Roadranger questions

Well I got the bell housing off with no great dramas and no oil gushing out anywhere, which was a bit surprising as the counter shaft bearings are exposed when the housing is off. Maybe those buggers at Truck Transmissions forgot to stick some oil in it after they reconditioned the box for me?. Better go back and check that. There is a gasket between the housing and the box. It got a bit mangled on one edge, but I’m hoping that’s not too critical and will reuse it as I have no time to run around looking for a new one.

Now to see if it all goes back together the way I want it too.

No oil in the box until its fitted to the truck.

Well, guess who need to learn how to use a tape measure! Turns out the bell housing isn’t symmetrical! The four outside studs are an equal distance from the input shaft, but the other two studs and two bolts are vertically spaced differently so when flipped they about 10 mm out of alignment with where they need to be. So plan B has now been enacted (which was something John K suggested early on) which is drill out the blanks for a bottom mounted clutch shaft. Not having the means to drill a one inch hole (and in a straight line) I’ve dropped the bell housing at the local engineering place with a promise to have it done by late next week. That may also give me time to source a new gasket as the old one is getting more damage each time I touch the bell housing.

Oh, and thanks John also for pointing out the “no oil until fitted” convention. I had just assumed that as it was full of oil when I gave it to Truck Transmissions, that they’d give it back full of oil. To be fair to Truck Transmissions this all happened about 6 years ago, so they probably told me, I’ve just taken so long to take the next step that I’ve forgotten all the details. I’d just hate to think of the consequences if I got the box fitted and decided to take it for a test drive without checking the oil level (which would be just like me).

Not sure of the cost of another gasket but have you considered making your own replacement. Repco sell all thicknesses of paper and cheaply. You have a template already and I use a small ball pein hammer to do the bolt holes and a good pair of scissors does the OD and ID quickly. Time to make that one should not be more than 10 minutes blind folded.

Better than a ball pein hammer for the holes, is a large ball bearing, and hit that with a hammer.

You have done very well dragging that out, is B2 primed to do the re-install?

I bought the Eaton gasket set a couple of years ago, not that expensive. Has all the gaskets in it.

From a basic truck parts supply shop.
Cheers Steve

Incidentally ,the shaft holes are bushed with replaceable bushes......but I assume an engineering works will note that and make allowance.

Well I got the bell housing back from the engineers eventually (3 days promised turned out to be 3 weeks) and got it back on the gearbox and I'm now trying to install it, with some difficulty. My problem is getting the bolt hole to line up for the mounting point. The gearbox is mounted via two "handles" sticking out from the bell housing and a spring steel support across the chassis rails at the back. Unfortunately I didn't get a the mounting handles in this picture but you can see where they bolt up in the housing.



On the other end of of these bolts is a u-shaped mounting block which fits into a cup on a curved cross member between the two chassis rails (see my bad drawing below). Unless you are putting the engine and gear box in as a single unit without the cabin on, then the cross member has to be the last thing bolted in place. This means having the engine and gearbox bolted together and perfectly aligned within the chassis so the four bolt holes one each side align to the holes in the chassis.

I've had the gearbox out and back in once before, so I know its fiddly, but 3 hours of pushing and pulling yesterday couldn't get it any closer than this:






Unfortunately the D-Line workshop manual and part manuals I have provide no information at all on the gearbox mounting, not even a picture. So my questions to the brains trust are:

1. Any idea of what kind of torque setting required on the big nut and stud that holds the u-shape mounting to the bell housing? I assumed that it would be the same as the bolts holding the bell housing to the gearbox (80 ft lbs), but am now wondering if the should be backed off to allow to allow the shaped mount to rotate slightly so as to allow the cross member bolt holes to align with the chassis, noting that the gearbox and engine have to be separated to get at these nuts, and any movement of the bell housing on this mounting stud would surely see the hole flogged out after few thousand ks.

2. Is it possible that with all the pushing and shoving to get the gearbox in and bolted up to the engine that the engine has actually moved forward on the front engine out and needs a shove from the front to get things to line up?

3. Any magic wands out there for fixing the unfixable? I've walked away from the job for a couple of days in the hope that the I come back, everything will have relaxed and will slip perfectly together!

Feeling your pain bro, are the misaligned holes where the cross member meets chassis or where u shaped block meets cross member.

What would happen if you loosened the front mount and pushed/pulled the engine to allow the holes to line up? Surely it would pull up again?