Transmission and Transfer Case rebuild

[bretto]

Are the tranny and tcase housings mated together flat?  Sometimes the small lock plate can get out of place and not allow the housings to bolts together flat.  This can cause binding.

[macrisel]

Yes, I believe they are flat.  I remembered someone else having that issue and it caused a severe leak so I was very cautious of that when I joined them together.  I had even did a dry fit first to make sure that plate wasn't going to interfere with anything.

[zooke581]

I had this problem last night and have it posted on my DJ3A build.  I had two different transfer case cutouts that.  The early case had a very small locking plate cutout as opposed to the later have a rather large cutout.

It bound and had me scratching my head till I looked at them both and had to modify my locking plate.  That's why I shift through the gears on the table several times.

[1955CJ-5]

Do I just need to drive it more to loosen everything up and make the shifts easier???

My transmission was kind of tight initially..it was "notchy".you could feel the gear changes, it didn't just smoothly change from one gear to the other. After about 300 miles it started to get noticeably smoother.

I double checked the shift lever cane end movement...this time with a ruler...1st and Reverse 7/8"....2nd and 3rd 3/4"

Thanks for the note on the tower end caps....I don't think my kit had any and the tower didn't have any when I took it apart....the manual shows caps on the 4-speed but not on the 3-speed that I can see...

[Carls_jeep]

There should be a gasket between the two housings. The kit I bought had a selection of thicknesses to use. What you have to do is measure how much the rear bearing retainer plate sticks above the rear of the tranny case. Then use a gasket that fills that space. If you don't you may end up with a leak between the two cases or pressing the retainer place to hard and damaging one or both cases.

[macrisel]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.� I went through my photos and found where I put the gasket between the trans and t-case.� It looks like I have the later style t-case.



I called and spoke with Carl Walck this morning and his first bit of advice was to put 200-300 miles on it.� According to him, it is not unusual for the transmission to be pretty tight with the amount of parts I replaced.� He also said that I shouldn't have as much play in the shift tower as I do and that the cane is probably worn out.� But........put some miles on it first and go from there...

In the meantime, I have a 47 Willys truck that I'm going to take a look at the shift tower and may end up taking it off for the 3A if it is in better shape.

Here is hoping for the best!

[Ryan_M]

So what's the story with your '47 Willys truck? When do we get to see that??

I have a total of 8 shift towers - three installed in transmissions and these 5 loose ones. I just checked them all. They are obviously used and all have at least 3/4" to 1-1/2+" play in first gear when measured at the top of the stick. I think some of these may have come from IH Scouts.

If it helps you can have any of the ones pictured here (except for the M38 tower) for the cost of shipping. It probably won't solve your problem but if you want another to mess around I'll gladly ship one out.

I found it interesting that some of these have end caps too. I knew the M38's did but not sure what the history on the other tower is:

[macrisel]

So what's the story with your '47 Willys truck? When do we get to see that??

Oh I have plans for the 47 truck............I'll have to post photos after I get my jeep taken care of....  While it is nothing to brag about now, I plan on having some fun when I start it.  Most importantly, I'm going to build it where I can make sure I can drive down to NAPA and get parts for it! (Since I'm in the middle of the country and 3-4 days away from all the Willy's suppliers.....)

[macrisel]

So I finally managed to scrape together some more time to get things on the 3A straight and I think I have cured my problem!� A big THANK YOU to RyanM for sending me another tower to tinker/compare with.� As it turns out, the shift tower was causing all my troubles.�

On my original tower, the cane appears to be worn out at the squared bottom and at the groove up at the neck.� This was allowing the cane to rotate some down at the shift forks "hang up" between gears....see below.

Here is the tower from my '47 and the original tower side by side.� I decided to use the '47 tower because it was in amazing shape inside.� The tower from Ryan is good also and I'll use it in the '47 rebuild.


Close up of the good tower..notice the sharp, square edges on the end of the cane.


Close up of the original tower.� The edges of the cane are very rounded off and the shift fork grooves are also not very crisp..


Here is the joint on the neck where I was getting quite a bit of rotation.� It was also just very loose and felt worn out.� While I havn't taken it apart again, I am guessing either the pin or the groove is worn.


Finally, here is the result of that wear in the cane.� When I was shifting from 1st to 2nd the cane was rotating in the neck and getting hung between the two rails.� This meant the cane was staying on the 1st-reverse rail and was trying to go back into reverse (hence the major grinding.... )


Everything is back together now and I have put about 150 miles on the jeep.� What a difference.� I really can't describe the difference in how the jeep drives.� Before the rebuild, I had to "think" about every gear change (double clutch, RPMs, moving too fast, am I in the right gear, etc.) which made driving around the farm and town a pain.� Now, everything works like it should.� I can actually drive the jeep and really enjoy it without having to fight it all the time.

Was the rebuild hard?� I really don't think so.� The hardest part was knowing what parts needed to be replaced because I really didn't have "good" parts to compare them to.� The rebuild guides and videos are great.� I'm actually looking forward to tearing into the '47 t-90 when the time comes!

Thanks everyone!!!

[macrisel]

I also installed a TightSteer on the jeep while I had it torn apart.  I would recommend this product to everyone also.  I had went through and replaced/rebuilt everything on the steering when I did my frame off.  I still had some slack in the steering when going down the road...not enough that it was a problem, but enough that you had to be mindful of it.  With the TightSteer installed, the slack is gone.  Like the transmission rebuild, it just makes it easier and more fun to drive.  Good product!

Bring on the Summer Reunion!!

[athawk11]

Mark,
Wow, that little nub was really tweaked.  Your post made me run out and look at mine.
Thanks for posting.  That Ryan fellow is a pretty good guy.

Tim

[Oilleaker1]

Well done! Thanks for the excellent pictures! John

[Gunslinger]

Mark,
Can you talk a little more about how you re-built the shift tower, or did you just change it?  I had my tranny re-built and its fine, the only problem is that the shift rods are worn inside the tower casting and consequently my tranny leaks at the tower.  How do I know this?  Well after the re-build I installed caps in the tower just as you did, after I drove a while it became increasingly more difficult to shift from second to third, eventually the tower locked up completely and I was stuck in second gear.  Turns out the leak in the tower allowed oil to get between the rail and the cap, filled the space and locked up the tower. Eventually the cap on first and reverse blew itself out, but I had to pull the tower and knock out the cap on 2-3.  Then all was fine again except for the leak.  I'd like to fix that this winter when the OD goes in, but not sure how that would work as there is no gasketing to seal that area.  Any ideas?

[Carls_jeep]

If the shafts are just a little loose in the bores you could have a machine shop cut an O ring groove in each end of the shafts. That should slow or eliminate oil leaking there.

[Ryan_M]

Great follow up Mark and surprising results. I never would have guessed the tower was causing your issues. I'll be taking a closer look at all my shift towers from now on. Yet another invaluable thread here on the 3A page.