I'm leaning towards running what I have. I know synchros work based on friction so there's bound to be some heat, whether that normally causes bluing or not I don't know. Would rather not spend $500 to get two new assemblies, especially if this is normal wear, but also waiting for parts to arrive adds further delay.

The rest of the gears looked good, a little bit of wear on the first and reverse gears, but nothing excessive or what I would consider unusual given the fact neither of those gears have synchros, no chunks are missing, and none of the other gears have any bluing or unusual wear patterns.

I think I'll sit here for a minute and think about it while I rehydrate.

Besides, if this thing grenades that'll give me an excuse to drop in a 5 speed of some sort...

(Yes, I know a 5 speed conversion would be much more than $500 )

 

I have it back together, but I will be replacing the front bearing retainer, the throw out bearing wore into it enough that I can catch a nail on it. It's aluminum and looks like all the replacements are the older style cast iron that'll probably last a little longer.

They were a handful of cuss words and one minor injury due to those M@&$3?F$#+);& lock rings! The lock ring pliers I grabbed here in town barely did the job

When messing with lock rings, wear gloves!

See the lock ring, ya, that little B@$+&#d is one of 5 you have to mess with. Not fun!

Somehow ended up with a spare spring and small detent ball that I have no idea where it came from. Every exploded view I've seen only shows three, and I double checked all the detent ***** are still in the synchro assembly and are under pressure from the springs beneath. I found a loose spring stuck to magnet in bottom of case. When I was assembling the 1st-2nd synchro assembly I did notice one of the springs was lighter than the rest, it wasn't until after i got everything together I noticed the other spring in the case which is heavier like the others that were in the synchro assembly.

I can shift into reverse, 1st, 3rd and 4th. Will need to get top cover back together and installed to make sure I can shift into 2nd, I don't have enough leverage to overcome the detent ***** and springs to do it by hand

I took a lot more pictures and will do a full write up later. I'm going to clean up and put things away. I've had enough fun for one day.

 

Here is more detail related to the reassembly process of the transmission. I looked at some more exploded view images and there are only 3 springs and detent ***** inside the transmission. There are 3 more in the top cover, lighter springs but same size detent ball, thankfully, as my first attempt to reassemble the 1st-Reverse synchro assembly resulted in 3 detent ***** flying, found 2 of them, gave up on the 3rd when I discovered the detent ***** for the top cover are the same size. There also appears to be a spring and smaller detent ball in the top cover that goes into one of the shift gates, I don't remember removing a spring or ball from that during disassembly. I think that is where it came from. How it ended up on my rolling cart in the garage during the process of working on the main shaft I have no clue. I dissassembled the top cover outside on a temporary bench set up on saw horses. Maybe that spring and ball fell out when I removed the top cover and have been stuck to the mainshaft assembly since that time. During dissembly I removed the main shaft and placed it into a bucket and haven't touched it until today.


Last thing to come out during disassembly was the reverse gear and the shaft it rides on, that's where I started for assembly process

I removed the snap ring and thrust washer

You can see there are a number of roller bearings inside

I pulled the tube from inside the reverse gear to expose all the roller bearings

I placed the reverse gear in a cup meant to hold some paint with a separate space for the paint brush to rest that I grabbed from Ace hardware

You can see there are two rows of roller bearings, there is a washer that separates the two rows

It didn't take much movement and all the needle bearings fell out, here is the thin washer between the roller bearings

The master rebuild kit did not include any of the components inside the reverse gear sub-assembly

All parts removed

After cleaning everything time to begin reassembly

Petroleum jelly, as long as it isn't too warm in your garage, works well. You do not want to use wheel bearing grease or similar as it will not break down at low temps and can interfere with the flow of gear oil. You want something that will hold long enough for assembly, but will quickly dissolve

Reverse gear reassembled, it is placed into the case and the shaft needs to be driven in, it is a slight press fit into the case, but was accomplished with a few taps of the hammer. Make sure you have the shaft oriented to accept the retainer bar that bolts to the back of the case.

Next to go in the case is the idler gears. On the left are the old washers, on the right new stuff that came in the master rebuild kit, it was missing one of the smaller washers that go between and that the ends of the roller bearings (88 total bearings). You can also see the spacer tube that goes in the middle

I added a big dollop of petroleum jelly to the spacer tube to hold it in place and started on the big gear side with the first 2 rows of roller bearings. Washer > 22 rollers > washer > 22 rollers > washer, go to other end and repeat

From the tail end of the case, I started the support shaft into the case and pushed it in just far enough to support the thrust washer inside the case

The shaft is inserted just proud of the inside of the case, just enough to hold the thrust washers on this end. One washer is notched and can only fit one way, the other doesn't have a specific fit


To hold the thrust washer on the input side I am using an 18mm impact socket with a couple wraps of painters tape for a snug fit to act as a dummy shaft


Carefully place the idler shaft into the case, need to tilt it and make sure the big gear clears the case, it will not drop straight in, keep an eye on the thrust washers to make sure they are not knocked loose, the roller bearings are only being held in place by petroleum jelly at this point, be very gentle.

