Barn Rebuild: The family heirloom

[Heirloom]

At this point, the FSM tells you that you need a special assembly tool. There is not a picture of the tool in the FSM, however I can tell you with reasonable confdence what I guess this tool looks like. It looks like a microscopically thinner counter gear shaft that is short enough to fit between the machined surfaces in the case. It keeps everything in place while you fuss about in there and try to align everything.

Anyway, you don't need it, but you will spend a little extra time fiddling around with things to get it all aligned.

4. Use grease to "glue" the thrust washers to the counter gear. Pay attention to what washers go where. The case is keyed to accept the thrust washer with a particular alignment. Make sure you take note of how it will fit together before giving yourself a headache.

Take your assembled counter gear in the transmission. The small end goes into the top opening first, aim it at the output shaft hole. Drop the big end in, then get it all squared up to drop into its place. Make sure the thrust washers stay in place and align with the key-way in the case.

Do not make my first big mistake and install the counter gear shaft yet! Instead, just slide a really long skinny screwdriver through the location that the shaft should be, to keep the counter gear and washers relatively aligned while you install the input shaft.

5. Gather the pieces for the input shaft. There is an input shaft, a big ball bearing, a snap ring, some rollers, and another snap ring.

The bearing has a big snap ring. Mine came installed in the bearing. I left it on.

The input shaft has a small snap ring installed to retain the rollers. I did not have to remove this snap ring. Just use a small screwdriver to pop the first roller out and the rest will fall free.

Install the big bearing onto the input shaft. If you have a shop press and the special service tool, more power to you. If you are a redneck in a barn, you need a block of wood, a BFH, and a specially cut piece of schedule 40 pipe that you have named "bearing installer SST". Make sure the pipe clears the splines of the input shaft, but only contacts the inner race of the ball bearing.

Place the wood on the ground. Place the input shaft on the wood pointing up. Slide your new bearing down (double check the direction you orient the snap ring). Slide your bearing installer SST over. Apply BFH appropriately.

Note: I tap the bearing on for the first millimeter or so very gently, so I can ensure that it is square on the shaft. After you have it started and square, you may apply your BFH more liberally. AT NO POINT should you be hitting this assembly extremely hard. Just enough force to make the bearing progress toward its seat.

Now that the big ball bearing is seated, you can install the final set of rollers for this transmission build! No separating into piles, just use grease to keep them in place. I did not remove the retaining snap ring for these rollers. This means that the last one is going to be a little stubborn when you try to snap it in like a puzzle piece. Use gentle, but firm pressure and it will pop into place.

Now, install the input shaft. If you need to remove your screwdriver from the counter shaft in order to get the gears past each other, then do it. Just be careful not to allow all your thrust washers to fall out of place. If the thrust washers fall out of place, you may have to remove everything just to get it all back together again with correct alignment. Ask me how I know.

6. Now you can pull the counter gear into place and slide the counter gear shaft through. Make sure the smooth end goes in first. Also, make sure the slot for the wooruff key is aligned appropriately with the case. Sorry, no pictures for this step.

 

[Heirloom]

7. It is time to install the rest of the top shaft. I did not disassemble the gears that were pressed onto the spline shaft, since my rebuild kit did not include new synchros. The one that comes out when you separate the input shaft from the spline shaft was not terribly worn, so I have to assume the other one is in similar condition. If the synchros are worn out, I'll find out when I'm driving it. I'll be so excited about driving it that I won't even care about a worn synchro.

Anyway, the parts you need here are a spline shaft with assembled second gear, a 3rd gear synchro, shift collar (should be installed on the spline shaft already), the first.reverse gear, and another big ball bearing with snap ring.

Slide the first/reverse gear into the spline shaft. Insert the threaded end of the spline shaft into the top of the transmission and out the output shaft hole. Slip the 3rd gear synchronizer into place and slide the spline shaft back into the appropriate position. No pictures, since I got mad about my counter gear shaft debacle.

Slide the big ball bearing over the tail end of the spline shaft with the snap ring outward. Use your SST bearing installer pipe (which is very similar to Toyota's SST this time), to get the bearing into the case. Do no strike anything very hard. The bearing should be pressed onto the shaft and slide freely into the case, but if anything is slightly out of alignment, you could damage the balls or races by hitting anything too hard. Finesse the bearing into place (or mostly, at least) using your SST. Installing the transfer case to the transmission will help get everything seated for sure.

