Trans: Well.....it's out. It would have only taken a couple hours by my onesies, but I found the catalytic converter hanger bracket and header adapter prevented me from dropping the trans down. I had to, pretty much, take the whole exhaust system off to get clearance. Damn cross member is welded on or this would have been really easy. Fortunately it only weighs 70 pounds. Here it lay, all greasy, oily and shit. It's leaking oil from everywhere it can leak oil. I knew the rear seal was on it's way out but the front of the case was leaking worse. The clutch is past ready to change out. I'd have had to pull this transmission out within a year anyhow.
continuing with my senility , I picked up my new transmission on Friday. Trail Tough treated me extremely well on the price as my old core was destroyed and worthless. It'll never ever be as clean as it is right now. Last night I installed the new pilot bearing, throw-out bearing, clutch and pressure plate. Note: I tried the bread trick to get the old pilot bearing out... I'll never use grease to hydrolic out a pilot bushing ever again! all lubed up (sans the oil), sensors installed, and ready to put back in:
You're doing it wrong. The same principles apply in both methods. Hydraulic principles. With bread you have more air to "smash" out so you're wasting time. With grease and a perfectly fitting bolt, it's more efficient.
I just used the bread and a not-so-perfect fitting bolt. Didn't have to clean up grease either. Anyway, that trans is in. I still have some minor clutch free play adjustment to do after a shake down run yesterday. I found some Japanese U Joints at Roadless Gear that are greasable and not made in China for 15 bucks apiece. so they are getting ordered. When i had the suspension rebuilt to the Epic-Trek, it lifted the rig an additional 2". Brent at Trail Tough donated a pair of 1" spacers to extend the driveshaft rather than charging me for a 2" extended slip yoke. I really wish he'd have called and asked because those spacers have increased the shaft angle enough to cause me some grief. The Ujoints on there now are POS Chinese ones that aren't greaseable. They're shot. The only thing left to totally rebuild after the shafts are the diffs/axles. Other than the frame, it'll be a new truck after that. I was having a bit of death wobble. The front tires are suspect but I went ahead and change up to a HD stabilizer instead of the wimpy stock one and the wobble is gone for now.
Ah yesss! A thing of beauty! New Trail Tough 28 degree CV driveline and 6 degree shims to up the pinion angle. Yay! I get to work on the Tonka this weekend!
Sealed Spicers, I've been replacing the front and intermediate driveline U joints with the Matsui Toyota replacement joints. Sevicable for the front, sealed for the intermediate as you can't even access them with the MK II and the welded on crossmember. The originals are sealed and they lasted 28 years. I'm planning on getting the rig off the ground today, shim wedging (up 6*) the rear end and installing the double CV shaft today. I wanted to get to it last Saturday but came down sick with a bad cold/flu that lasted for 6 days. I want to get that thing up in the hills.....the mud is just right. The extra 2" of lift from the suspension rebuild is too much for the standard driveline. The vibrations were bad and the slip yoke is wallowed out. If this doesn't fix the problems, I'll be tearing into the 3rd member to check the pinion bearing and gear lash. I need to replace the drivers side rear axle seal anyhow. So I may as well replace those bearings and seal while the axles are out. I can get custom gears for the front and back plus a new rear housing with the perches welded at a custom angle (eliminating the need to shim the pinion angle) from Trail Tough for less than a grand. http://www.trailtough.com/index.php...ategory_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53 Other than the axles, it'd be a totally rebuilt Sammi front to back. The wife stopped bitching about how much money I'm putting into this after I showed her what it would have cost for the side-by-side we were interested in buying. I'm still going to come in about 6 grand less and I don't have to trailer this rig to the hills.