Once the idler gear assembly was in the case, I inserted the 18mm socket about an inch further into the case to keep the front secure while I tapped on the shaft with a dead blow hammer

The shaft has a slight press fit at the front of the case, once I knew I was past the roller bearings and driving the shaft into the case, I switched from dead blow hammer to a steel hammer to drive it home since the dead blow wasn't getting the job done

Once I had the idler shaft in and confirmed it spun freely, I placed the retainer bar on the tail end, started the retainer bolt and tapped the reverse and idler shafts fully home until the retainer bar was held tight against the case. I added orange loctite to the bolt and tightened it down with a 9/16" socket, I didn't see a torque spec in the service manual so I went with gutentite using my trusty snap-on rachet

I knew it would take me awhile to disassemble, clean and reassemble the main shaft so I went ahead and packed the 22 roller bearings into the input shaft, ended up reusing the original washer here since the rebuild kit didn't have enough. This assembly was then placed in the freezer to keep the rollers secure since it was starting to get warm in the shop and I didn't want to have issues with the jelly melting while I worked on the main shaft, this had another benefit I'll explain later

Reference #1 The following images were used for reassembly. Thought I would post them in case anyone in the future needs them

Reference #2 - 3rd-4th Synchro assembly, notice the orientation

Reference #3 - 2nd & 3rd gear, both helical cut and, smaller gear is 3rd

Reference #4 - Granny -first gear/Reverse, straight cut, no synchros for first and reverse

Reference #5

Reference #6 - Couple splines on the output shaft have some chunks missing but didn't see any other damage

I have nothing nice to say about these lock rings, they just suck and were the most difficult thing to deal with throughout this rebuild, I have some lock ring pliers I grabbed in town but they slip, A LOT, if I ever do this again I will be investing in a better pair of pliers

3rd-4th synchro assembly and 3rd gear are held in place by a lock ring, once that is removed, both pieces slide off the front of the shaft (4th gear is on the input shaft)

1st-Reverse synchro assembly is held in place by a lock ring, there is another lock between the synchro assembly and 2nd gear and there is another lock ring on the front side of 2nd gear with a thrust washer

Remove the lock ring holding 1st-Reverse synchro in place, and persuade the assembly off the tail end of the shaft, it is a tight fit, this is the first time detent ***** and springs took a flight, but luckily I found all the pieces.

After the finding flying parts, I made multiple attempts removing the lock ring keeping 2nd gear from sliding off the tail end of the shaft, once 2nd gear was removed, I struggled once again with the last remaining lock ring on the shaft that goes between 2nd and 3rd gear


To diassemble the 3rd-4th synchro assembly you have to remove the tension spring holding the little arms in place, it is light tension and I was able to remove with a small pick tool. There are tension springs on both sides

Definitely got warm at some point in its past, transmission parts depot has the entire assembly available for sale, as of this writing is $260

I gave it some thought and at this point I am only into this transmission about two hundred bucks between rebuild kit and paint. I see no point doubling my money into it to fix one component

So I will be rolling the dice and reusing these components, if it fails in the future, I will replace everything inside the case or swap out for a different transmission, perhaps a Tremec TR-4050?

3rd-4th synchro disassembled

Same kind of bluing on the 3rd-4th synchro assembly, the complete assembly is about $140 currently

This was my first attempt to get the 1st-Reverse synchro reassembled, it failed and this time the ***** really went flying!

Managed to find the springs, they didn't go too far, found 2 of the 3 *****, thankfully the detent ***** in the top cover are the same size so I was able to grab one of the old detent ***** from the cover and use it here

Started to tap the shift collar on and when I got the hose clamp, gave it good tap, the collar moved bumped the hose clamp out of the way and the detent ***** pushed the collar back up and the ***** with flying

After a few choice words, a flying parts scavenger hunt, I regrouped and thought a feeler gauge would slip between the shift collar and detent ball, I was right, but I need 3 and my feeler gauge doesn't come apart and I didn't want to make it come apart

Then I notice I have some old GM starter shims in the same drawer as my feeler gauges, hmmm, *light bulb moment* I bet those would work! Grabbed cut off wheel to cut off one end of the starter shim to get rid of the "dog leg" at one end and carefully slide them into place

I kept the hose clamp in place, tapped the shift collar onto the assembly, once it made contact with the hose clamp, I loosened the clamp a little bit and tapped the shift collar the rest of the way home

Next I placed 3rd gear and the 3rd-4th synchro assembly back on the shaft and secured with a lock ring. I don't like wearing gloves unless I have to and I learned today, I have to when dealing with lock rings, can't remember now if it was the lock ring to secure 1st-Reverse assembly, or 3rd-4th assembly, regardless it snapped me good and instantly filled with blood. good thing its my left hand...

