Junkyard Jimmy Super Low Buck Build Thread

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

I wonder if the quality is there with that set? It just seems too cheap imo.

Thanks for the part number on the trans output adapter seals. Curious to hear if you find the gasket for that to trans.

Keep up the good work!

That gasket but should be the same for all TH-350 tail stock pieces. I believe the tranny case is the same as a 2wd, it just has a t-case bolted where the tail piece is.

Higher cost doesn't always mean higher quality. Typical name brand seals are just $6-10 each retail. These things just have typical paper gaskets, not exotic materials, metal impregnating, or special crush thicknesses. Now adays with fairly cheap equipment to cut precise lines, gaskets are cheap to produce. If I saw a kit of gaskets and seals that were 3 times the cost of most of the competition, I'd have to question their sanity. Remember that this is just a transfer case, not some precision high speed gear box on a million dollar machine. I see those all the time in my job and frankly, those gear boxes use paper gaskets and off the shelf bearings and seals too.

Most manufacturers produce off brands and relabel the product for other companies and their own label. I've been to the plants and seen it myself. Everything from food to hardware. That being said, it is possible that the cheap seals are from taiwan or hong kong, but there is feed back on the ebay parts and not much for complaints. Fact is, many of the "name brand" parts are not produced here, or if they are, may not have the high standard of quality their original parts had to create that image of quality. So many labels have been bought over the years it's hard to know who's making them anymore.

Your earlier comment on buying the full rebuild kit makes sense if you need the bearings, even just one or 2, because you will probably have to break the whole thing down for a rebuild anyway, changing a couple more bearings is worth it at that point. This build however is completely on the cheap. Fixing what's broke, using cheap or used parts when available, doing everything possible myself. The cost of this build could have easily doubled or tripled based on parts sourcing and not cutting corners where I thought I could get away with it. If I had to drive this truck all the time and had to rely on it, well, this is the wrong kind of vehicle for that.

[Tynee]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

If I had to drive this truck all the time and had to rely on it, well, this is the wrong kind of vehicle for that.

Do you just mean buying one from the JY and building it on the cheap, or do you mean a 40 year old truck of any pedigree? I drive mine every day, and would drive it anywhere I had to. Of course, I probably don't drive the kind of miles you do...

[litew8]

5 bucks

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Tynee

Do you just mean buying one from the JY and building it on the cheap, or do you mean a 40 year old truck of any pedigree? I drive mine every day, and would drive it anywhere I had to. Of course, I probably don't drive the kind of miles you do...

I meant the 40 year old junkyard truck. For $4000 I could find a lot of pretty good vehicles for everyday use that would get better mileage, be more comfortable to drive and have easier parts availability. For us northern rust belt owners, there is a problem driving them year round also. Not that they can't, we just don't want to repair the rust and repaint every 5 years. Once I got my C-10 painted and back on the road this summer, I drove it every time I could. I'm thinking of taking my son on a road trip out west (or east, who knows) this coming summer and have complete faith in it. Would I drive it today? Not a chance. There is an inch of frozen slush on my street and salt on the main roads right now. I truly wish I could drive my classics more.


My daily driver is a 2010 taurus that I already put 80,000 miles on, which is almost the total lifetime miles my 71 C-10 has. Nothing but tires and oil changes on my car, the truck has had a complete rebuild.

Originally Posted by litew8

5 bucks

Excellent. No link?

[litew8]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Excellent. No link?

There are most likely other brands/combinations.
You'll just have to search for similar. I've seen them in rolls too.

DYI Gasket Kit 1
DYI Gasket Kit 2

Mr. Gasket has some available.

[hgs_notes]

litew8, I was kidding about the link. But it might be good for some of the thread lurkers out there. I learned how to make gaskets back in the navy and will occassionally make them still.

