I did a pretty big project this past week in preperation for some parts I have coming in the first of April. I had to do a little work to the T-18 1B 4-speed that I plan on running that was in the CJ-5.
The project consisted of having to change out my main shaft which was a gear drive output for my old dana 20. I had to install a new 23 spline output shaft and an adapter for the parts coming in.
When I tore into it everything in it was great as far as bearings and gears. Except first gear was rounded off a touch. Being an unsyncronized first gear tranny I didn't really think it was bad enough to change. I never had any trouble out of it so I figured it would be fine. The front seal was hard as a brick and was brittle so it was the only thing that really need changed. But I thought while I had it tore this far down I'd go ahead and throw a complete rebuild kit just for the peace of mind.
Rebuilding this thing wasn't to bad of a job but who ever designed those big ass heavy duty C-clips holding the gears and bearings on and the cheap ass C-clip pliers I was using really needs their asses kicked. If it wasn't for a couple of buddies that stopped by I'd probably never got the gears off the shaft. I spent the better part of an hour trying to get the two bearing clips back on myself. They about whooped me.
This is what it looked like when I opened it. It wasn't really to bad.
This is a pic of first/reverse gear. I decided to not change it. What would yall have done?
Pic of the Advance Adapter 23 spline shaft before install and also A/A dana 300 adapter for the T-18
In order to install the adapter I had to do a little machining. You can see the three piles of shavings in the pic. I had to drill three new holes and tap them to 3/8-16 in order for the adapter to work.
I knew I had kids for a reason. They worked their butts off cleaning that thing.
After I did a little touch up cleaning it was spic and span.
After taking good pics and notes and laying everything out in order I managed to get it all back together. I even managed replaced all 88 roller bearings in the counter shaft w/ the help of lots of vaseline and a broom stick.
Wait that didn't sound right. But if you've ever built one of these transmissions you know what I'm talking about.
I did try to spiff it up with a little paint. I even wire wheeled the bell housing to clean it up. It was quite a bit of extra work to do this. But was well worth it.
even though noone will ever see it.
This is the adapter completed. I'm just glad my new holes lined up good. Two of them were pretty hard to mark for drilling. Really I just got lucky.
All in all this part of the build was a joy. Everything went smooth, got to learn alot, and got to include the kids too although I occupied them at one point by letting giving them some spray paint which turned out to be a bad idea. I ordered my rebuild kit late afternoon Monday from Transparts Warehouse in California and was sitting on the sidewalk Wednesday when I got home from work which was quick.
The transmission ended up very smooth. I turn it by hand easily and there are no hard spots in it at all. There is no movement in the input shaft that I had before and I hope the new seals and gaskest take care of any leaks I had before.
It's probably not hard to guess but can you guess what parts I'm waiting to bolt on next when they come in?
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