So winter is upon us and the magchloride is on the roads, so time to do long over due repairs. I got the Orion out today and onto the bench. The offending bits:
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As a refresher, I have the same problem as others of not holding lo range when coasting. In addition, mine is popping out of high range at highway speed when I take my foot off the gas, but leave it in gear. This can be very exciting at times. My case and gears are a year or two old and I (for better or worse) built it up using AA’s instructions. From this thread, I’ve learned the common theme in fixing the issue is related to the shift fork or rail.
To my untrained eye the AA&OEM shift forks and rails look similar with minor differences, but nothing I would consider detrimental. The AA fork is clearances for the 4:1 gear and the oem isn’t, so I stuck with the AA unit. The AA shift rail has a detent for the set screw (case), but otherwise looked like the OEM piece. The indents looked exactly the same in size and orientation. I had thought maybe the indents were maybe slightly out of orientation, but I couldn’t find a difference. Since others had pointed to the oem shift rail as superior, I put it back in. In my case I think either would have worked.
The real difference I could find was in the spring, ball and set bolt for the spring. (I’m pretty sure I didn’t mix the parts up, but I can’t be sure). The springs- the AA(silver) one seemed a mm or two longer the the OEM(black). Balls- one was slightly bigger(AA) ~1/2mm. The set bolt- here it’s easy to see the difference: AA uses a brass bolt and OEM uses a set screw. So the brass screw only goes in so far and might not go deep enough to hold the gear. While the set screw can apply more like pressure.
To my eye, this seems like the solution the problem: the taller spring, bigger ball and the Toyota set screw pushing further into shift fork. Cycling the shifter shaft on the bench seemed to produce nice firm shifts. I’m not positive it’ll fix the issue, but seemed reassuring.
Does this sound like a winning solution? The Tcase is still on the bench and likely will through the holidays, so I can still easily change out the parts.
This is how far the set screw is in the shaft:
View attachment 2865492Is ~1/4” to much insertion? It’s below the cotter pin, but the CP still acts as a fail safe. I was doing the insertion by what felt firm. If this is ok, I’ll need to loctite the set screw.
This picture just illustrates the difference in set screws/bolts.
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