ATF getting into transfer, what to do?

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Personally Curtis, I would never rebuild a t-case without replacing the idler, considering how much load is on the shaft. Not sure what your spending in separate parts, but the complete overhaul kit cost me around $200.00. It includes bearings, idler and all the seals and gaskets. It great piece of mind.
GG
 
Granite Grinder said:
Personally Curtis, I would never rebuild a t-case without replacing the idler, considering how much load is on the shaft. Not sure what your spending in separate parts, but the complete overhaul kit cost me around $200.00. It includes bearings, idler and all the seals and gaskets. It great piece of mind.
GG
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That's likely the best way to go, get the whole kit and be prepared for whatever I find inside the case.
 
Don't make the same mistake I made. I ordered the whole kit but the only bearing that had any noticeable wear was one on the idler shaft. Waste of money and time/work replacing the other bearings that are not worn.

In my experience, people on this board while extremely hepful, are a little overly wrench happy. Rarely is it suggested that you replace only what is bad, most of the time, everyone says just to get the entire rebuild kit. It is not necessary in all cases.

I would tear the t-case down and replace what is needed.

However, if the kit is cheaper than most of the separate parts, obviously the rebuild kit is the way to go.
 
Bryan062087 said:
Don't make the same mistake I made. I ordered the whole kit but the only bearing that had any noticeable wear was one on the idler shaft. Waste of money and time/work replacing the other bearings that are not worn.

In my experience, people on this board while extremely hepful, are a little overly wrench happy. Rarely is it suggested that you replace only what is bad, most of the time, everyone says just to get the entire rebuild kit. It is not necessary in all cases.

I would tear the t-case down and replace what is needed.

However, if the kit is cheaper than most of the separate parts, obviously the rebuild kit is the way to go.
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:meh: I've got a second t-case that I know will need bearings, so no harm no foul if I only end up using gaskets and seals on this one.
 
FYI: there are actually TWO seals that keep the fluids separated. One is a traditional seal that is pressed into the front half of the t-case, it seals around the nose of the input gear, which you will be replacing with the McNamara. The other is an O-ring that slips over the tranny output shaft, squishes into a cavity that is milled into the nose of the same gear. This keeps fluid out that is going thru the splines of the gear. An old one will be smooshed into a triangle shape, whereas the new O-ring will have the usual round profile. Make sure you replace BOTH seals.
 
KLF said:
FYI: there are actually TWO seals that keep the fluids separated. One is a traditional seal that is pressed into the front half of the t-case, it seals around the nose of the input gear, which you will be replacing with the McNamara. The other is an O-ring that slips over the tranny output shaft, squishes into a cavity that is milled into the nose of the same gear. This keeps fluid out that is going thru the splines of the gear. An old one will be smooshed into a triangle shape, whereas the new O-ring will have the usual round profile. Make sure you replace BOTH seals.
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Cool, thanks for that. :cheers:
 
Bryan062087 said:
Don't make the same mistake I made. I ordered the whole kit but the only bearing that had any noticeable wear was one on the idler shaft. Waste of money and time/work replacing the other bearings that are not worn.

In my experience, people on this board while extremely hepful, are a little overly wrench happy. Rarely is it suggested that you replace only what is bad, most of the time, everyone says just to get the entire rebuild kit. It is not necessary in all cases.

I would tear the t-case down and replace what is needed.

However, if the kit is cheaper than most of the separate parts, obviously the rebuild kit is the way to go.
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Wile your point is well taken, in this case it's a flase economy. The labor, whether yours or someone elses, is the primary cost of this repair. With that in mind, a full rebuild makes sense, because the amount of extra expense is trivial, and you need to put in the same amount of effort in splitting the case, either way.
 
When we did mine, Rob also put some RTV on the splines to help keep the fluid creep at bay. He also gooped up the idler where it meets the case on the back.
GG
 
I did this last year after I kept finding ATF fluid on the rear window and figured out what was going on. I have the tranny from rodney with the Mcnamara gear. I had a reputible shop put it in (which turned out to be not so reputible). Turns out, that they had kinked the seal that goes between the tranny and the output shaft. It started to leak about a year into it.

I decided to redo it myself at a friends shop. After talking with Rodney a couple times about the issue. And calling him while I was putting it back together. He said you NEED to put silicone sealer (RTV) librally around the final seals. So far so good, it's been over a year now.

I can't recall all the details, but it took about most of the day with the right tools.

BTW the tranny runs smooth and love it.
Good Luck
 
The McNamara gear showed up today. Hopefully the rebuild kit isn't far behind and I can get this done with next week. I was a bit surprised, I thought it was going to be a Toyota gear with mated to a newly machined center spline section, but as far as I can tell, it's one piece. Once I get this in, my drive train is going to talk with a heavy Aussie accent.

For the record, I am running ATF in the case right now, and can definitely tell the difference in terms of clunk.

As always, a few pics.
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Awesome! I am kicking myself for not picking up one of those when I replaced the transmission... I currently have a minor 'clunk' and the forum suggested I pick up this gear when replacing the trans and rebuilding the tcase. Live and learn...
 
BG_TX said:
Awesome! I am kicking myself for not picking up one of those when I replaced the transmission... I currently have a minor 'clunk' and the forum suggested I pick up this gear when replacing the trans and rebuilding the tcase. Live and learn...
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I suspect you can go a long time with clunk before it actually gives. Swapping in the extreme valvebody made my clunk more apparent, and I suspect accelerated the wear on the shaft. The shifts between drive and overdrive with the convertor locked are pretty harsh with any slop.
 
astr said:
Did you get your McNamera gear installed? If so, are you getting any gear noise or whine with the new gear?
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The rebuild kit didn't show up in time to do the job before I had to leave town for a while. Hopefully it will show up within the next week so I can tackle it when I get home.
 
Well, today is transfer day. :) So not too far into it yet, but so far only 2 broken bolts from the transmission cross-member. Gotta love salted road trucks. I'll post up as I run into any issues. Gonna be nice when I'm working on the California truck down the road. Can see I'll be using the RTV pretty liberally on reassemble...
 
Okay, first issue: Anyone have a good suggestion on a tool/technique for de-staking the staked nuts? I tried driving a nail in between the nut and the channel on the shaft, but the nail just bends, got a bit further with a small screwdriver, but it didn't have the guts to do the job either....
Also realized I should have picked up 32mm and 36mm sockets before starting....
 
RockDoc said:
Okay, first issue: Anyone have a good suggestion on a tool/technique for de-staking the staked nuts? I tried driving a nail in between the nut and the channel on the shaft, but the nail just bends, got a bit further with a small screwdriver, but it didn't have the guts to do the job either....
Also realized I should have picked up 32mm and 36mm sockets before starting....
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Steel punch and hammer
P

I'm sure you have it de-staked by now
 
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