Restoring Rusty

[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

[Gregski]

and here i am giving you the shaft

[Gregski]

and here are all the bits that make up the main shaft from left to right or rear to the front of the vehicle

note the one shinny new synchro, getting lined up in parallel for replacement

[Gregski]

next it was time to clean the old gasket residue off of the case

[Gregski]

it's wire wheelin' time

[Gregski]

goodness, how many sides does this thing have

[Gregski]

the tail housing also got some love

[Gregski]

and pretty soon I had transferred all the old gasket material on to my ol' favorite shirt

Clean Up Fun Level = 0

[Gregski]

just some random pics of all four new syncros, showing they all be the same

[RDrancher]

Well you sure ain't no quitter.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Well you sure ain't no quitter.

I'll second that!

Have a friend who just finished going through a cast iron 70s Mopar 4-speed, which is based on a 3-speed. That means 3rd gear is 1:1 and 4th is an overdrive gear where third would normally be on the countershaft and mainshaft. And like you, he had never done one before, but just dug in and got 'er done!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Well you sure ain't no quitter.

thank you it's that small town farm boy tenacity, I remember one time my dad and I were wrenching in a carport of our 2 bedroom apartment, we were having a tough time with something, and I wanted to quit, and he said "and what are we going to do, cry about it?" and that was that, a boy became a man, ha ha

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

I'll second that!

Have a friend who just finished going through a cast iron 70s Mopar 4-speed, which is based on a 3-speed. That means 3rd gear is 1:1 and 4th is an overdrive gear where third would normally be on the countershaft and mainshaft. And like you, he had never done one before, but just dug in and got 'er done!

Cool, good for him, this may be embarrassing for me to admit but only after taking it apart and attempting to upload the photos to this forum did I finally conceptualize how the hewk those transmission guts work, I would stare at pictures in a book or on the InterWebs and it was as if I was trying to learn how to swim by reading about it, know what I mean, so if nothing else I learned something from doing things hands on

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Cool, good for him, this may be embarrassing for me to admit but only after taking it apart and attempting to upload the photos to this forum did I finally conceptualize how the hewk those transmission guts work, I would stare at pictures in a book or on the InterWebs and it was as if I was trying to learn how to swim by reading about it, know what I mean, so if nothing else I learned something from doing things hands on

My friend relied heavily on the advice and support of Mopar trans parts specialist somewhere in the Northeast. Hey, this stuff is a team sport!

[rusty76]

Well done. If one thing racing taught me over the years is that just because you haven’t done it or seen it doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

[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!

[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

[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]

well before I realized the detent ball was missing I already removed the counter shaft so might as well walk you through it

I gotta be honest I was pretty intimidated about pressing this shaft out, but it turned out to be super easy and all I needed was a hammer

the first two pics show a good view of the idler gear and how it slides side to side - this may be the smoking gun