Progress Thread 3550 Transmission Fixing Job

revhead347

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Jun 14, 2004
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Acworth, GA
I've finally gotten the time and money to play with this transmission. Someone asked for pics, so I'm going to post them.

New record, I had the transmission out an on the bench by myself in an hour and 22 minutes.



Went out and found a large set of snap ring pliers to get the big snap rings out. Ended up having to modify them with the grinder and the file to get the snap rings under the synchro hubs.



I reached into the case to pull the reverse assembly out, and a giant aluminium burr from the case went up under my thumb nail. This is unbelievably painful. It's healing ok though.



Radiating cracks on 3 out of the 4 bolt holes for the retainer. Talked to 3 different people as to why this happened, and got 3 different answers. I think Bob Hanlon gave me the best answer which was "Eh, Tremec didn't cast the forward part of the case as thick as they should have."







Everyone but one of the large roller bearings was toast. All out of round and stuff. The front of the case clearly indicated the race had been free spinning.

One of the gears on the countershaft had sheered the woodruff key, free spun, and then seized again. Thankfully the masters at Southern Gear in Smyrna, GA, were able to get the gear off and back on again with their monster press.



$758 worth of goodies from Hanlon Motorsports. New 3/4 sliders, bronze fork pads, steel 3/4 fork, 2 stock blocker rings for 1st and 5th, and carbon fiber lined blocker rings for 2,3,4. Also a few other miscellaneous parts.



It's all apart.



The 1/2 slider was all burred up and barely moved on the hub. The 3/4 slider seemed ok, but Linda Hanlon said the hardened sliders really need new sliders to be optimum.



3/4 hub all apart. The blocker rings were pretty messed up.



This is where the bastard snap rings are; on the 1/2 hub. I finally got it all apart, and I picked up the last part today.


Should have this thing back together soon. Just really tied up with other things now.

Kurt
 
Well, it's going to have to sit for another week. I have to have a set of parallel plane snap ring pliers to get the snap rings off. I got them off with my custom made jobbies, but they won't go back on with them. Waiting for them to come from Amazon. I ordered a new set of headers tonight too. $499.00 with free shipping on ebay.

Kurt
 
Yes, long tubes. I have a really old set of BBK 1519 longtubes in there now. I bought them in 1999 for the last 347 I installed in 2000. The chrome has long since worn off, and the metal is really thin. They release too much heat into the engine bay and sound tinny. I would like to step up to a set of 1 and 3/4" longtubes anyway. I ordered a set of 15940 Ceramic BBK longtubes tonight. Found them on ebay for $499 with free shipping. Hopefully I can get them to fit in this car.

Kurt
 
Ok, more pictures.

Finished with the bronze pads and shift forks.



The little grease castle for the reverse assembly prior to install.



Countershaft and reverse assembly in the new bucket.



Reintall of the 5th gear assembly temporarily for shim check.



Tail section deburred and ready to bolt on.



Bolted the tail section on just to check the play in the countershaft.



Right in spec of .0004".



Back to the output shaft. I have the big bearing and the taper bearing on. Just waiting on my new pliers.



Kurt