8. Drop the two shift forks into place. Do not worry about the detent balls or springs at this point. Just get the forks installed.
Once the forks are resting in place, install a spring into each fork. I dip the end of the spring in grease so it doesn't get any wise ideas about sliding out of place.

Put the new o-ring on the shift fork shaft. Spray the shaft with WD-40 or other light lubricant. Slide the tapered end of the shift fork shaft into the input end of the transmission case. Use a pen magnet to lower a ball bearing into the foremost fork. Slide the shaft in such that the tapered end catches the ball in the fork and you can remove the magnet without losing the ball. Now, slide the shaft over the ball. You should feel it fall into the first detent.

This is the fun part. If you want, you can keep sliding the shaft past every intention and force it past. I used a flat screwdriver to twist the shaft so that none of the indentions aligned with the ball. This made sliding the shaft to the second fork much less dramatic. Get the shaft just barely into the rearmost fork. Just the tip.

Now, use your magnet to install the ball for the second fork. Twist the shaft so the tapered end will catch the ball in place as you slide it through. Repeat the process similarly to get the second fork completely onto the shift fork shaft.

Once everything is fully seated, the shift fork shaft needs to be twisted into correct alignment and secured with a roll pin. The FSM does not mention a roll pin, but the shaft and case are keyed for some sort of woodruff key or roll pin. This is a redundant step, since the shift fork shaft is sandwiched between the front bearing retainer and the transfer case.

9. Install the oil seal in the front bearing retainer and grease the lip of the seal. Install the retainer with the appropriate gasket and appropriate alignment (there is an oil passage that goes at the bottom).

Congratulations! Aside from putting the top plate on, you have just rebuilt a transmission. If you are as good as me, you rebuilt it twice after realizing you had done it wrong on the first attempt.

Do yourself a favor and make sure you can pop it into all the gears and make everything turn freely by hand in every gear before trying to go any farther and install the transfer case to the transmission.

 

[Vae Victus]

Oh thank goodness you did this - I've come to rely on a written guide, and I swear the FSM for the '75-77 has half the text missing.

So after all that, would you recommend I rebuild mine? I've got the tranny waiting for me to start, kit is on the table, fresh off the boat from Japan. Transfer case is waiting on me to set the preload, and is thus nearly done. Clutch would be last.

If I do, I'll take pics of disassembly. Mine is a 4 speed - be interesting to see the differences. Piece of cake. What could go wrong?

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Yes... for $106.25 plus shipping.

The mates for the damaged gear are both in good shape. The only damage on any part in the transmission is shown in the picture. That part of the gear tooth does not contact any other gear teeth except during the transition time that the reverse shift fork slides the reverse gear into mesh with the reverse idler gear (the damaged one).

Once the burr is removed, this gear will be serviceable.

Put a message in the parts wanted section in the board. I am sure someone has one. I recently gave away a 3 speed transmission.

Rebuild looks great.

 

[Heirloom]

Put a message in the parts wanted section in the board. I am sure someone has one. I recently gave away a 3 speed transmission.

Rebuild looks great.

Too late. I just rebuilt the transmission, which means the gear was deburred and reinstalled. It looks like everything will be just fine in there.

New topic, I have the relay rod and drag link ready to go back together with the TRE's. One is a little longer than the other. Which is the relay rod? Which is the drag link?

 

[spotcruiser]

Per the FSM, the drag link is about 1/2" longer than the relay rod (finished length, between ends). The difference in rod length in your photo looks quite a bit longer than I'd expect. Are the rods about 2" different in length?

 

[Heirloom]

Per the FSM, the drag link is about 1/2" longer than the relay rod (finished length, between ends). The difference in rod length in your photo looks quite a bit longer than I'd expect. Are the rods about 2" different in length?

Maybe 1.25 or 1.5" difference. Not quite 2. The drag link end is not a typical ball joint and is significantly longer than a regular TRE.

 

[Heirloom]

The engine rebuild begins

Today, I woke up relaxed, knowing that all the necessary stuff I needed for my engine rebuild (at least the "guts" part of the engine) were in my garage. This means that there is no need to make the trek out to the barn. I made a pot of coffee, made some breakfast (donut-shaped sausage patties may have been involved), and watched part of le Tour de France before putting clothes and wondering downstairs to get started. I prefer days in my garage. Since I live in an apartment, my garage is under somebody's home. Their air conditioned apartment helps keep my garage cool, and that is nice.

I'm getting off topic.

