This morning . It's ben bad since before I bought this truck , I have been nursing it along but it failed completely and I'll be lucky to limp it home to - night .
Update O-Kay then ! . As it turned out , it has been raining off and on , on and on , and on..... Anyways , I managed to get that beastly heavy Muncie SM465 tranny (350 + # !) out without dropping it , then I discovered the diaphragm spring in the clutch cover was bad , it broke and that's what failed the clutch , the fingers are all worn badly too . The disc looked O.K. but had loose tension springs , the T.O. bearing was noisy & loose , the clutch fork was worn out as was the adjuster pin ~ sheesh . I went to Rock Auto and was able to order up everything new in good quality for less than the price of the clutch alone hereabouts . Since then I have been struggling to work on cleaning it , there's about 1/4" of grease dating back to 1976 on the tranny and all related parts , when I was replacing the exhaust manifold & re - wiring the engine compartment I'd scraped & de greased the engine before repainting the upper 2/3 of it so now I want to clean up the lower part , whew ! what a job , several attacks at it , to - day I was able to paint the bell housing and right side of the block & a little bit of the oil pan , more to go and I want to clean up and overhauls the starter too , get some fresh paint on that too so it'll all look spiffy when it's done . I found a nifty pilot bearing removal tool I'll write about if it works as described , it looks pretty slick . The new clutch came with two pilot bearings , I'm going to use the roller typ one as I know and like these from my Foreign car works . God alone knows how I'll get that tranny back upright and under the truck , I hear tell Harbor Freight has a hydraulic tranny jack cheaply so maybe I'll give that a look , I can give it to my son after the job is done as he's doing side jobs to pay for his recently purchased house , just like I did when he was a child . I also got a handful of various length bolts & cut the heads off , when I file the sharp edges rounded they'll make good tranny alignment tools , until you've tried this you cannot imagine how much easier it makes clutch work . I was looking inn the host's OnLine Catalog and found the rubber accordion boot for the clutch rob but not the boot for the clutch fork , Dorman has long discontinued it , maybe I'll see if the later model one Chevy Duty offers will work , I expect to get my printed catalog next week , I can install the boot anytime later , I'll go nuts thinking about it until I get it done . That's it for now , typical old truck fiddles , like back when I was in the dealer...
Sounds like fun! I used a couple of 2" ratchet straps and a floor jack to get my 465/205 back up into the blazer, it took a little while but it got the job done. Good luck! Ps: Send some of that rain our way if you could, we're in somewhat of a drought.
Ratchet Straps ! See now ? this is why I keep blathering away here , I'm always learning new things . I get *so* focused on the job at hand , I forget to think outside the box . I have some of those straps in the truck ! . I have more cleaning & painting to do yet , then replace the pilot bearing , hand wash the flywheel hospital clean & install the new clutch , then blah , blah blah..... I'm sure you alls know the drill .
Glad I could give you a useful tip! You'll have to ratchet it up a little at a time and hold it up with the jack while you loosen up each strap to take the slack out. Good luck and be careful!
Progress........ Last night I used my newfangled Lisle tool to ever so easily remove the 35 year old pilot bushing , it works slicker than greased glass ~ I'll take pictures of this fine , CHEAP tool once the job is done . Then I installed the new roller bearing typ pilot bearing , hand washed the flywheel one last time , using Ether and clean rags , lubed up the new clutch fork and pivots etc. , installed the new Daiken clutch and the bell housing , I wish I was still a young pup as this simple works takes me a long time and I'm still sore this morning but baby step by baby step , I'll ' Git 'Er Dune ' ' before too long . I also finished up and installed the tranny guide pins and lubed the input shaft's splines with a super thin coating of Moly . I have a job lined up for the 17th , I have to begin loading the truck on 4/15 so the clock is running .
Ratchet Straps Wait ~ maybe I didn't understand ~ you need to tighten them as you go along ? what is it attached to ? . I thought just to hold the tranny on the Trolley Jack's saddle , no ? . Please , elucidate ! .
Hook them to the frame I hook the straps to the frame one hook to each side, one strap under the front, the other under the tailshaft. Then inch your way up. Beats the heck out of trying to balance the tranny on the jack - even if it is strapped to it. Bob
HMmmmmmmmmmm.......... Thinking outside the box again , eh ? . I'll have to give that a look , not sure I can trust a strap with my life tho' .
In that case... use 4 straps If you use 4 straps, 2 on each end, you can use 1 to hold while you unwind and rehook the other. As well, by routing the strap over the top of the frame, you can get the tranny up higher. Just a couple months ago I used 1000 LB rated 2" straps to hoist up a 4L60E into SWMBO's Blazer. Worked like a charm. way better than the old method I used with 3 and 4 speeds of rolling the transmission on to my chest and bench pressing it into position. I was much younger then
Yep, what sidewynder said with the straps looped up over the frame on each side and under the tranny front and back, I should have explained a little better. I probably wouldn't trust 1" straps to do this but 2" are plenty strong for the job.
Thanx ! As it turns out , my Son called yesterday and agreed to conme over Monday next after work and help me re - install the tranny . I used to do the " Bench Press " thing on trannys but never with a Muncie ! .
! Fixed ! My son and I work a pretty good team as we're both Mechanics by trade and i trained him . We had the tranny installed in less than 20 minutes , the guide pins (new bolts with the heads cut off) helped greatly , no wiggling & huffing & puffing like the usual deal . The test drive went smoothly , this is a diaphragm typ clutch so I left plenty of free play in the clutch pedal . I also tightened up the loose & leaking head pipe to the exhaust manifold again ~ I've double nutted it but it still comes lose dangit . I drove it to work to - day and will be driving it daily to test as I'll begin loading it up with old VW parts for Sunday's PO-Mona Swap Meet . Co$t me $98 + to fill one tank last night ! OUCH .
WELCOME Dr. Scientist ! Yes , you are correct but I'm now a cripple so that sort of works is beyond my abilities these days . I really wanted a short bed with automatic but this nice old Ranch/Farm/Work truck came along and I stupidly bought it and dumped in more in parts than I imagine it'll ever be worth . I bought it for the one job and that's done so now is the time to discard it ,maybe I can donate it to charity and recoup a decent tax writeoff ? . I have about $3,500 into it and it's not done yet , I'd be happy to see $3K out if it . BTW , yes , this is a moribund forum , the folks here are really sharp and know what to do but don't often offer help , I dunno why . Just keep posting & looking through the older threads , I get much priceless info from the older threads and the occasional nugget in a response to my please for help .
