Crikey! Gettin In Gettin out A Tranmission MF5

[Holdfast]

I had heaps of problems getting the transmission out and now I'm having big problems getting it back in.

Is there a trick?

Please help before I chop me fingers off searching for the flywheel hole.

Seriously, I'm having big dramas, tried to bring the tranny rear up and down, the front up and down and wiglin. Even Got under it and just thrust the whole bloody lot up but no joy

I've managed to get the input shaft about 1cm below the hole where it goes into the flywheel, it's not resting on the clutch fingers but how do I get it to locate?

Seems like the bell housing keeps hitting on the underside of the car body.

Please, any suggestions would be great! I'm working on a concrete slab with about 40cm clearance fromthe bottom of the Bell housing to the slab.

Cheers

[Boonz]

rotate it 90 degrees to the right and slide it in then align the locator dowels and chuck a few bolts in

[Holdfast]

Cheers thanks for that

[Holdfast]

Help!

I need help!


Ok, got that far but now I can't get the the transmission to closeup onto the clutch.

I've checked there's no obstruction or wires or anything so what now??

I've wiggled and wiggled but it just won't go together; I can only close the gap to about 3cm

[Tree cutter]

The spline on the front shaft might not be sliding into the clutch plate. Try to put the gearbox in any gear so you can turn the rear shaft so that the front shaft turns and hopefully lines up. If you had your clutch plate out it will need to be lined up so that the splines on the clutch plate are exactly centred over the spigot bearing. Also check that your clutch fork still moves back and forward freely, the thrust bearing might have slid forward and jammed things up.

[mag]

Help!

I need help!


Ok, got that far but now I can't get the the transmission to closeup onto the clutch.

I've checked there's no obstruction or wires or anything so what now??

I've wiggled and wiggled but it just won't go together; I can only close the gap to about 3cm

As TC above said did you take off the clutch??

[Holdfast]

Hi Tree cutter

Thanks for the advice; yep did that and she went in ok.

Ended up bunging a large socket and ratchet on that large nut by the crankshaft pulley that way I could work from underneath the car to turn the fly wheel a bit at a time and pull on the bell housing to see if the splines were meshing.

They meshed but not well so I used some calipres to check that the gap between the leading edge of the Bell Housing and the engine were the same. A bit of jacking up and down until the alignment was spot on and in she went in. I had the Misses push down on the ratchet to turn the engine and with the car in 4th gear I went to the rear of the transmission to check that the splines where the Prop shaft yoke goes in moved. It did so I was reasonably certain the splines had engaged.

What I also found useful was suspending a rope from a piece of wood that sat across the hole inside the car where the consol sits or where the gear lever sits.
I drilled 6 holes in the wood and threaded some nylon rope so that it was suspended around the end of the selection housing to form a sling and at the same time I could lock off the rope. When I got the transmission to the right height with the jack I just tied off the rope sling removed the jack and then I could move the transmission backwards and forwards cos the rope sling provided a nice swinging support. All I had to do was support the bottom edge of the Bell housing with two hands and get things lined up which was a real help.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help

The Transmission is all bolted up and I backed her off the ramps a couple of hours ago. She's running beaut and the gear changes are real nice

So, I'm now back on the road and the experience of ripping down my box and rebuilding it was a first for me. I really happy that things went reasonanbly well and a big thankyou goes out to those who helped me with my dumb questions

Yippee, I'm on the road again

[Boonz]

lol theres no such thing as a dumb question when your pulling a gearbox out.... glad to hear its in good working order happy holden on

[Holdfast]

Na, didn't put a new clutch in as one was fitted about 18 months ago.

I probably should have but beingmy first gearbox pull down and rebuild I wanted to see how she went before spending more bills.

Now that I know what I'm doing thanks to you guys it shouldn't take that long to pull the box out again if someting stuffs up

Thanks again

[Tree cutter]

Im glad to hear you are up and going again. Keep up the good work.

[Stewart1000]

yeah i had the same problem, started when i took the clutch off to check how much was left, motor and box out of the car, all was good, spend a whole day lingin the clutch up without any tools, that was a ****, got it back in the car, rattle from the box, took the box out with engine still in (that was a bitch) took the whole box apart and washed everything and put it together and it went back in that night! that was one harsh afternoon and night.

i ended up taking end engine mount bolts all the way out, horizontal and vertical bolts, tilting the engine as far as it would, and with the help from a jack and a friend, got it back in with a lot of mucking around, did you have problems with the starter motor mounting part of the bellhousing making contact with the transmission tunnel? i bloody did!

just curious, on the main shaft int he gearbox, how did you get the bearing shell off the shaft, on the output side, just behind the centre plate? i cracked my centre plate trying to press it off...

[Holdfast]

Stewy see below

[Holdfast]

Stewy, sounds like you had heaps of fun

Mate I don't know where to start! One things for sure is that I'm bloody fit now. The pushy has been workin over time and me leg muscles would put Arny to shame.

