Slipping out of high

[Bill W]

Hey guys
I took up the cab floor today to check out the linkage on the transfer lever as the truck keeps slipping out of high gear. I pulled the small top cover off the tranfer and took a look at the detent ball and spring ( and that little alinment thingy) which all looked good to me. The previous owner had really tightened up all the linkage in hopes of holding it in high I believe this just agrevated the situation being the lever is mounted to the cross frame and the transfer is soft mounted via the rubber mounts so there would be some flexing, other then that I can't see why she won't stay in high but before I put things back I'd appreciate any input from you guys. After this I go see why the tranny is spitting oil out the shift tower??? Thanks in advance for any help

 

[jwaller]

time for new case. mine was doin this and I had to replace it. you can fix them but they are usually cheaper to replace.

 

[Goatwerks]

Without knowing the t-case#, I can list some common causes for you to check.
Worn shaft bearings, loose or worn shift fork, worn engagement collar and mating gear splines. excessive movement(bad mount), Binding linkage.
Good luck on the hunt.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Same issue, swapped cases. I'll deal with the case later.

 

[gringeltaube]

Believe it or not... this is another case of poor engineering! (and they didnt' build only a few...!!!)
If you ever have a chance to disassemble a TC popping out of high range, take a closer look to the worn surfaces between shift collar and gear splines. You will find out they are wedge-shaped, worn towards the tip and never contacted more than the first half of the total spline lenght! And they never could engage any better because of the dimensions given to the synchro hub and widht/depht of splined gear, only allowing for half of the needed travel!
A possible remedy would be grind away at least 1/16" of the gear's face for better engagement and flip the synchro unit on its shaft, since the low range side usually doesn't wear out that fast. The problem is that once those small teeth are worn out they act as little wedges forcing the collar out. Grinding the surfaces flat one by one using a dremel is the only real cure to "save" an expensive part.
But... is it worth the effort? NO, as long as you can get good take outs (sprag units included since the referred parts are the same).

Just my

Gerhard

 

[clinto]

So effectively, this means someone is going to have to tool up and make these at some point, once we have used up all the existing low mileage units?

 

[doghead]

How many miles are on these TCs that are popping out of high? Is there an average mileage that this problem starts showing up at?

 

[jwaller]

mine did it at 30k miles indicated on the speedo. I dont think my speedo had been swapped.

 

[gringeltaube]

Yes Clint... and I'm afraid that long before we could "use up" all the good ones, most spares will end up being converted into chineese cars and tools!
Two years ago I took this pic at Barstows: a huge pile of 3052s and sprag T-cases, never been used!!! (they were going as scrap, guess where to!)

 

[Bill W]

Thanks Guys
Its as I feared, but I do have a sprag unit that a friend gave me so when I get around to replacing the bed I'll look into dropping the transfer and switching parts.
Doghead
When I bought my deuce the owner ( and speedo) said it had 10k miles on it but I have since found a old ad he had run last year stating it had 35k on it and since the paint on both the speedo and the tack in the truck now don't match the color of the inst panel I'm assuming they had been changed out with a lower milage/hr set.

 

[houdel]

But... is it worth the effort? NO, as long as you can get good take outs . Gerhard

Gerhard - In SOME places you can get good takes out on the cheap. For a lot of us, we can buy a cheap take out and then spend more on shipping to get it here than we paid for the case. Is it practical to swap out the shift collar (and maybe synchros) for a fix?

 

[sailor2000]

[quote="houdel) - In SOME places you can get good takes out on the cheap. [/quote]

WHERE would that be?

 

[gringeltaube]

Good point Lee: instead of contributing to the general fuel shortage! you can fix it yourself at home, just by replacing the two referred worn parts and maybe some bearings. That's only a fraction of the total shipping weight and cost for a complete unit! I suppose that new OEM parts aren't cheap but good used ones out of a low mileage sprag TC would be a good option and should be readily available if ... someone is willing to pull them out....
Practical or not, that depends....if a replacement takeout would cost over let's say $600 to get it to your place and you still don't know for sure what you get before have it installed and run, and if we consider the time spent in our hobby as a good investment and also the possibility to add some knowledge and experience ( + some self confidence, too!) I would say open up the bad and the ugly, inspect the suspicious areas and also the (new) replacement parts, get the manuals and start.
The only thing that I found being kind of tricky is the adjustment of the bearing preload of the center- and output shaft, finding the correct combination of shims. If you are smart enough you'll be using some kind of modern gasket substitute like Loctite 518 to seal both case halves but than you need some additional (surplus) shims to compensate.
(I have to many of them, so if someone needs some....)

So should I than retract and edit my earlier statement about NOT being worth the effort....?

 

[gringeltaube]

....WHERE would that be?

I was lucky and bought a dozen airshifts at Victorys GSE in Los Angeles, for $100 ea. But that was two years ago and they were cleaning out ....

 

[jesusgatos]

I'm in the process of replacing my blown-up sprag case with an air-shift case, and now I'm wondering whether I should inspect the air-shift case before I install it. My sprag case held high-range just fine, so I've got the parts if I need to swap them over to the new case. What's the best way to get a look at these parts? Have to split the case wide-open?

 

[FireFighterHill]

Great guys, now you have me worried about my father in laws deuce. Its TC Lever moves around like its possessed. And it has come out of gear on us before. Is it normal for it to move under throttle. Example, give it throttle and it moves downward is say a good inch or 2 enough to notice. Let up on the throttle and it come back up, but it doesn't come up as far as it can if you hold it up.

It annoys the crap outta me cause that lever ends up sticking me in my cafe muscle and pokes me everytime I shift.

 

[jesusgatos]

My transfer-case shifter was doing the same thing and the transfer-case bushings were just worn-out enough that there was a little bit of slop. So I put a washer under the bolt-heads and it tightened everything up.

 

[FireFighterHill]

Well its not my Deuce and im forbidden to tinker with it. I really want a Deuce of my own!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Mine move quite a bit as well!

 

[jwright]

I seen some folks put a bungee cord around the lever to keep it from moving. Its just a temp fix.