Making a list of seals. Here's what I have so far (I'll update as I finish the repair)...
National:
473468 rear output shaft seal
710005 front output shaft seal
471424 adapter seals (need 2)
2287 shifter shaft seals (need 2)
471869 input shaft seal

ATP SO-22 tranny to adapter (or extension housing) O-ring

[litew8]

right on

[Dieselwrencher]

If anyone's ever in a pinch for a gasket, pop case boxes and beer can cases make excellent gasket paper when you have nothing else.

[litew8]

Now that's cheaper than my 5 buck solution (a low buck ideology)... does not compute.

[Vintage Windmills]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

If anyone's ever in a pinch for a gasket, pop case boxes and beer can cases make excellent gasket paper when you have nothing else.

I recommend cutting the gaskets out before you have finished consuming the case of beer

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

I recommend cutting the gaskets out before you have finished consuming the case of beer

LMAO! Good point.

[hgs_notes]

Got my gasket set today, so hopefully I'll be able to get it all back together this weekend. The set includes the gasket between the t-case and adapter and the o-ring that goes on the input shaft. While I was driving around today for work and thinking about it, I wonder why there isn't a drain or vent for the adapter so when the seal goes bad in there it gives an indication, like the weep hole on a water pump. There is a vent on the differential and t-case, so it's not like they left it off to keep it dry or whatever.

The problem I find, is that when the tranny side seal goes bad it leaks tranny fluid all the way to the transfer case until it fills up and either leaks out the vent on top, the speedo drive, or other seals. I know the added fluid doesn't really hurt the t-case, but it probably effects gas mileage being completely filled all the time and adds pressure to the t-case seals as it heats up while driving (harder to vent the fluid than a little air). It leaves a mess on the driveway and you really can't narrow it down to any one seal. And you have to keep adding tranny fluid just to drive it.

Thing is, those seals can be replaced pretty easy. Only takes about an hour to pull out the transfer case. With the right snap ring pliers it takes about 5 minutes to change those adapter seals. Another hour or 2 to re-install. Nothing needs to be done on the transfer case. If you want, the seals in the output shafts can be replaced with the case installed. From what I've read the seals in the adapter are a common leak point. Anyway, just thinking out loud here. My job is to identify problem areas in production lines and help find solutions to prevent those problems, so I'm just letting my work seep into my hobby a bit.

[Tynee]

What an interesting job. I'd be horrible at it, because my default mindset is to find a way around the problem through revised processes, as opposed to finding mechanical fixes. I'm really prone to doing things the hard way instead of thinking through the easy way to do them.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Tynee

What an interesting job. I'd be horrible at it, because my default mindset is to find a way around the problem through revised processes, as opposed to finding mechanical fixes. I'm really prone to doing things the hard way instead of thinking through the easy way to do them.

It is an interesting job. Sometimes it's not about mechanical fixes though. We look at procedures and contingency planning, predictive maintenance practices, etc. You would probably do just fine with your mindset.

Got a machine that is required for more than 75% of your plants production with a $500,000/day profit? There better be a back up plan, spare parts for anything with a long lead time, oil testing, vibration analysis, infrared imaging and extra capacity in the supporting equipment. Can you run limited production without it? Things like that.

I get to ask the question, what happens if your boiler explodes? And I'm serious about it. I have a very sensitive BS detector built in and a calibrated eyeball...

[Tynee]

Do you do this for a specific employer at multiple facilities, or are you a consultant/ employed by a consulting firm?

[hgs_notes]

I work for an insurance company. We do this to protect us from huge claims and to help our custumers.
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Back to the build. Got the transfer case back together with the new seals in. Just needed to torque all the bolts correctly and while moving the case around on the bench, I found a needle bearing. Nice. Just have to figure out which set it belongs too, since it never got counted during disassembly. My manual has a different series of t-case and the bearings are different, so it's no help. Both sets use the same size roller, but they are a different size shaft, so different number of needles. Fun. At least it'll be easy enough to pull off the covers and check it out, but still a pain.