Anyway, with the tranny to get it in and out easy "Cohn" (Forum member) helped me out he said that when you re-instal it just rotate the MF5 90 degrees to the right so that the lumpy part that sticks out on the bell housing where the starter motor goes, is out of the way. When it's in that position just gently move the transmission forward towards the arse end of the clutch and when the input shaft is in the hole where the clutch is rotate it back to the normal or level position and then push the tranny into the clutch and marry up the splines.

The trick is to do what Cohn said but also make sure that once you rotate the transmissin back to the spot where you are going to engage the splines you'll need to keep the tranny dead square and perpendicular to the fly wheel otherwise, even if the splines have just started to mesh they wont fully seat if things aren't straight. Also just a smear of Moly grease helps (just a smigin on the front of the input spline and rub it in)

Also, because we stripped the transmission the splines on the input shaft (Spigot) may be out of alignment so it's best to rotate the fly wheel by bunging a ?? 27mm socket and ratchet on the crank in the front of the motor. While ya underneath the car it's easy to reach the ratchet & socket and bell housing at the same time if ya head is up by the bell housing and your legs down by the diff (sort of) All ya do is pull down on the ratchet a milimetre at a time until ya feel the splines engage. If ya have trolley jack (unless it's a beauty)throw the ****ing thing in the bin (The 1800kg one I bought from super cheap is ****in useless, dangerous too) it's better to use the Trolley jack just to move the tranny in position but not rely onit to move the transmission forwards or backwards or for heavens sake don't rotate the transmission on one of these jackssome sort of sling set up suspended from the hole where the gear stick goes into the console (If ya need some images of my set up yell out)so that you have a swinging effect (Only if ya workin by your self). is the go

Anyway, once the splines are engaged ya know the rest mate ****, some of those bolts are hard to get to on the top of the Bell housing I don't know how many times I had to count to ten before I felt like smashin something Anyway, a couple of extensions for the half inch drive and the workin space for a ****roach and all is well

Ooops, just before I forget, it helps if you rap a rope aroung the exhaust where the 2 pipes join into one, pull it firmly and rap the rope around the front left hand wheeel that will give you another 15mm clearance and is absolutely wonderful for the spirits; that extra few mil is really great to have. The only reason I got my transmission out last time was that I studied the manual and then just realised that it should come straight out from the flywheel (This is before I got advice) I eventually got the shits and just reefed the ****ing thing to the rear and the energy pushed the exhaust out of the way (I'm wiser now )


You were asking about >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>just curious, on the main shaft in the gearbox, how did you get the bearing shell off the shaft, on the output side, just behind the centre plate? i cracked my centre plate trying to press it off...<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Stewy, I used a puller to rip off all the bearings. I bought a 100mm triple leg puller and a 150mm triple puller.

I extended the arms of the pullers so they would reach; rode down to the local metal shop and got the bloke to cut me up some 25mm wide x 6mm flat mild steel then I just marked up everything, cut, drilled and ground by hand to length. Worked a beaut but took along time.


I pressed all the bearings on using a wood vice and some old copper pipe I picked up off the side of the road plus some other bits of junk to do the job. Amazing what you can find Anyway, if ya'd like some images I've got thousands so yell out I'd be rapped if someone was interseted.

[Holdfast]

Just wanted to reinforce that point Stewy about rotating the transmission.

Rotating it mate to the right means that the ****in thing is on it's side, check what I mean and you'll be like me thinkin how ****in easy is that

[Stewart1000]

wow nice work, good to see another person doing the rebuild themselves.

yeah i wish i had thought of rotating it that much, i rotated it a bit but not 90, i ended having the engine on a huge angle to get it in, it was a bitch.

yeah the metal i used to press that shell off bent and cracked under pressure and bang, there went the main shaft bearing lip, i drilled into it and filled the hole with the mig and its as good as new now.

did you do the syncos?

i should have done the exhaust trick too.

funny thing, when i got the old spighot bush out, it was loose in the end of the crank, shouldnt be. and the ID was less than the OD of the end of the imput shaft to the box.

funny story, i forgot to fill the box up with oil before putting it in, then i had to fill it, what i did was get long hose and a funnel and gravity feed the oil in, took about ages to get something like 200ml in so i went and bought a pump lol, made it easier.

i ended up using half gear oil and half ATF.

[Holdfast]

lol

Stewy, I kept sayin to the misses don't let me forget the ****in oil.

I used a funnel too lol

I poured some straight in through the extension housing too (Now that's a quick way to fill, just pull the gear stick out and pour away:-)

[Holdfast]

Na I didn't do the syncros.

I spose I should of but???

ya could spenda ages doin stuff and i suppose we take short cuts and in the long run things will catch up. But ya can't do all these things if ya don't know and the repair manuals don't say to lap the synchros etc. (Well mine doesn't)

Anyhow, mines goin good so I'm pretty stoked at the moment. Would loved to have done a full on rebuild but time and money and not knowin wat to do holds ya back.

This was my first pull down and I'm happy just to get those millions of parts back together in sequence