Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

so the Saginaw 4 Speed Transmission rebuild kit showed up

[Gregski]

alright so the first thing I done did the night before was clean off an entire work bench, I don't know about you but I just function better in clean space, also I never rebuilt a transmission so I need all the help I can get and this ought to help me lay the parts out propper

[Gregski]

I was a hopin' the truck gods would smile upon me as I removed the side cover first with the gear box still attached to the engine, I figured what the hewk lets go for the easy win, maybe some spring or clamp or bracket fell off in there and is just bouncin' around

well no such luck, everything appeared in order, although at first I thought could that fork be broken like that, well no a quick stare and compare with the new one on All State Gear dot com revealed that's just how the 3-4 ? I think they mean 1-2 shift fork is

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Gregski

I was a hopin' the truck gods would smile upon me as I removed the side cover first with the gear box still attached to the engine, I figured what the hewk lets go for the easy win, maybe some spring or clamp or bracket fell off in there and is just bouncin' around

well no such luck, everything appeared in order, although at first I thought could that fork be broken like that, well no a quick stare and compare with the new one on All State Gear dot com revealed that's just how the 3-4 ? I think they mean 1-2 shift fork is

well dummy, where's the reverse shifter detent ball? I can see the spring poking out but where's the ball? This most likely is causing the idler gear to slide back and forth just enough to make the noise you describe, so maybe a 3 cent ball from Ace Hardware was all you needed instead of rebuilding the whole transmission, just saying ~ your Gemini alter ego evil twin

[Gregski]

even stuck my hand inside the belly of the beast and tried to wiggle things a bit but nothing out of the ordinary other than worn bearings and syncros I believe, I felt around in the puddle of left over gear oil for broken bits gear teeth etc, but nothin'

[Gregski]

so out she came, and I hoisted her up on the work bench for disassembly...

so happy I can yank the transmission out without disassembling my dual exhaust, saves so much time

[Gregski]

so took some pics of the guts, ie the orientation of the gears and syncros so I know how they all go back in

and after removing the input shaft housing, the speedo gear I just loosend the tail housing and call it a night on the account that I apparently do not own a set of snap ring pliers (shame on me)

[Gregski]

For The Record: this is the second GM aka Chevy transmission (the 833 overdrive one being the other) that aint all that popular, so finding info on how to rebuild a Saginaw 4 speed, or better yet how to take it apart took some doing, I saw a few nut job YouTube videos, most were for the 3 speed, and then this guy who calls himself Melrose RS saved the day on our sister Camaro forum How to disassemble a Saginaw transmission

[Gregski]

a quick stop at the local Napa and we were back in business

these babies were xpensive, $40 bucks, but sposely they are reversable, for in and out bound rings

[Gregski]

so equipped with my new tool, wrong tool mind you (it's not the type of snap ring pliers you need) I began to take this transmission apart

first I removed the four bolts that hold the input shaft housing to the front of the transmission (but we've been over this before when we swapped the smaller car style housing for the larger truck housing)

then I snapped out the ring that holds the input shaft bearing and that was a bear

for the record I was expecting / hoping for some slop in the front bearing but it felt nice and solid

[Gregski]

with the front bearing snap ring out, and the bearing off, I was able to separate the tail housing and pull the main shaft out of the back of the transmission case

[Gregski]

naturally the input shaft separated from the main shaft and half a dozen needle roller bearings were on the run, there are 14 total

Important Lesson Learned: I sorta knew this already but the eye opening experience is to discover that although the short input shaft is on the same plane as the main shaft ie they make one horizontal line, they are actually two separate spinning shafts independent of each other, don't laugh it's obvious to sum, but us idiot savants need time to digest, jk

I believe the 4th gear ie direct drive, so 1:1 ratio lives on the input shaft

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Gregski

naturally the input shaft separated from the main shaft and half a dozen needle roller bearings were on the run, there are 14 total

Important Lesson Learned: I sorta knew this already but the eye opening experience is to discover that although the short input shaft is on the same plane as the main shaft ie they make one horizontal line, they are actually two separate spinning shafts independent of each other, don't laugh it's obvious to sum, but us idiot savants need time to digest, jk

I believe the 4th gear ie direct drive, so 1:1 ratio lives on the input shaft

Kinda wakes you right up when those needles drop out of the gear end of the input shaft and roll through the cracks between the floor planks into the root cellar under the barn...
Ohhh Crap!!! What the heck was that?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Kinda wakes you right up when those needles drop out of the gear end of the input shaft and roll through the cracks between the floor planks into the root cellar under the barn...
Ohhh Crap!!! What the heck was that?

Please remove your webcam from my garage!

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Please remove your webcam from my garage!

An old fart I worked for when I was a youngster told me "You can't get a patent on it. Guaranteed someone else already screwed that up the same way you did."

Lucky that little ball bearing didn't get caught somewhere more important. What let it escape?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

An old fart I worked for when I was a youngster told me "You can't get a patent on it. Guaranteed someone else already screwed that up the same way you did."

Lucky that little ball bearing didn't get caught somewhere more important. What let it escape?

No idea maybe the previous rebuilder forgot to put it back in cause I did not find it on the inside anywhere, you would think it would be stuck to the magnet.

[Gregski]

started taking the parts off the main shaft, I think this is the 3-4 slider

[Gregski]

Saginaw 4 Speed Transmission schematic from DriveTrain.com, wish it had parts names to go with it

it's really hard to find anything on these four speed Saginaw's seems like every time you search they want to shove Muncie pics at your, ha ha

so I had the second pic from AutoZone but deleted it cause they say it's a Muncie, but clearly it's my four speed Saginaw

[Gregski]

I think here I am taking off the 3rd gear, sorry about the shifting my transmission on the bench left to right and front to back it may be difficult to make sense of any of this

[Gregski]

at this point I didn't quite know what was holding the main shaft in the tail housing still, so I decided to remove the rear oil seal to see if I can find a snap ring in there, but nope, turns out that's not what hold the shaft in there

though I had a proper seal puller this seal was in there for 40 years and was too stubborn to go quietly into the night, so I had to tickle it a little bit

[Gregski]

after a few head scratches and purging my mind of the 3 speed how to videos, I found the rather large clip that was holding the remainder of the gear assembly in the tail housing

... and she slid right out

in the last pic from left to right (or rear most to front most) we got 1st gear then the reverse slider and then the 2nd gear, my buddy Mopar Seth believes the noise problem lies in there, since it is quiet with 1st gear engaged, but as soon as we disengage it we get the rattle chatter

[Gregski]

nest to come off was the brownish orange plastic speedo gear, the metal clip holds it in place

[Gregski]

YALR - Yet Another Lock Ring and the rear main shaft bearing comes off, this one took a little flat screw driver (ok crow bar) gentle persuasion to slip off, this reveals the wavy washer which I was told was an afterthought repair/fix of one of the noises these transmissions like to make

[Gregski]

so then things will get loose and we will be able to slide off the rear bearing, the wavy washer, another washer, 1st gear, 1st-2nd + reverse slider, and one syncro

[Gregski]

hang in there, almost done, another snap ring, a clutch hub, the last synchro, and 2nd gear slide off