The FSM outlines how to measure main bearing clearance with plastigauge. Here is the photo essay.

1. Wipe everything clean. Using a dab of assembly lube to help get all the pieces to slid into place, I installed the bits of bearing pieces in the block and the caps. Make sure you are keeping track of how everything is oriented. Also, keep track of those pesky main bearing shims! They are feathery, and I had a fan running.

2. After installing the bearings, lube generously with assembly lube and carefully lower the crank into place. Make sure that it seats all the way down in the bearings. If you can get it to turn by hand without much effort, it is probably seated.

3. Get your plastigauge ready. The package looks like this, but less fuzzy in person:

4. Trim plastigauge into small pieces that are about the same length as the width of the bearing surface. You will be placing the little pieces of plastic parallel to the crank centerline. Cut with a sharp razor, so you squish the plastic as little as possible. It is really soft, so try not to handle the stuff too much. Definitely do not try to pick it up with your fingernails. This will squish the plastigauge rendering it useless.

Look very carefully for a light green line on the bearing journal. That is the plastigauge.

5. Lightly smear some assembly lube in the bearings on the caps. Place the bearing caps in the appropriate places on the block. Do not tap into place. Just get it close enough that you can thread the bolts in.

Torque the bearings to spec. Start with the middle two caps, then the front, then the rear. First, I torqued everything to 50 ft-lbs. Then I went a second round at spec. First three caps get 101 ft-lbs. The rear main has four small bolts, rather than 2 big ones, and gets torqued to 87 ft-lbs.

Do not turn the crank.

6. Remove the bolts. Remove the caps by sliding a screwdriver into the bolt holes and pivoting perpendicular to the crank centerline. This should reveal your plastigauge as a smashed little line on the crank bearing journal (this is why you put the assembly lube on the cap, not the crank).

Compare the widest part of the plastigauge (narrowest clearance) to your scale on the package for every bearing. Hopefully, the clearance is pretty uniform across the entire bearing. Spec is between 0.02 and 0.06 mm.

Bearing1 (frontmost): Note that this bearing is just barely within spec, since the plastigauge is barely thinner than the 0.05 mm scale. Probably very close to the 0.06 mm maximum tolerance.

Bearing 2: Note that the plastic is almost, but not quite as wide as the scale. This bearing is at the limit... very close to 0.060 mm. Within spec, but barely.

Bearing 3 Note that the width is not exactly the same as the scale. Clearance is slightly above 0.038 mm.

Rear bearing: Note that the plastic is slightly narrower than the scale it is against in the pic. Clearance is slightly above 0.025 mm on this bearing.

After I verified that all my main bearings are within spec and square (the plastigauge thickness did not taper across the bearings), I was dancing for joy. Plastigauge is pretty waxy. To clean it off, I scraped with a fingernail. This left some residue, so I sprayed a little PB Blaster onto a paper towel and wiped the residue off.

I reassembled the crank bearings with a large dose of assembly lube and re-torqued. This time, I installed the sheetmetal keepers and bent the ears after final double-check of the torque on each bolt. Don't forget to install the rear main seal during this step. Mine is made in Japan, and came in the SOR overhaul gasket kit.

I re-used the bolt keepers, since mine were in re-usable condition.

 

[Heirloom]

The camshaft issues

Well, I was planning on not driving out to the barn today. That was before I tried to install my cam.

If you are regulars in the 40 section, you may be aware of my engine building mentor (unbeknownst to him) FJ40Jim and his thread "How NOT to restore the FJ40".

Well somewhere along page 3 is this post (link), where he oulines what happens when a deeper than necessary cup is installed to seal the cam bore at the back of the block.

Guess what? I need to drive out to St. Paul and get my freeze plug kit out of a box somewhere, so I can remove the plug installed incorrectly by the machine shop and install the correct plug. No big deal. I didn't expect the machine shop to install the freeze plugs, and other than this one, they used the correct type. Unfortunately, they didn't use the socket trick installing the disk-type plugs, and all my freeze plugs have nice little divots from a ball peen hammer instillation. No biggie. As long as they are watertight, I don't really care about a dimple in my freeze plugs. Just as long as you folks all know that the ugly plugs were not installed by me!

Anyhoo, here are a couple of pictures showing where the cam rests when it bottoms out on the rear plug.

What the pictures do not show is that the cam lobes are perfectly centered under the lifter holes. This would lead to a cam that does not promote the lifter spinning, which would cause the same cam and lifter destruction that Jim found upon tearing down the engine in his "How not to restore the FJ40" thread. I don't want that, so we'll go ahead and remedy this before assembling anything else.

