Progress was made. Life has been spooling
faaaassst. So fast I've not had much of a chance to tinker on the t-case after getting the aluminum bits back from Travis. I stole Olly (our parts & tech engineer) from the shop for the morning. He's built dozens of t-cases in the last few months and hundreds before that (fun fact, he had Marlin LC Toybox #2 in his FJ60 ~20 years ago
), while I've done a few in my day... he's just so damn fast at it so I recruited him to come help me this morning. He was happy to join me in playing hooky from work (well, it's sorta work).
Laying out all the new parts. Box on left is the TC8690 overhaul kit (all new bearings, seals, gaskets, idler shaft, etc) and not pictured is the new input gear (TCG3621260081) and new take-out Idler Gear & High/Low Output Gears (2:1 ratio). Basically the only parts I'm using from my original case are the front and rear output shafts, Hi/Low and 2/4 sleeves & linkage, the PTO unit, vacuum diaphram and a few others. It would have been
much quicker to just use one of our new t-cases BUT this was a slippery slope that started as a leaky front output seal and turned into a complete case overhaul with mostly new parts. When in Rome.
Never forget the 5th gear oiler
He made quick work installing the t-case front half and gears while I overhauled the vacuum diaphram and cleaned up the 3 t-case mounted switches. We knocked out the back half of the case and measured pre-load on the rear output shaft. I need a tiny bit thicker shim to tighten it up a tad. It's within spec but right at the bottom and I like to be at or near the top with new bearings. I'll grab an assortment of shims at the shop and tinker on it again this weekend. I should be able to have it all buttoned up in a few hours.
