PROGRESS REPORTS II

Transmission Rebuild

This report is looooong overdue. I started taking the transmission apart sometime around the beginning of Dec. 2004. I worked on it over the winter months. I did most of the work myself but did have to bring it in to the shop a couple of times. The first was to have heli-coils put in the case and new mounting studs. They also installed a new main bearing race and line-honed it. After I had it back together I brought it back to have them adjust the shifter forks because I did not have the fixture required to do that operation. So this report is really after-the-fact documentation.

Since there were so many things wrong with the innards of the transmission I decided to install a complete new gear set.

There seemed to be a consensus that the RevTech transmissions and gears were pretty good, so I bought a complete RevTech gear set. It's the 2.6 close-ratio set.

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Key

Don't forget the little key that engages the notch in the "hat" section. Also, in an attempt to make the transmission "dripless" I put some RTV in the splines. We'll see if it is successful.

Key

Don't forget the little key that engages the notch in the "hat" section. Also, in an attempt to make the transmission "dripless" I put some RTV in the splines. We'll see if it is successful.

Main Seal

I found that a piece of 2" PVC pipe makes an excellent driver for installing the main seal in the transmission.

Pawl Carrier Assembled to Back Plate

This is where you need three hands. You need to compress the pawls and you need to insert the tab on the pawl carrier between the springs as shown. Once I figured out the trick with the wire to hold the pawls down it went together OK.

Shifter Pawls

The shifter pawls are spring-loaded. I used wire to tie them down so I could get the pawl carrier assembled onto the back plate.

Ratchet Springs

Grease the springs and insert them into the curved pockets.

Ratchet Back Plate

With the transmission in any gear (not neutral) the little notch in the back plate should align with the space between the gear teeth.

Shift Drum Shaft

The shifter drum shaft has a seal that seats in a groove on the shaft. It is very difficult to get the shaft into the housing as a result of that seal. I used a pipe clamp as a press to insert the shaft.

Also, you need to make sure that ratchet gear that was previously installed meshes properly with the gear on the shifter drum otherwise you might not be able to get the trans. into either 1st or 4th.

Ratchet Gear Installed

New ratchet gear installed. The hardest part is compressing the spring enough to get the cotter pin in.

New Ratchet Gear

The original gear and spring were kind of rusty and I suppose I could have cleaned them up but since almost everything else in the trans. was new I just didn't feel right about putting the old one back in.

New Gear Set

This is the new RevTech close-ratio gear set. It comes with everything shown here except the speedometer drive gear which I had to remove from the old gear set and install on the new one. It is just pressed on.

Gear Ratios

I counted all the teeth on the gears and marked them as shown just for future reference. The numbers way at the bottom are the final ratios for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. (Fourth gear is 1.00. The counter-shaft gears do not come into play in 4th gear because 4th gear just locks the output shaft to the input shaft.)

I don't have a corresponding picture of the old gear set but, basically, the close-ratio gear set gives you a "taller" first gear. This makes the difference between 1st and 2nd less and, therefore, it doesn't "clunk" as hard going into 2nd gear. The close-ratio set also puts third gear more in the middle between 2nd and 4th.

This page last updated on December 18, 2006