Joel's Garage: Part 4 Rebuilding the O/D Section: Readying the O/D Case

Now that I've got the overdrive planetary and clutch train assembled I'm ready to turn my attention to the overdrive case. There's a few items that need installed in it as well.

I cleaned the case with solvent just as I cleaned everything else. (Read my earlier post Cleaning Up for more info.)

Press out the rear bushing that the drive shaft rides in. You can see that it was deteriorating pretty badly in some areas.

Press in a new bushing. I just used a piece of hardwood, Maple I think, to press on it with. I don't have a set of bushing installers. But this worked fine. You'll want to be very careful with the bushings. They won't take a lot of abuse, and are quite soft. This bushing gets pressed down flush. I switched to a smaller piece of wood once I came to the lip the rear seal installs into.

Here's the new bushing installed. Much better than the old one!

Normally you would press on the rear oil seal next. But I'm intentionally not doing that now since the seal has a rubber lip that sticks out about an inch and I know I'll want to flip the housing over and set it on it's case in order to work inside.

Now I flip the case over and set the small end on one of my "specialized" cookie sheets. The first items to go in the case is the rear output shaft roller bearing. It's the smaller of the two roller bearings. It has a groove on the outer race as well, but I don't think it matters what orientation you put it in the case. I dunked it in some fresh ATF first.

Slide that down into the bottom of the overdrive case and make sure it's seated against the bottom.

Install the associated snap ring. It's a flat style.

Make sure that fits into it's groove in the overdrive housing. I oriented the ends of the ring with the groove at the top of the case.

Now install the parking pawl. The pawl is three pieces. The pawl itself, the pawl shaft, and the pawl spring which keeps the pawl retracted when not in park. I little assembly lube on the shaft works great.

Now "shove" those three items into the case. It would help if you had three skinny arms and four tiny hands. You have to hold the pawl and spring against the case while you slide the shaft down into its bore and through the pawl and spring. Make sure it's bottomed all the way in it's bore. Verify that the spring is hooked around the outside of the pawl and that the shaft goes through the spring.

Now install the shaft retaining bolt.

And torque that to 20 ft-lbs.

Here's the assembled pawl.

Now install the park lock reaction plug. This is what makes the park rod contact the parking pawl in order to force it over into the annulus gear and engage. It has a pin on it's bottom that interfaces with a little hole in the bottom of it's nook in the overdrive case.

Now install it's associated snap ring. The repair manual cautions over and over again not to deform it. Only squeeze it enough to slide it into its groove in the case. The case is tapered up to the groove so you can just sort of slide it down into it's groove without squeezing it. It also won't engage if you don't have the reaction plug seated all the way.

All installed and with some assembly lube.

Now it's time to install the governor support. This is what the 3 seals on the rear of the governor ride inside. It also supports the whole governor assembly.

It slides down into the overdrive case easily. Make sure it's seated fully. The pressure tubes extend up on a recess on the side of the case. Pretty obvious.

Install the governor support's associated snap ring. It's a flat style.

Here it is all in place. I oriented the snap ring like the one before with the gap at the top of the case. Probably doesn't matter though.

Now install the output shaft front bearing location ring. It's a flat style with 2 tangs on the ends about an inch long. This ring interfaces with the larger bearing installed on the rear of the output shaft in an earlier step of assembling the output shaft: Part 2 Rebuilding the O/D Section: The Output Shaft and Planetaries. This is why it was important to make sure the groove on the bearing is oriented the right direction: toward the rear.

The locating ring installed. It doesn't fit tight so that you can expand it to get the gear/clutch train installed. The tangs stick out a slot that you access after removing a cover from the top of the overdrive case.