The new O-ring between the adapter and tranny won't get here until monday. And I have to see if I can get a couple easy sleeves for the output yokes because the area on them where the shaft rides is scored. Either have to sleeve them or replace them. I'll post pics later, camera is still in the garage.

[hgs_notes]

Follow up pics on the t-case. First shows the front output shaft, second shows the rear. You can see the grooving in the polished area of the yokes where the seal rides. If it's not fixed it will probably leak a bit right away, then then worse quickly as the seal gets chewed up.



Today I just worked on stripping paint on the driver bedside. Fun fun fun. Just 4 hours with a cheap drill and a 3M paint remover disc. The great news is there were no more surprises under the paint and hardly a ding in the entire panel. All there is to do to finish this side is a small amount of filler in the tail light area and primer it. Blocking will show any imperfections but it looks real good so far.

[Vintage Windmills]

Mike, curious to see if you easy sleeve these. For what its worth: do you remember the trans adapter sleeve of mine that had slight wear? For what its worth the engine rebuilder said mine is fine as is. I will probably just put in the lathe at work at polish a little just to be safe.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

Mike, curious to see if you easy sleeve these. For what its worth: do you remember the trans adapter sleeve of mine that had slight wear? For what its worth the engine rebuilder said mine is fine as is. I will probably just put in the lathe at work at polish a little just to be safe.

I figured yours would be alright and a little polishing wont hurt. I think my rear output yoke can be used with some polishing, just has a slight groove. The front one is pretty bad though.

Napa can get the sleeves for around $40, which I thought was high, so searched rockauto.com and they have National Redi-sleeve #99174 for $23.79. For the rear output yoke the National redi-sleeve is #99212 for you readers that may need it.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see how much a new yoke was. Kind of hard to track down the actual part# but I eventually found it, Spicer 2-4-4021x and the price ranges from around $70 up to $165. No bargains there. I wonder how far you can turn down a shaft and still keep a good seal on it. If I had it turned down to remove the grooving and it was .030 under would it still seal? Maybe, not sure. Probably about the same cost as the redi-sleeve though.

There are also kits available that swap the front output shaft to a 32 spline unit with a stronger yoke for people that want to upgrade.

[Vintage Windmills]

Mike, there are 46 needles in the one by the speedo drive gear and 41 in the aluminum/potmetal cover.

[hgs_notes]

Thanks Jud. And here is one place to get the gasket for t-case to adapter, #201205
http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_cata...e_Illustration

[hgs_notes]

Monday I had to go to SE MN for work and was able to stop off at my favorite Junkyard, Misgens by New Richland. They have a pretty good selection of cars in the u-pull-it area, and it was almost 50F out, sunny and no sign of winter in sight (different story today). I needed a cheap battery for my daughters car, needed to find the bottom inner panel for the rear hatch on my wifes Yukon and wanted to see what I could find for my projects. Got both of the above items and found a couple things for myself too.

First was a tranny cooler. This is off a 97 chevy truck. I got one exactly like it last summer for my C-10. What I like about this one is that it's easy to install because the factory brackets and hoses match our radiator supports perfectly. Just drill 4 holes, use the original bolts to get the threads started and in a few minutes it is mounted. Just need to hook up the hoses. Another thing is that it seems to be built pretty heavy duty, not like the thin fins on most coolers. Another huge bonus is that it cost me $5.




Another good find was this electric fan from a jeep grand cherokee (I think thats the model). What's great about this one is that it fits in our standard fan shroud almost perfect. Just need to make a few mods to the shroud and bolt it in. Can use any regular fan control relay to make it work. And as usual, cheap, just another $5.


I ordered a redi-sleeve for for the front output shaft yoke. Might get the tranny o-ring tonight yet. For the rear output shaft yoke, I made a redneck lathe with my cheapo drill, a piece of all-thread and some washers and a nut. It was very stable as it turned and I was able to polish up the seal area some.

[VA72C10]

nice scores!

[Vintage Windmills]

Mike, Here is a NOS front output yoke for $49 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-1974-GM...item337013ee6c