Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

my first attempt was to install the input shaft and the main shaft without the tail housing, that failed cause I could not get the tail housing back on after that, needed a third arm for that large snap ring to expand it over the rear bearing, oh well

[MikeB]

I like the natural light available behind your workbench! If that was my garage, those blinds would have a trendy mottled look from chemical and petrochemical splatters.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

I like the natural light available behind your workbench! If that was my garage, those blinds would have a trendy mottled look from chemical and petrochemical splatters.

Ha ha, that natural light sucks, I have to close those blinds any time I have to take a pic or I get the shot totally back lit and you can't see the subject, and so the white handle to close the blinds has "a trendy mottled look from chemical and petrochemical" fingerprints, also having those silly windows there prevents me from putting up shelves, yes we can file this under First World Problems

[Gregski]

so got the new rear seal installed in the tail housing by "gently" tapping the tail housing on the garage floor - shhhh don't tell

[Gregski]

so test fitted the new tail housing gasket, as it appears to only go on one way, and then I gooped it with that red devil's snot so it would stay in place

Note: the bottom tail housing bolt is not in a blind hole, so goop it with red snot and also you can use this to drain the transmission fully, you probably all knew that but I didn't ha

[Gregski]

was looking forward to swapping the rubber O-ring on the speedo bullet but the one provided was a bit too loose and way too skinny, Mini Epic Fail

[Gregski]

as a self proclaimed master transmission rebuilder now, I like to keep myself humble by cleaning my own bolts

[Gregski]

Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it

yeah, I liked the input bearing so I decided to put a ring on it, ha ha

found that putting the bearing loosely on the input shaft helped me align the main shaft easier since it now had the tail housing attached to it and was way heavier

[Gregski]

then it was time for wax on wax off with the old crusty side cover gasket

[Gregski]

anatomy of the Saginaw 4 Speed side cover, and the smoking gun, or the missing smoking gun

I mentioned this in a post a ways above, I think the reason my transmission is making noise is because I am missing a tinie winnie metal ball the size of a little bearing or bee bee, it is called the detent ball and it lives between a spring that sticks out of a hole in the side cover and the reverse shifter, when you shift into reverse you should feel it snap into place, that should lock the idler gear in place and prevent it from sliding back and forth on its shaft freely, I believe it is currently sliding and hitting the teeth of the neighbooring gears ever so slightly giving off that loose bolt bouncing around the case sound

does that second divet / hole for the detent ball in the reverse shifter seem defective, appears like that's how the ball slipped out possibly

[Gregski]

and here is a dude on eBay selling just what I need a Saginaw spring and a detent ball

[Gregski]

hre is another dude on eBay selling all three shifters, as we can see that reverse shifter also has an underdefined detent ball hole, though not as bad as mine

[Gregski]

got the new rubber O-rings on the 1-2 and the 3-4 shifter levers

[Gregski]

Found this Saginaw 4 Speed parts diagram with a legend, yay, on AutoZone's website although they have it listed under a Muncie but clearly it is my Saginaw 4 speed transmission.

[Gregski]

are you thinking what I'm thinking

man it was just a bit too small

[Jake Wade]

I am really digging the rebuild. Good job!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Jake Wade

I am really digging the rebuild. Good job!

Thank you, I am walking around with my chest puffed out I am so proud of myself, even if it don't fix the noise, lol, I have learned so much... highly recommend it, on a manual transmission that is, I would not touch a Turbo 350 automatic with a 10 foot pole

[rusty76]

Looks like you are getting it done. Guy I know rebuilt the trans in his van. It was an automatic. Drove from North Carolina to Colorado the next week. If he could do it you can too. Nice work.

[Gregski]

Ace is the place...

looks like the bearing we need is a 5/16" diameter and will set us back 35 pence, so I put 5 on lay-away as they tend to wonder off in my domicile

[Gregski]

and just like that we was in business, fit like a glove

[Gregski]

since moving the reverse lever too far passed neutral would allow the bearing to pop out I decided to mount the shifter on the transmission on the workbench and make sure the shifting rods were properly adjusted

I was surprised to see that this Hurst shifter unlike my other one does not have threaded holes for bump stops to and fro

[Gregski]

since it was difficult to shift through all the gears on the work bench I decided to build a cockpit simulator to scale

here I am showing you the Crew Chief View, the Cockpit View, and the Bird's Eye View

note my trusty co-pilot Dusty in the stand by position

[Gregski]

since we had a streak of 100* F days I decided to put the transmission tunnel cover back on, as you would be surprised how much heat you get coming up from that large opening in the floor

this required some modification of the trans tunnel cover, and then some more... modification, ha ha

my motto is cut twice, and skip the measuring

[Gregski]

looks decent though the Saginaw shifter sits further back than the New Process 833 did, so much so that it required notching the trans tunnel cover as well as the floor, wasn't too happy about that

anyway I will be welding up the original SM465 hole as well as patching up the elongated part due to the 833 being there first, though not sure how I am going to mount the rubber gator on all these creases now

[Gregski]

Yeah, yeah, looks ok, but how does it drive? How does it shift? Did you get rid of the noise?

So did two test drives a couple hours apart. On the first test drive still had some noise similar like before the rebuild just not as bad, not as loud. So I figured maybe we need to give it time for the transmission sauce to slush around sum more, so I took it for a second test drive, and similar results. Better than before the rebuild but not quiet by any means. For those of you wondering, I am running SAE 80W-90 gear oil with no Snake Oil additives.

Sounds like this dude had the same problem 9 years ago... SAGINAW TRANNY "GEAR RATTLE"? on H.A.M.B. and those guys know their shizwa, but of course no solution has been posted