Yes I know no likes it when "the safety guy makes statements" but some has to say it. I have done sketchy in my past too, but I have also lost a friend to a car falling on his head. And getting the heavy duty taller jack stands for a 4wd height can be challenging to find, let along afford. Digging your work, truck looks awesome.

 

Made some progress today. Started the day hoping I would get the rest of the transmission parts cleaned, primed and painted and while waiting between coats I could focus on assembly of the transmission since all the parts getting painted today are not needed to start the assembly. That didn't happen, ended up taking a lot longer to clean than I wanted, but that's the way it goes. Also had to make some repairs to a heat shield that mounts to transfer case. Not very good repairs, but better than nothing.

The top cover came apart fairly easy. I hope that it goes back together in similar manner.


There are 6 roll pins that need to be removed. one for each shif fork and 3 more for the shift gate.







The middle shift gate needs to have the roll pin removed first, you then need to slide the shift gate (in this image to the right) once you do that, you have room to drive out the roll pin for the shift fork in the middle





I discovered you need to remove the outside shift rails first, the interlock pins between rails wouldn't allow me to slide out the middle rail until I removed the other outside rail

cleaned all the grease/grunge covered parts in gasoline first then followed up with wire brush on a hand grinder, bench grinder, drill and hand brushes.


Here's the heat shield, it had some cracks, at some point in the past someone tried to re-weld the brackets


I ended up cutting the brackets off and re-welding them, only 22 gauge metal and my welder is currently set up with .035 flux-core. If my tank wasn't empty I would have switched back to .025 mig but I made it work with the thicker wire



As ready as I am going to get everything for primer. Would be nice to be able to sand blast, but wire brush, a wipe down with acetone, and primer that is supposed to do okay over rust will have to work for now.

Currently I have everything primed with multiple coats. I am waiting for that to setup for at least a couple hours then I will hit everything with a few coats of black. On the back side of the card board "holders" for all the bolts I wrote down what the bolts are for to stay organized. I need to order some plastic bushings for the transfer case shift lever, one of them fell apart when I pulled the bolt from the shift lever

 

I have never seen a OEM heat shield on a xfer case. And those welds do not look factory, just saying. So where was it mounted?

To make parts stay in place (without clamping them) get a piece of heavy steel plate maybe 1'x3"x1/2" and get some 1" round magnets and then stick the parts and wire brush, wire wheel and so on. Also look into getting some rust converter/aka spray can of Rust to Metal that will treat any left over rust and coat parts nicely. Also work great when you can get get in there and get all the rust removed on some component.

Does not have to be this $ one, but you get my drift now? https://www.eastwood.com/ew-rust-con...ce=google&wv=4

https://www.acehardware.com/departme...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I did use some rust converter/primer that rustoleum makes, just didn't grab any pictures of that part. Not sure how well it will work but it was at the hardware store down the street and figured it was better than regular primer meant for perfectly clean metal.

Here are some pics with the heat shield still attached to the transfer case. I agree those welds were not factory, it appears there were a couple spot welds from the back side securing the brackets to the sheet metal. The sheet metal is stamped with some ribs so I think it is a factory piece but at some point the spot welds broke and someone ran a couple beads to reattach the brackets. I don't remember ever seeing one on any other truck either and I may not use it when I reinstall everything.

 

Yea that is a old bed heat shield, that some one used to protect the xfer case when they ran the dual exhaust (above the cross member) and right next to the xfer case.

 

The bed shield is still there too, and that is possible that they repurposed one for the transfer case, but I also see you still have the bracket bolted to your transfer case that was bolted to mine as well, just with the heat shield attached to it. I am curious if you still have the front bracket as well. The front bracket was attached with one of the bolts attaching the transfer case to the tail-shaft housing.

 

Just applied my last coat for the evening. Will check in the morning when I have some sunlight again to see if I need to apply any more coats. I think I will sand and do another coat or two on the shift levers since they will be seen frequently.


These are the transfer case shift lever pivot bolt bushings. Seems they are an obsolete part.

I could reuse these by they are pretty brittle

I checked various places online and only found one with a listing, but it indicated the part was no longer available. These are the times I wish I had a lathe. I would find some bronze bushings and machine the pivot bolt and shift lever if necessary to fit them, then add a grease zerk to the shift lever. I may check with a machine shop and see how much they would charge me to do that.

Another thought I have is just adding the grease zerk to the shift lever and packing it full of grease once it is bolted together. I know without the bushings the shift lever will rattle.

Do you think grease would be enough to keep it from rattling?

Any other solutions that you're aware of besides a twin stick conversion?

 

Not my truck in the pics, but they are from a fellow FTE member. I save pics like that to show the routing of true dual exhaust to get them routed up out of the way. Versus the under the cross member low hanging fruit route. That might be the same bushing in the clutch or brake pedal in the pedal bracket?

 

I do have some brake pedal bushings in one of the boxes stacked in the garage. I think they may have been smaller but it is worth checking. Thanks!

 

Well I did use the word "might", lol so that was like a guess on my part. I seem to remember reading that on here somewhere. But I might be wrong, let us know what you find out.

 

I would stick that bushing back in there and just add a grease zerk. They always seemed brittle to me but seemed to work ok

IF that's not satisfactory have a machine shop build a bronze bushing, OR build up the bolt with weld and turn down on lathe and eliminate the bushing and use grease, which seems like a bad idea long term.

old info not sure if dealer around u may still have one?

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ushings-2.html

 

edit,

here you go
https://torqueking.com/product/20985...987-ford-4x4s/

kind of $$$ but thats it?

 

Thanks for the links Kubota. Looks like 77&79F250's suggestion will work just fine. I already had a few of the brake/clutch pedal bushings on hand. Not a perfect fit, but for this purpose I think they'll be fine. I'll add some grease to fill in the gaps.

 

Uh oh... Might have a problem with the transmission. I have the reverse gear and idler assembly reinstalled. Got the main shaft disassembled. Took apart the 1st-reverse synchro assembly and found this.



Seems it got a little hot at some point. Appears I have to buy the whole synchro assembly to replace it. Never had one of these apart though so I'm not sure if this is abnormal, I assume so, and I assume it should be replaced.

Anyone ever had one of these T-18 apart? Would rather not spend a few hundred dollars if I don't need to.

 

3-4 synchro assembly has some bluing too, not as bad though

I can get both parts, but that's $500 I'd rather not spend. Hmm, choices, choices...