H41/Orion combo...

[Poser]

Now some attention to the transmission.

This is a ‘serviced’ unit from SOR, which is disassembled, cleaned, inspected and reassembled, replacing anything that needed attention. Well, with that said, I am still going to replace the rear housing gasket, that is between the transmission and the transfer case, which I just realized that I do not have any pictures of me doing this. However, I do have pictures of the front housing being removed and the gasket and seal being replaced. I would not put this into my truck without replacing these pieces, so that I KNOW that the input seal and gasket have been replaced and that the rear housing gasket is new.

Front housing with seal and a close-up of the input shaft.

 

[Poser]

Something that DOES NOT come with your H41 is the rear output shaft spacer. You will need to get one of these, unless you have a supply of parts units sitting around.

 

[Poser]

So since the rear transmission-housing gasket has been replaced and the output shaft spacer has been installed, we are now ready to get the Orion on the back of the transmission. To help with aligning things when slipping the transfer case onto the rear output of the transmission, I use two dowels. These are made from cutting the hex head off of the long four-speed transfer case retaining bolts. You can see in the second picture the cleaned up rear housing that had the gasket between the plate and transmission housing replaced. Make sure that you remember to install the gasket between the transmission and transfer case at this point.

 

[Poser]

You will want to get the Orion input gear lined up on the splines of the transmission output shaft, and the nose of the input gear into the input seal. You can see in the last picture in the previous post, the nose of the input gear through the input seal. In the top picture you can see the gasket that is installed between the transmission and transfer case.

Once the gear is into the seal and lined up on the splines you can rotate the transmission just a bit and push the case onto the dowels, by using your hand, reaching through the side PTO opening and pushing on the input gear. You will feel this all slip together.

 

[Poser]

Securing the Orion transfer case to the rear of the transmission requires the use of two special bolts supplied by AA. One short, internally wrenching metric bolt with the head diameter reduced, and a long bolt that has the shank reduced just a bit in an area just past the threads so that it will not possibly interfere with the large counter gear. With this special longer bolt, there is a washer that has a rubber seal integral to it, along with a lock washer. Again, both of these pieces are supplied by AA, and are installed in the order shown in the pictures. There is a new, long stock bolt placed next to the special bolts, just for reference.

I use red locktite on all of the bolts that retain the Orion to the transmission.

 

[Poser]

Installing the special longer bolt and pictures of the spatial relationship between that bolt and the counter gear. When installing the longer bolt, it may be necessary to rotate the counter gear as you are trying to get the bolt past the counter gear.

 

[Poser]

Long bolt installed.

 

[Poser]

Small special bolt and lock washer......10mm allen head.

 

[Poser]

Since I was not installing a PTO gear, I was not worried about getting that lined up when I put the case on the back of the transmission. There are two spacers that are used with the four speed transmission, one that replaces the PTO gear on the inside of the transfer case, and one that is between the rear bearing on the transmission output shaft, washer and stake nut under the tin cover over the rear PTO opening.

The inner PTO spacer is longer than the one used under the tin cover.

After the spacer is installed, slip the rear bearing onto the shaft and tap it home into the transfer case and seat it against the PTO spacer on the inside.

 

[Poser]

I use a piece of tubing as a driver for the rear bearing...typically it is not much trouble to get that bearing seated.

 

[Poser]

The rear spacer is now slipped onto the output shaft, along with the thick washer and new stake nut. I use red locktite on these as well, along with staking the nut. In order to torque the rear transmission nut, I put the transmission in second gear, and engaged reverse to lock the transmission.

 

[Poser]

Pictures of the transmission locked and the nut staked.

 

[Poser]

So leaving the transmission locked, I put the transfer case in low range, and slipped the front drive collar onto the front output shaft so that I could torque that stake nut as well.

 

[Poser]

Pictures of the new fine spline front output shaft(using red locktite on this nut also), torque wrench and staked nut.

 

[Poser]

Installing the side PTO gasket and cover. These bolts get blue locktite.

 

[Poser]

A couple pictures of it assembled and getting ready to ship out.

 

[D'Animal]

Do the parts in picture #78 and # 79 address the previously discussed situation of the Orion popping out of gear when compression braking on long downhills? My Orion was bought new from Gino at AA and installed professionally in Dec 06.

i ran into this problem. The shop said that they had to adjust the ball and spring or add a washer. I see no adjustment using a brass bolt unless you add a washer between the bolt and spring.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Beautiful. I know where the next evolution of my FJ40 is headed.

How come no t-case saver? Is the case so strong it isn't needed?

 

[Poser]

I cannot say.


The only washers that I know about are the stepped trust washers that are detailed in the beginning of this write up. They were offering stepped thrust washers to try and keep high and low speed gear free play on the main shaft between .008”-.012”.


Did you look at any of the pieces in your kit?

Was your high-speed gear back cut already?

What kind of free-play was present on the high-speed gear when installed on the main shaft?

 

[Poser]

Beautiful. I know where the next evolution of my FJ40 is headed.

How come no t-case saver? Is the case so strong it isn't needed?

The new case is cast iron, and not aluminum, and is significantly thicker all over, not just in the areas where the aluminum one-piece case is known to fail.