303M HydraMatic rebuild

[rustystud]

Here's the information I promised awhile back about adjusting the Bands on the HydroMatic transmission.



This is from a "civilian" repair manual. Clear and precise.
See my rant below.

 

[rustystud]

I was going to install the "Accumulator" assembly today, but it needed work. So I was forced to tear it down. I know I said to leave it alone if you could, and believe me I wished I had left it alone but it needed to come apart.
The is supposed to have a "slight" press fit into the "pin" but this bugger was totally seized on the pin !
It took my 10 ton press to get it off and the springs shot out and just caught my right hand. Now I have a nice purple bruise on my right hand ! By tomorrow it should be a real dousy of a bruise !
Stupid springs !!! Stupid me for taking it apart !!!!


You can see the fully extended springs here compared to the compressed ones.

The reason I had to take it apart was the "piston" had severe rust on the edges and since it needs to slide smoothly in it's bore it needed to be replaced. The other accumulators all have pretty heavy rust and need to come apart to be sandblasted. I took the piston off one of the accumulators that had a broken bolt flange, but the piston was good.
Going back together will be lots of fun too !!!

 

[rustystud]

I forgot to show you how I took off the inner bearing on the output shaft using a "bearing splitter".


This bearing can also be a real bear to get off. It normally has a slight press fit, but over time and rust can really get seized on.

 

[rustystud]

For those who question whether the output shaft needs that bushing, here's the TM 9-8025-2 manuals answer for that.


So far on six 303M transmissions I have torn down this year. None had this bushing installed.
I truly believe the "factory" screwed up here. So every military rebuilder afterwards didn't even look for a bushing here since these two pages (160 and 161) are the only place in the whole manual even mentioning this bushing. Civilian mechanics would have known there was supposed to be a bushing here, like I did.
I'm pretty disappointed in the quality and layout of this manual. It's like a child put it together. Or an absent-minded person. There is no clear line of disassembly or reassembly. There are parts I know I read but after looking for hours I cannot find that passage again. Really makes me mad as I was going to mark this one page but thought I'll do it tomorrow as I was tired and wanted to go to bed.
I'll find it, but I shouldn't need to try and find information like that. Civilian manuals are clear and precise. They of course need to be as the mechanics would lose the company money if they needed to find information and had to spend hours trying to find it.
Of course, my observations are five decades to late !