The pain in the butt here is that I have to lift the block onto my work table and remove the engine stand bracket in order to replace this seal. You may or may not be aware that the F engine block is pretty heavy. I'm not exactly looking forward to this.

I'll report back later today or tomorrow with my progress.

Also, I am still looking for a definitive answer on my question about the relay rod vs. drag link. If any experts are out there, I would appreciate the help. Or... If someone wants to go put a measuring tape on their non-power steering FJ40 and let me know the length of the relay rod and drag link (without TRE's) I would buy you a cold beverage upon meeting you.

Thanks for reading and helping.

 

[lostmarbles]

Superbly informative thread with quality pics to match!

 

[merlinridesagain]

Superbly informative thread with quality pics to match!

+1

Excellent - thanks for sharing a good read and reference for the future!

 

[Heirloom]

Earlier I posted this image:






There is a caveat here. I do have to change out the plug, because the cam does not seat all the way.

But... In this image, the plate that should be behind the camshaft mounting flange is not present. I have to close about 3mm less than what this picture shows.

 

[Heirloom]

I'm about to go down to the garage and tinker with my engine. Here is an update from yesterday's progress.

I drove out to the family compound (parents bought a large lot, then divided it and sold pieces to other family members about 30 years ago), where I was storing bins of parts in the garage that my grandmother keeps her old Willy's in.

Then I dug out some engine parts

In the bins were some pieces that were sandblasted from before our move back to North Texas. There were also some nasty parts that needed blasting. Remember, I am just an idiot in a barn. I don't have one of those fancy blasting cabinets. I just have a siphon blaster attached to a pail. I blast parts in a plastic storage bin, which means I get to recycle about 80% of my sand, then 80% of that, and so on. It also means I have to put on one of those white plastic painters suits with the hood and booties if I want to keep the sand out of my clothes and hair (what's left of it).

It was 102*F (~39*C for you metric types) yesterday. I almost passed out after blasting for 30-45 minutes in that stupid suit.

Anyway, A few parts were blasted and painted gloss black. Parts were baked in the sun to cure quickly. I found all the engine mounts, most of the covers for drivetrain parts, the oil pressure regulator/bypass valve, and (randomly) the brake pedal. I need to rummage through my cups of bolts, because I can't remember where I left that dang 'ole oil squirter for the timing gears. I'm going to need that pretty soon.

 

[Heirloom]

Per the FSM, the drag link is about 1/2" longer than the relay rod (finished length, between ends). The difference in rod length in your photo looks quite a bit longer than I'd expect. Are the rods about 2" different in length?

I looked in the FSM and couldn't locate this information. I went ahead and took your advice, since you are the only person who had any answer for my question. Any chance you could tell me what page or section the info about drag link length and relay rod length are in so I can verify?

I put these together loosely. The lengths seem to correspond with your information. This means the shorter (raw) rod is a part of the longer (finished) drag link. Intuitive, no?

Note: Not all ball joints are similar. The tapered fitting on the end of the relay rod that goes into the TRE is much deeper than the tapered bolt in the end of the drag link. Scrutinize my picture below to see what I mean.

From left to right, #1 is the drag link end (RH threaded, IIRC). #2 is for the relay rod, at the end connecting the right TRE (LH threaded). #3 and #4 are shallower than #2. One is RH threaded for the other end of the relay rod. One is LH threaded for the unfinished end of the drag link.

#2 is the one with the longer tapered ball joint to fit into the thicker TRE. The relay arm is not as thick as the TRE, and receives a shallower ball joint. If you really scrutinize the top pic, you can see that I did it wrong on my first try. I am really good at making mistakes and learning from them. My audience benefits.

 

[Heirloom]

Heirloom,
When you get the t-case kit, post a pic of all the parts will you? I'm interested to compare to the kit I got and see if there are any differences. Specifically, the 3 seals that are included.

Where did you get the kit, and your cost, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm sorry I never got around to posting pics of the seals. My Tcase kit came with traditional rubber (spring reinforced) seals for input end and output end and paper style gaskets for all the covers, plus a paper gasket for the transmission to Tcase junction. There were also assorted O-rings for the various rods and shafts, plus one disk type plug for the case where the idler shaft lives. Finally, the kit had two felt donuts for the speedometer gear.

