Hey everyone,
So I'm putting back together a C4 transmission and having a bit of an issue. When I opened the transmission extension housing I found a quarter piece of a snap ring that I believe was supposed to go on the output shaft (by the governor housing). I went through the trouble to find an buy a used one. What I have noticed though is with the snap ring in, the output shaft doesn't settle completely into the case, and more importantly it prevents me from being able to put on the snap ring on the the other side of the output shaft (inside the case).

I've looked at it pretty closely and noticed the following. First, the outer snap ring (by the governor housing) gets pushed right up against the parking pall. The output shaft seems to settle just short of flush by the same amount as the snap ring. Second, the purpose of the snap ring is to not allow the governor housing to move forward and slide off, but...that is impossible due to the fact the governor housing is pushed flush against the parking pall.

So here is my question. Is this snap ring really necessary? There is a groove for it in the shaft but if it prevents the output shaft from setting completely...is it doing it's job or just harm?

I know it's a long one but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I wouldn't leave the snap ring out.

I am thinking there might be something else out of place, I would double check the thrust washers at the parking paw to case and the thrust washer at the inner low sprag race to case and rear ring gear hub to low band drum.

 

So I managed to finally get both the snap rings on and started to assemble the transmission back together...but then ran into a problem. The first thing I noticed was that I could not put the planetary gear in place. I would align the outside tabs with the spaces on the reverse drum but it would not go in. I also was unable to slide the sungear shell onto the planetary. The last thing I noticed was that the reverse drum would only move if I torqued the teeth with a screwdriver and even then it would move only a little.

I ended up removing everything down to the reverse drum (including the inner snap ring and output shaft). I wanted to see at what point the reverse drum stopped moving smoothly. With the inner snap ring off I temporarily put in the planetary into the reverse drum. As before it didn't initially go in but with the reverse drum now able to spin it ended up popping in. Then I tried putting in the sun gear shell into the planetary and the same thing. At first a little resistance but when I spun the reverse drum a bit it slid in.

So here is what I know. When I put on the inner snap ring the reverse drum will move a little but as I spin the output shaft it gets to a point where the reverse drum is very difficult to budge. I am wondering if perhaps by having both the inner and outer snap rings on the output shaft this may be causing the reverse drum to get stuck. Is this crazy?