After struggling with the main shaft for a couple hours I retrieved the front input from the freezer, it needs to be placed in the case before the main shaft assembling goes back in

Slide the tail shaft through the output hole, carefully lower it, don't forget the 4th gear synchro and slide the main shaft and into the input shaft, be careful of knocking the roller bearings loose, which in this case were pretty well froze into place

Everything is now slide back together

make sure your 3rd-4th synchros are lined up correctly, there are notches on the synchro the line up with the little arms inside the synchro assembly, if you do not line these up damage will occur when you press the bearings into place

Remember how I said there was another benefit of placing the input shaft in the freezer? That benefit is that the garage temp 80*F bearing dropped right into place, no pressing require for that. Did need to press the rear bearing into place

I still consider the lock rings the most difficult part of this job, but it would have been nice to have a helper move the transmission over to the press and get it into place. These things are not light! Pressing on the input shaft (very important synchros are aligned) presses the rear bearing into place until it seats. I should have looked closer, you can still see a small gap here between main shaft and bearing, I didn't notice it until I got the transmission back on work cart, ended up taking the transmission back over to the press to finish the job.

This is the front bearing retainer, that on the 1979 and newer versions of the T-18 are made of aluminum. It is worn enough to catch a finger nail. I will be replacing this so for now I bolted it on without gasket or seal to hold bearing in place

90% there, still need to reassemble the top cover and get that installed, at least temporarily to check that everything shifts okay, need to add a new seal to the tail shaft housing and get that mounted as well as the PTO cover.


As expected, everything takes longer than you anticipate when you get into things like this, but it is back together and is a major thing to cross of my to-do list and gets me closer to getting to work on engine reassembly.

 

Very nice, i bet those blued gears will be fine.

You are taking me back to my time in college rebuilding an np435 in the spare bedroom of single wide

 

I think the gears will be okay too, and if they're not... Upgrade time!

I've never be into a T18 before had to go to YouTube university to get some insight. I also have an electronic copy of the 1979 Ford service manuals. They really have helped a lot throughout this project. Was a bit off put spending $30 for a CD-ROM from some seller on eBay, but was pleasantly surprised when I got the CD. Three manuals were included, the engine manual, chassis & electrical, and pre-delivery prep. If I had the original parts catalog and a detailed break down of electrical schematics I'd be all set.

I still have my worn out Haynes manual from 30 years ago. The Haynes doesn't have much for the transmission but it does go into detail for the transfer case.

Last manual transmission I completely disassembled and put back together was a 3 speed out of who knows what in high school shop class that has been torn apart and reassembled dozens of times.

I think I'll have another cup of coffee and head out the garage to see what I can get done today

 

I believe I used a kit and instructions from Novak IIRC?
https://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/...435-parts.html

Nice find on the service manuals & cd

 

Reassembly of the top cover took a lot longer than I wanted, not due to any difficulty of assembly, but the exploded diagram in the service manual isn't completely correct, there are apparently at least 4 different top covers for the T18, two for early versions and two for later versions. The diagram in the service manual was close and at least has the reverse shifter arm located in the cover itself, two other diagrams I found were for older models that the reverse arm is attached to the case. Found a diagram for a 1980 Ford model on this forum and that diagram matched. The key hold up had to do with the reverse shifting and the interlock to keep you from selecting more than one gear at a time.

Early models are obviously different, but the later models used two different approaches to lock out reverse. In the service manual it shows two interlock plungers with a pin in between that are inserted from the outside and held in place by a soft plug. I didn't remember seeing those two plungers or a pin come out during disassembly, but I went ahead and removed to the soft plug to see if they were still in the cover, didn't see them so then I thought maybe they fell into my pan I've been using to clean parts with gasoline and I ended up dumping them in the bucket of used oil when I drain that pan at the end of the day.

After fishing around in elbow deep oil for them, I didn't find anything. Hmmmm...