The Trans rebuild kit came with paper gaskets for all covers, another paper gasket for the transmission to transfer case junction, and a rubber seal for the input shaft cover/front bearing retainer.

A note that I would like to inform you all of:
If you order the transmission rebuild kit from CCOT, included parts seem high quality. BUT, the transmission kit did not include new seals for the shafts involved with the early, column-shifted shifter plate. This kit is built for top-loaded 3-speed transmissions. For the time being, I am not going to worry about replacing the rubber seals around the shift shafts, but it is a nit-pick I have with the kit.

Come to think of it, I think I will email CCOT and ask them to update their description on the site to reflect this.

Edit: The CCOT site shows a reasonable picture of the parts included in the kits. You can check out their site for that.

 

[spotcruiser]

Here are scans of the pages. I measured the stock rods on a '76 and the relay rod was not quite an inch longer than the drag link (rods without the ends). Certainly, there were changes made between '66 and '76. I think you have them set up properly in your photo.

Any chance you could tell me what page or section the info about drag link length and relay rod length are in so I can verify?

 

[Heirloom]

Thanks for the info on the relay rod. That makes me feel better.



Today, I was able to get some work done on the engine assembly.

First, I had to get the block off of the stand and onto my strong work table in order to gain access to the cam plug on the back of the block. It's pretty heavy, but I persevered.

Next, I wrapped a long metal rod in blue tape so it wouldn't scratch the cam bearings. I passed the rod through the cam bore and knocked out the incorrect plug.

Look at the difference between the incorrect (deep) and correct (shallow) plugs.

Using my LFH, I installed the correct plug. I skim-coated the plug with mopar black transmission seal (ATF-RTV) for a leak-free plug. The only reason I used this particular sealant is that I was a Chrysler transmission tech before I went back to college. My toolbox is full of this stuff.

New plug installed, I put my timing cover backing plate in place (don't forget the gasket!) and installed the cam.

Note in the pictures that the cam lobes are slightly off-center underneath the lifter holes. This promotes rotation of the lifter, extending the life of the cam and lifters. Now everything seats correctly.

don't forget to make sure that the cam is in time with the crank.

 

[Heirloom]

Cam drama rectified, I was motivated to assemble the rest of the rotating assembly.

I measured the clearances of the rings. After the machine shop honed out the cylinders, they were barely in spec. I'm happy that I get to reuse the factory pistons, though. Install the rings. The ring set I got from the machine shop were not exactly the same style as the factory rings, but they were specified for this motor. I installed them according to the order and orientation described on the packaging that the rings came in.

The rings have to be clocked in the cylinders appropriately. This means that the two compression rings are clocked 180* out from each other and the two oil rings are clocked so their end gap is also 180* out from each other. Set the oil rings 90* out from the compression rings so all the end gaps are arranged like an X on the piston. Lastly, make sure that none of the rings are aligned with a thrust face on the piston. basically, this means no end gaps that align with piston skirts. It's all pretty basic, eh?

Now, spread some light oil on the pistons and rings. I used some motor oil, because it was lying around. Without changing your ring end-gap clocking, compress the rings in your piston installer sleeve (no pic) and wind that thing down on the rings. Now you don't have to worry about losing your carefully placed ring clocking pattern.

One at a time, I installed all the bearings, then knocked in each piston to the same hole it came out of originally. Don't forget, F135 motors have a "front" for each piston. The wrist pins are not perfectly centered in the pistons and it makes a difference how they are installed. connecting rod caps were all torqued to 50 ft-lb per FSM directions.

At this point, it was hot and I was hungry. I tore down one of the rocker assemblies and put it in a bowl of diesel for the night. As is everything in this motor, all parts are coated in carbon. Here's a pic of what order the pieces go in:

That's all the work I'm putting in today, folks.

 

[Vae Victus]

Have you rebuilt an engine before? Mighty good write up. Learning quite a bit.

 

[Heirloom]

Have you rebuilt an engine before? Mighty good write up. Learning quite a bit.

Yes/no

I was a professional wrench for an independent shop for the first 3-4 years out of high school. I did everything there except full overhauls.

What that means is that this is my first foray into completely tearing apart and reassembling the rotating parts of an automobile engine, but I'm not exactly diving into the deep end without a few swim lessons. I've been through a few top-end rebuilds and some minor bottom-end repairs.

I have done a few complete overhauls on small engines, but a Briggs and Stratton engine requires a slightly lower level of competency, IMHO. I'm not counting that.