O R I O N (1 Viewer)

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Once you pull the shift rail out, please take a close-up pic of the 3 detent slots. I'll be able to tell you which design it is .....
Wow. I've looked at too many of these.
Orion nerd. Guilty as charged.

Lol

Georg @ Valley Hybrids
 
Sweet, that looks great!!!

I've got two more at the shop right now. They should both be done this coming week.

:)

Georg @ Valley Hybrids
 
Becky's Orion done.....SM420 7 to 1, steel plate adapter/clocked to fit mini cv front driveline, 4 to 1, Vacuum shift with dash light.
Becky T&T 001.JPG
Becky T&T 002.JPG
 
Orion case #309, was in a 40 bought by friend Ben Delp two years ago. Couldn't shift it out of high range. Pulled it out and replaced (temporarily) with a spare from my garage. Upon disassembly it was found that the low speed gear on the out put shaft was welded by friction to the output shaft, had a helluva time getting it apart. Obviously it was assembled with little or no (even negative) clearance when the thrust washer was installed. Couldn't tell if the washer was stepped or flat the way it was galled up.

Ben bought a new output shaft, low speed gear and a bearing and seal kit for the repair. Found that the replacement gear wouldn't work, apparently his Orion was an earlier 3:1 ratio. Had to buy a new idler gear to match up with the only available low speed gear, now it's a 4:1 box, certainly an improvement for wheeling. Went together perfectly, I used flat thrust washers to set the clearances on the high and low speed gears both were in the .011" area. Just waiting for an opportunity to get it installed in Ben's 40 to see how everything worked out.

If for any reason someone has a need for an idler gear with teeth counts of 25 and 46 let me know; it's like new.
 
The flanges for the Orion HD are 32 spline units just like an NP205 and Atlas Tcase. They won't work on a standard Orion.
The flanges in the pic and from Inchworm.
But I do stock multi pattern flanges for the standard Orion.
Georg @ Valley Hybrids & Cruiser Brothers
 
I have case 529 , it pops out of gear a lot, I will hopefully have it fixed by Orange 45 at the end of summer, very tired of having to shut down the truck and put it back in gear!
 
Nifski said:
I have case 529 , it pops out of gear a lot, I will hopefully have it fixed by Orange 45 at the end of summer, very tired of having to shut down the truck and put it back in gear!
Click to expand...

I have case 524 and have no such issue. Are you sure your shifter or linkage is not hitting the body?
 
I have case #39 and it's been running great for years, but started popping to neutral from high range early last year on easy downhill gravel roads. That could be a real issue if you're tooling down a highway at 70mph from a mountain pass and have to come to a stop to put it back in gear (fortunately I didn't have the issue on the highway). I tore into it and did not find a smoking gun. Everything looked great and all the specs were good. AA recommended that I replace the main output shaft and high speed gear, which I did, and that solved the issue. Their theory was that I just had wear (especially the stock output shaft that was re-used when I initially built my box) such that the high speed gear was wobbling enough to bump the box into neutral. I wasn't able to give it a good test until this past weekend, but it did great through three long days of pretty rough and varied trails. I'm happy with it again.

Fast Eddy said:
I have case 524 and have no such issue. Are you sure your shifter or linkage is not hitting the body?
Click to expand...
 
I need a mechanic or shop in Arizona to look at my Orion , if there is no one available then I will have to travel, any thoughts?

Thx, N
 
Nifski said:
I need a mechanic or shop in Arizona to look at my Orion , if there is no one available then I will have to travel, any thoughts?

Thx, N
Click to expand...

Dave Gore at 4Plus in Globe...or is it Miami? Heck I just sent him something and I can't remember. D'oh.
 
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Nifski said:
Mark, I did not know he worked on these, I will give him a call!

Thx,N
Click to expand...

Yup, Dave kind of gets pigeon-holed as a fab guy even though he's a great all-around wrench. I've got the same dilemma: I rebuild a lot of transmissions, steering boxes, front axles etc, but everyone thinks of me as the carb guy. Good luck.
 
I just wanted to add a follow-up on my Orion issue. As noted above in post #634, on a trip a couple of years ago it started to pop into Neutral from High Range when running downhill on mild gravel roads. I rebuilt the box with a new main shaft and high-speed gear per AA recommendations and haven't had the issue since. I did not find anything out-of-spec with the box or the previous main shaft or high-speed gear, but at the time I did notice some brown staining on the brass bushings of the gears. I didn't think too much about the staining at the time, but later on remembered the Mud thread about GL-4 and GL-5 gear oil. The sulfur content of GL-5 is supposed to cause issues with yellow metals and most gear oils these days are rated GL-5 or GL-4/GL-5.

Bushing of High-Speed gear running GL-4/GL-5 gear oil.
IMG_2477.JPG


Opposite side of the High-Speed gear bushing.
IMG_2481.JPG


I've always run just 80-90w gear oil available at the usual auto parts places and these days it's always GL-4/GL-5 rated. I don't know that the GL-5 was an issue with my Orion, but I decided not to take a chance and I switched over to a straight GL-4 oil earlier this year. It's not typically available locally and it tends to be fairly expensive, but I was able to order some on Amazon for what I felt was a not-too-exorbitant price (Sta-Lube SL24239, $28/gallon with free shipping at the time). Certainly, it complicates things a little bit as I now keep different oils for my diffs and transfer case in addition to the special oil required for the NV4500. That's not a big deal, though, if it reduces the number of times that I need to rebuild my Orion. :D YMMV.
 
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Curious if you found a place to get that bushing ? or if you had to cut one down ?
 
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