Chuzie's '77 Project

[mudmonkey]

When I get done I will post all my references for the build as well as the mods because God knows I ain't doing this stuff on my own!

More to come...[/QUOTE]

When your done, we are GOING wheeln:xyxthumbs:

[chuzie]

There is some helpful info. thanks.
Just took some measurements...

Beveled inner pressure plate from the forward clutch pack= .260 incl. bevel.

standard steel + clutch is appx .153

My clearance wiith the 4 pack installed (stock) was at .057.
Now with the modification subtract the original pressure plate (.222) and add the beveled forward clutch plate (.260) plus the new steel and clutch .153 would bring my clearance to -.134 which means I would need to machine the plate and take out .159 to make the final clearance .025. Now that will leave .101 on the modified plate, which is about 77% larger than the steel I was going to use to cap off the pack before you said something about it. That makes things much better in my opinion.

Now why did you choose that particular pressure plate for modification? Is it just easy to find or were you utilizing the bevel for something? I assume I will be machining the bevel off right? Detail if you don't mind so I don't tell the guy the wrong thing.

Oh wait, just did some more "research" and found that I could possibly flip the beveld plate upside down to cap off the pack without the need to do any machining. Is this true? If so, the meaurement of the plate excluding the bevel is .113 so all the math over again with this new number brings my clearance to .013 still out of limits so I would need to shave of, at the very least, .012.

So regardless I will need to shave an amount off of either the normal pressure plate or an extra from the fwd clutch pack so I may as well just use the normal plate and avoid purchasing an additional item. So basically looking at taking the original pressure plate down to .101 by removing .121 and that will give me .025 clearance with the 5th set installed.

now my specs call for C4 clutch pack clearance to be .050-.071 and C5 at .020-.050. what allows me to use C5 specs in this situation?

Too many numbers. My noggin hurts now. Your turn to check my math.

Thanks again for the help on this one. You caught a pretty big potential problem with my mod.

[bucketobolts]

The pressure plate in my pic was the original thick plate from the direct pack. I machined it down similar to the inner forward plate leaving the "meat" in the center for strength. I didn't write my measurement down but .100" seams about right.

I prefer to load my piston and clutches in the drum then install a snap ring. I use either a feeler guage b/w the snap ring and top plate or set the drum on a flat metal table to us my magnetic mount with the dial indicator. Sometimes trial and error is the simplest way to set the clearance.

[chuzie]

Ok. Now I see what you mean. So just machine down the flat side of the Beveled inner pressure plate from the forward clutch pack so that the beveld side is left intact to extra strength. Good deal. Thanks for the clarification. I will see if I can grab one of those today.

[chuzie]

Can't seem to get hold of that pressure plate from anyone in town so my only option is to machine down my original plate. Maybe I can have them leave a bevel on the top if it does not cost too much $$$. Time to find a good machinist in town that can do this for me. Most of the places I called today said they can't do it. Sounds weird because what I am asking is nothing cosmic.

[blazinchuck]

check with Ray @ auto performance machine...767-5095

[chuzie]

Ya, that shop was one of the handful I called today who said they couldn't do it. Go figure.

[chuzie]

Didn't do too much today. Got the TC delivered and received my extra friction plate for my 5 pack reverse/high but I will have to wait until tomorrow to assemble that since I need to machine down the pressure plate.

I assembled the Fwd Clutch drum and my clearance came out to just about .026 which is within the .025-.050 limit.


The FWD clutch assembly parts


Completed FWD clutch ready for installation.

A word to the wise on this pack... there are two snap rings. One is selective and one non. The non goes on top of the Belleville spring and the selective on top of the upper pressure plate where we measure the clearance. To determine the correct snap ring use a caliper and measure the thickness. The nonselective will be slightly less than .070. Mine was at .063 and since the smallest selective in the series is .070 I knew it was correct. I also belleville that the selective snap ring has on end terminating with a ear and the other does not but that is just an observation on my setup and may not be indicative of others.

