argve
Resident Fruitcake
As some of you might know that during my recent move to a new shanty under a new bridge down by the river my main shaft broke. So I ordered in the new parts and started in on the project Friday night after a heck of day at work (worked for 13 hours - actually had to work work that day) so I was pretty tuckered out when I started but having never done a manual tranny before or any tranny or even a transfer case before for that matter I started off by laying out shop towels against the wall and as I took things off I layed them out in order as to how they came off. This worked out quite well. I took a short break during the process because it was going so well and called Ron (Dsldogcatcher) for a break in the action. I was simply amazed at how simple a manual tranny is - there really isn't much to them. I was a little apprehensive about it because never taking one apart before it looked and sounded sort of hard.
So I got it torn down pretty much all the way on friday evening but had a bearing that I could not get off the old shaft. So had to stop for the night then in the morning go get a tool to try and pull it off (bearing splitter) but we couldn't get a hold of the bearing so it came off with a die grinder with a cut off wheel. That set us back about 2 hours because of two things - find a tool and then also to find a replacement bearing in town....
So anyhoo we got it all back together and then was testing it out on the bench when I noticed that we could not get it into 5th gear
seems in my dissassembly process I flipped the ring that the shift fork fits into for 5th gear around backwards - nope you have to have them going the right direction seems the teeth on the ring are tapered so that it can engage the syncro and the hub assembly when the teeth are off centered.
Biggest thing that I had a problem with was the clutch shoes and springs (I think I'm calling them by the right names) these are the spring loaded little shoe things that create the detents that you feel as you shift the gears. The one for the 5th gear was a pain in the patucks if you know what I mean. those dang little springs got called everything but a spring trying to get them in place.
So today a full day later than I was planning the truck will be on the road. I did order a manual from 4x4 quad website for 20 clams to do this project but like all projects I do I don't start with instructions - I just jump in head first then when I have a problem then after numerous attempts I read directions... but I was happy to see that when I couldn't figure out how to get the main shaft out with all the gears in tact up to that point I had done everything the manual calls for. I was telling Ron at this point about how it said to just lay the tranny on it's side and the main shaft assembly will just roll out - well for the 20 mins before hand I could not lift it out of the case for nothing but after reading the directions I rolled the tranny over and bingo you better be ready to catch the assembly because it's coming out and now... 
at least it's out right...
My plan was to have the tranny back together Friday night and then have the truck on the road by noon then slip over to the campground for the night (it's just me and momma this weekend as the kids went to Grandma's for the week) but sadly that didn't happen... Oh well...
I used one of the shafts that you can purchase off ebay and while it looks like a good idea I have my doubts that it will cure my 5th gear backing off problems.
I will say that guys say that if your 5th gear backs off you can just drive it like that with no ill effects - WRONG... the nut that holds 5th gear in place also does double duty - it sets up the axial backlash on the main shaft. If your 5th gear comes loose you need to be getting that taken care of soon - because the entire shaft (with all the gears attached) can move forward and backward which could actually shove the race out of place on the rear tapered roller bearing for the shaft - not good...
I will say that way back when I first got the truck and the clutch had to be replaced I had a shop local to me that came highly recommended said my input shaft bearing was bad because it had too much play and was in the process of tearing up the tranny was incorrect - there wasn't a thing wrong with that bearing - that has been 100k miles ago by the way... The inside of the tranny looked great other than the broken shaft (broke right where I welded 5th back on at). And you boys know how I drive so in my book these nv4500's are the thing to have... It pretty much looked like a new tranny I was tearing into...
So I got it torn down pretty much all the way on friday evening but had a bearing that I could not get off the old shaft. So had to stop for the night then in the morning go get a tool to try and pull it off (bearing splitter) but we couldn't get a hold of the bearing so it came off with a die grinder with a cut off wheel. That set us back about 2 hours because of two things - find a tool and then also to find a replacement bearing in town....
So anyhoo we got it all back together and then was testing it out on the bench when I noticed that we could not get it into 5th gear
seems in my dissassembly process I flipped the ring that the shift fork fits into for 5th gear around backwards - nope you have to have them going the right direction seems the teeth on the ring are tapered so that it can engage the syncro and the hub assembly when the teeth are off centered. Biggest thing that I had a problem with was the clutch shoes and springs (I think I'm calling them by the right names) these are the spring loaded little shoe things that create the detents that you feel as you shift the gears. The one for the 5th gear was a pain in the patucks if you know what I mean. those dang little springs got called everything but a spring trying to get them in place.
So today a full day later than I was planning the truck will be on the road. I did order a manual from 4x4 quad website for 20 clams to do this project but like all projects I do I don't start with instructions - I just jump in head first then when I have a problem then after numerous attempts I read directions... but I was happy to see that when I couldn't figure out how to get the main shaft out with all the gears in tact up to that point I had done everything the manual calls for. I was telling Ron at this point about how it said to just lay the tranny on it's side and the main shaft assembly will just roll out - well for the 20 mins before hand I could not lift it out of the case for nothing but after reading the directions I rolled the tranny over and bingo you better be ready to catch the assembly because it's coming out and now...
at least it's out right... My plan was to have the tranny back together Friday night and then have the truck on the road by noon then slip over to the campground for the night (it's just me and momma this weekend as the kids went to Grandma's for the week) but sadly that didn't happen... Oh well...
I used one of the shafts that you can purchase off ebay and while it looks like a good idea I have my doubts that it will cure my 5th gear backing off problems.
I will say that guys say that if your 5th gear backs off you can just drive it like that with no ill effects - WRONG... the nut that holds 5th gear in place also does double duty - it sets up the axial backlash on the main shaft. If your 5th gear comes loose you need to be getting that taken care of soon - because the entire shaft (with all the gears attached) can move forward and backward which could actually shove the race out of place on the rear tapered roller bearing for the shaft - not good...
I will say that way back when I first got the truck and the clutch had to be replaced I had a shop local to me that came highly recommended said my input shaft bearing was bad because it had too much play and was in the process of tearing up the tranny was incorrect - there wasn't a thing wrong with that bearing - that has been 100k miles ago by the way... The inside of the tranny looked great other than the broken shaft (broke right where I welded 5th back on at). And you boys know how I drive so in my book these nv4500's are the thing to have... It pretty much looked like a new tranny I was tearing into...
