1957 IH 5 ton

[Beast52]

Can any one tell me in a 1957 IH 5 ton, if the air actuator for the front end engagement on the transfer case needs air to activate, and deactivate, or does it disengage when air is released?

 

[tucker79]

If its a Rockwell T case No air =neutral Be very careful or you will grenade your t tcace Poppet valves on top of transmission send air to air shift cylinder on tcase and select forward sprag in N and all forward gears. R engages reverse sprag. If R sprag is engages and u drive forward or vise versa BOOM grenaded. Even rolling backwards in N or forward gears BOOM. Make sure you have that system figured out and working flawlessly before you play or you gonna pay. After you get the air shift working filling T case and flushing with diesel works wonders. Now IDK if you have this Rockwell Tcase for sure but if you have air shift cylinder on front of Tcase chances are good you do. Many many people have gone thru this and Ill take my turn passing on the info
Cool truck n good luck

 

[Beast52]

Yeah the air lines hook up towards the front of the T case. So I am assuming it is a rockwell, thank you very much for the info!

 

[tucker79]

Yeah the air lines hook up towards the front of the T case. So I am assuming it is a rockwell, thank you very much for the info!

Message me if you have any Qs about testing glad to help or search there's lots of info on here about that and anything else you need to know. The TMs for the M54 have every nut n bolt, great diagrams and much better read than the M809 TMs THROW AWAY LOCK WASHERS I get it
Read this thread it covers a quick test for the tcase n saves me a bunch of typing opcorn:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?68999-M809-series-5-ton-transfer-case-issues
Ill add drain your air tanks as much as possible to keep rust from growing in the air system which also assist your brakes (airpack) I took my air line off my compressor and added a little 911 diesel tank cleaner to try n flush my air tanks, never heard of anyone doing this but its what I had n a bunch of cra* came out the drain. A little air tool oil can be added to air pack to keep things moving. Any crud in air will hang things up and as long as the little things are working well the Big expensive stuff has a much better chance