When I first measure the clearance it got .010 which is WAY out of limits so I tore the pack back down and discovered I had failed to completely seat the snap ring for the Belleville spring which caused it to ride high and threw my measurement off. The second time around I got .026. I have also found that I prefer to use my dial indicator to measure the clearance rather than a feeler gage just because I feel I get better accuracy.

[chuzie]

So here is a question about measuring the pack clearance. I guess you can really take two approaches to meauring the clearance between the top pressure plate and the snap ring. Either zero out the dial indicator with the pack compressed (by hand) or zero out wtih it in a static state (just as it would naturally lay).

This may seem silly but it actaully makes a big difference in my measurement. Anyone want to chime in on the correct method to use in this situation?

I am also looking for some advice on how to get the sprag kit put together. I am having some difficulty getting the last 5 rollers installed with the inner race in the way.

[chuzie]

So here is the deal as of today.
Yesterday I got a lot of the build completed after I resolved my issue with the Rev/High drum. I was able to add the 5th friction+steel by replacing the pressure plate with a .100 thick steel and reducing the size of the snap ring. My clearance came out to about .035 and am fine with that.
So on to the build progress.

Installed...
Parking gear and pawl
Sprag and roller kit and inner race (fun)
Low reverse band
Reverse clutch drum
Output shaft
reverse ring gear and planetary
forward clutch assembly and planetary
input shell
Input shaft
Intermediate band

Modified...
apply strut to fit the new rigid band
stator for the oil mod

Most of the installation items were pretty easy but it took a while because I went so slowly and lubed everything with Lucas Oil Transmission Fix which is thick nasty stuff.

One snag I hit was the sprag and roller kit. It took me a while to devise a method for installation. You can't just shove the rollers in their holes because there will not be enough room for everything. The trick is to install about 1/2 the rollers and then to get the other 1/2 in you have to compress the sprags both on the roller position you wish to install as was as those on the opposite side. This moved the opposite roller into the recess in the outer hub which makes more room for the inner race and thus the new roller. This probably makes no sense right now but I bet when you do one of these you will be like "oh, ok."

The new rigid band has a slightly larger tab to insert into the apply strut so I had to dremel a little out of it to make it work. No big deal and it worked just fine.

I also started on the stator mod. I almost got my butt kicked when removing the ball plug because I could not get it to pop out with the normal suggested methods. I ended up drilling most of the core out and peeling it out after a painful 45 minutes. The spring and one of the balls inside came out just fine and of course the second ball was pretty well stuck even though I was beating the crap out of the stator to get it loose. I ended up caping one side of the shaft with thick tape and wrapping my air gun with a sock to create a seal on the other side. Cranked up the PSI to about 120 and after a few strokes of the hammer and all that air the little SOB popped right out. Now I just need to purchase a 1/4" NPT hex plug and tap to cap off the hole and I will be ready to install the stator and pump and see if we have a decent endplay measurement. I also need to get my air checks done.




This is the Rev/High assembly bits and pieces. Notice I used the rough frictions rather than the smooth.


Reverse gear



Sprag and roller kit before inner race installed. This method did NOT work so I had to remove 1/2 the rollers and then insert the inner race and work the other 1/2 in one at a time. If you look at the outer hub (outer race if you will) you can barely see how the wall tapers out as the wall goes from the roller to the sprag. So if you compress the roller clockwise against the sprag you create more room.


governor distributor sleeve.

progress as of this evening with most of the guts installed and ready for the stator and pump below.

stator and pump assy.. you can see the hole on the outer diameter of the stator where I drilled the balls out. I will plug it up tomorrow. those are the handful of selective #1 washers I will use to get my endplay clearance correct after stator and pump installation.

I fly tomorrow so I doubt I will get much, if anything, done. Chuck, I need to coordinate with you to get hold of my jack stands and your tranny jack. I have hand jammed the tranny in this rig a few times and it is not even remotely fun. A jack would be most appreciated. :xyxthumbs: