anyway. Found a rebuild kit for the early Saginaws from Kajun Jon in Texas for $107 shipped!. It seems the rebuild kits for the early ('55-'65) Saginaws are hard to find. Go to KajunJon.com if you're looking for one. And yes, heavy grease will hold the needle bearings in place while you re-assemble.

[66gmckid123]

Murdoc, my 4 blot side cover, non-synchro transmission had only one spacer in between the big needle bearing and the small ones. Should there be two? In both of my two spare ones there is only one spacer on each.