Transmission Rebuild Complete

I spent some time two weekends ago and again this weekend completing the rebuild of my T-5 transmission.

I finally gave up on C J Pony parts sending me the items I ordered.  I called and cancelled my order for the tail shaft bushing.  The second part of my order was a black, six-tooth speedometer gear.  They had this part in stock but were waiting for the bushing to send it out.  Once I cancelled the bushing order, they went ahead and shipped the speedometer gear.

I ended up ordering a Timken 5202 bearing and seal kit from RockAuto.  The set was $11 which was cheaper than the bearing alone from CJ Pony parts.  I installed the bearing from this kit and the seal from my Ford  M7000A rebuild kit using a pair of 3/4" sockets and a rubber mallet.

I then installed the speedometer gear which came from CJ Pony parts.  The black gear on the left is the new one which allows for proper speedometer readings even with gears larger than 3.50:1. 

The gear was initially confusing to me.  I needed a six tooth gear.  If you count the teeth going from one side to the other on the green gear, you count six.  However, that is not how they are counted.  You count the total number of teeth on the entire gear.  You can see where each tooth starts on the green gear below and if you count them all, you see there are eight and the black gear has six.

 

 

Sealing up a rebuilt transmission is one of those 'leap of faith' steps.  Until you put RTV on the mating surfaces and bolt it together, you can always double check your work.  Once it is closed up, that opportunity is over.  I looked over everything one last time and wiped down the mating surfaces and internal areas where it was possible.  I then started the reassembly.

 

The top plate goes on first.  I put a 1/16" bead of RTV on the top of the case.  It is a little difficult to put the top plate on without messing up the RTV.  You place it down a little off center to the passenger side.  You then slide it to the drive side to engage the reverse/5th gear lever.  The bolts on the top then get torqued down to 14 ft/lbs.

 

 

I then put on the tail housing.  This is a little tricky as well.  While you slide on the tail housing, you have to guide the shift rod into the shift block which the actually shifter connects to.  Once it is in place, you then put a roll pin to secure the shift block and then tighten the bolts which hold the tail shaft to the case to 23 ft/lbs.

 

 

I then worked on the input shaft.  I tried the method described in the Tremec rebuild kit for setting input shaft endplay.  When I performed all the measurements, I found a .025" shim was needed but I only had a .023"  I bolted it together with the .023" shim but it did not feel tight enough.  I decided to switch to an alternate method of measuring end play.

 

With the .023" shim in place, I set the transmission on two buckets with the input shaft facing down.  I put a gauge on the tip of the output shaft, set it to zero, and then pushed in on the input shaft to see how much movement would be seen at the output shaft.  I took four measurements and had .010 movement each time when the expected amount is .002.

 

I took out the .023" shim and replaced it with the one originally in the transmission (.032).  I then repeated the process checking four more times.  Between each test, I'd spin the input shaft and give the output shaft a light tap with a rubber mallet.  This time, each test gave me a reading of .002".  Perfect.

 

I mounted the shifter but had a hard time with it.  The shifter would not allow the transmission to shift into reverse.  It is difficult to describe but there are springs which are on either side of the shifter which are inside the shifter housing.  They cause the shift lever to return to center.  They are so tight, you can't move the shifter far enough to the side to get it into reverse.  I'll save you the details on this one but I managed to get this fixed as well. 

 

So here it is..... seven months later.... my completed transmission!

 

 

 

After taking this picture, I realized I did not put on the original metal transmission tag.  I put it on a few moments ago.  I mounted it to the second tail shaft bolt down from the top on the driver side as it was originally.