So today got off to a rocky start, I was up and outside bright and early removing the cover from the trans. After I removed it from the truck I went back into the cab to find that the chain I had bolted to the cover had dissapeared!
Where the **** did it go??? I CHECKED EVERYWHERE! then decided it could only be in one place. I drained the gear oil from the trans and took a peek inside with a flashlight... yup it was at the bottom of the transmission underneath EVERYTHING!
I literally had to FISH it out with my fishing pole and a 3 sided hook lure! That burned up about 15 mins... So then I started on the nuts and bolts on the main shaft, apparently they get on there pretty tight after a few thousand miles of high torque... As you can see by the pics, I had to use an old glasspack muffler as a makeshift torque multiplier just to get them loose. So that took about 45 mins and some of them ALMOST got stripped out. Next was the clutch and pto linkages, not too hard, the pins just pushed right out.
And finally I started the removal of the bellhousing bolts, bottoms first then I made my way up. The one that gave me the most trouble was the short one behind the clutch lever. TOOK ME LIKE A HALF HOUR TO GET THAT ONE OUT!!! At this point shes redy to be dropped, a nice friendly tap with the mallot got her loose and now suspended from the hoist. This is where I ran into the majoraty of my problems. The weight of the pto offset the balance and she wanted to come down right on top of the front drive shaft. Then the pto got hung up on the plate beneath the brake master cylinder. And to top it all off the rear shaft flange got stuck on the support beneath the main shaft location. Now my transmission was like a pebble in a tire tread, wouldnt go up and wouldnt go down!
Now this job was acting as a makeshift frustration multiplier!!!!!
but with a few 'love taps'
she finally came free and I lowered her down to the waiting cart beneath.... Now comes the switchover of the pto, throwout bearing and installation of the gasket set... Hopefully Monday!