After studying the shaft for the reverse arm and shifter gate some more, it didn't make any sense to have a lock out plunger on that side of the shaft, there's no low spot in the shaft on that side that would allow the plunger to lock anything... Back to the interwebs I go, and stumble across the exploded view for a 1980 model T18 and see that I'm correct, there is no interlock on the outside, it's internal, but they still have the provision in the top cover itself for the outside lock out. I've attached the pdf for the 1980 T18 in case anyone needs it, I've also attached a borg warner manual/parts list for the T18 but the diagrams in it are for early models.

After getting that sorted out and confirming in not missing important parts I finished reassembly of the top cover, but something still wasn't right, this time with the reverse shifter gate, there's a plunger in the gate but it just slid back and forth, decided to go back and reread the service manual and see that it mentions there's supposed to be a spring behind the plunger, this plunger is too keep you from going into reverse too easily, when you're trying to shift to 4th instead (the '79 and later T18 have reverse to the right and back towards the seat just like the NP435) decide to pull the shifter gate back out and remove the plunger, there was a spring but it was busted into 6 or so pieces, ah ha! That's what that other spring in the top cover small parts kit was for! Got that fixed and reinstalled.
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I also knocked out the factory vent and tapped the hole for 1/8" NPT, no drilling required, I grabbed an elbow fitting with pipe thread on one end and 3/8" hose barb on the other, but can't screw it in to the cover since it hits when you try to tighten, I'll grab a straight fitting next time I'm at the hardware store. I also tapped the vent hole on the transfer case and will be running the vent tubes for both into the engine bay so they're higher up and filtered.

Got all the parts cleaned, top left, 1st-2nd shift arm, top right 3rd-4th shift arm, below those is reverse shift arm. Top shaft is for reverse, middle one is for 1st-2nd and bottom is 3rd-4th

Here's the reverse shift gate, laying next to it is the spring I removed

Ended up having to use pieces from my ball joint service kit to drive the output seal in the tail shaft

Yes, it was driven in backwards and that is correct, this is the tail shaft housing that slides on the back of the transmission case, for the seal to do it's job correctly it needs to be installed this way, that's how it was installed originally and thankfully I took notes to remember this. The service manual was no help here since the diagram in it is for a 2wd model.


I bolted the top cover in place without a gasket for the time being, it'll keep the dust out and just wanted to make sure everything shifted okay. It didn't...

I could get into every gear but 2nd, which got me thinking I might have to tear back into this thing, but decided to remove top cover again and pour some gear oil over all the gears and slide the shift collars back and forth a few times, had to persuade the shift collar to get into 2nd with a dead blow, but once I got everything coated with gear oil I put the top cover back on and was able to cycle through all the gears. 2nd is still tight, but is starting to loosen up the more a cycle it

Doesn't help matters any that the transmission is loose on the ground, shifting should be easier once it is solidly mounted and well lubricated inside

During disassembly I noticed the bolts for the tail shaft housing protruded into the case just a bit and you could see where they had made contact with the 1st-reverse assembly. When you're in first gear there is very little clearance between case and the shift collar. Added some flat washers and now the bolts no longer go into the case, may swap these out for lock washers, not sure yet

I did manage to at least drain the front gas tank since that's coming out of the truck next. Need to get some lines and wires ran along the frame rail that are currently blocked by the tank. After those are routed I'll get the new tanks and their various components installed.

Transfer case and transmission are now rebuilt but it'll be a bit before they get reinstalled, have a lot of cleanup and other little odds and ends to do first and of course reassemble the engine. When the engine goes back in I'll get transmission and transfer case reinstalled at that point

 

Here are some before and after images.

 

Beautiful work! I found some nylon bushings for the transfer case shifter at Grainger. Actually, I have a few extra, if you want them they are yours. I switched to a twin stick shifter with no bushings required.

 

Could the additional clearance the top cover gasket will provide affect the shifting?

 

Nice work and a great write up!

 

On this I wouldn't think so, with how the shift forks engage the shift collar a 1/16" or less for the paper gasket wouldn't make any difference. With the top cover off it's difficult to slide the shift collar into to second, I think it has to do with assembling everything dry and having new springs pushing against the detent ***** inside the shift collar. Once I got some gear oil worked in there the shifting became much easier.

 

Thanks Tim!

 

How do you like the twin stick set up?

I have toyed with the idea of going that direction, I think it would be nice to have low in 2wd and also be able to engage just the front tires. I won't be doing any extreme off-roading with this thing but I do like the options the twin stick mod provides.

When I was at Ace yesterday I saw in their hardware section they had a number of bronze bushings of various sizes. I might go that direction to eliminate the plastic bushings all together.

 

I seem to like it! I haven't got to drive it yet as I'm still working on the restoration. It shifts really smooth compared to a single shifter.