Anyone familiar with Ford Toploader rebuilds?

[dan juhasz]

Don’t banish me to boogie land for asking. I’m resealing a toploader for a customer car at the shop. They use a pretty special puller to remove the rear output bearing from the main shaft. Without doing this I can’t replace the o rings on the shift levers. If anyone has experience and a suggestion I’d appreciate it. Dan

 

[Richard Cranium]

Flex seal it.

 

[eldubb440]

you're lucky.... there is now a travel ban to and from boogie land

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Drop the cluster into the bottom of the case, pull the input shaft & bearing out the front.. Remove the inner snapping off the output shaft behind the rear bearing then use a brass drift & a BFH to drive the output shaft forward...

 

[dan juhasz]

Drop the cluster into the bottom of the case, pull the input shaft & bearing out the front.. Remove the inner snapping off the output shaft behind the rear bearing then use a brass drift & a BFH to drive the output shaft forward...

I can do that , to reduce the bfh would a little heat on the bearing inner race to expand it help it slide off the mainshaft?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I can do that , to reduce the bfh would a little heat on the bearing inner race to expand it help it slide off the mainshaft?

It should.. If your replacing the bearing anyway (and you should) Tapping the shaft out isn't a problem... It's not like you'll have to beat on it, the BFH is just like using torque in the place of horsepower...

 

[AR67GTX]

You really don’t know what it takes to get the bearing off until you try it but heat shouldn’t hurt especially if you’re replacing it. I don’t remember mine being hard to get off but the replacement was a bear to get on. It had like .0025 “ interference fit and heat wasn’t going to do it. After doing enough damage to one bearing I got another one and I finally honed the inside down to about .001 to .0015” interference and heated it a little and tapped it on.

Be sure and keep all the little shift rod detents straight as to where they came from.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

You really don’t know what it takes to get the bearing off until you try it but heat shouldn’t hurt especially if you’re replacing it. I don’t remember mine being hard to get off but the replacement was a bear to get on. It had like .0025 “ interference fit and heat wasn’t going to do it. After doing enough damage to one bearing I got another one and I finally honed the inside down to about .001 to .0015” interference and heated it a little and tapped it on.

Be sure and keep all the little shift rod detents straight as to where they came from.

Yeah the floating pin that locks out reverse fell out the first time I did a top loader back in the 70's, figured it out after I got everything together.. Taking it back apart sucked... Yup flappy wheel on a die grinder, most other transmissions have a close slip fit so it doesn't need to be that tight...

 

[dan juhasz]

Yeah the floating pin that locks out reverse fell out the first time I did a top loader back in the 70's, figured it out after I got everything together.. Taking it back apart sucked... Yup flappy wheel on a die grinder, most other transmissions have a close slip fit so it doesn't need to be that tight...

did you use something like this

 

[Budnicks]

your MoPar 'man card' is safe

you can heat the bearing in an oven
(or use a torch if careful) to like 220*- 250*ish
they will expand some to fit 'more easily' on the shafts
less sanding & grinding or forcing them on
if you don't have a press especially
you can use cold compressed air, a cold rag in the freezer
wrap it, if cold enough to cool down
(or put the shafts in the freezer) if still accessible
or N2O/Nitrous Oxide to "shrink" the shaft the bearing are going over

I didn't do a Ford top-loader, not for a long time now
but;
I just did a Borge Warner T-17 3 speed top-loader & Atlas overdrive
in a 68 CJ5 Jeep/Kaiser, I got a blown-up photo off the -www-
& I winged it
make sure to get "all the proper seals & gaskets",
silicone or just 'make a gasket' isn't long term & they will leak

ask me how I know, been there done that

my neighbor painted it black (it's his Jeep)
he has since taken all the black off after we had to reseal the whole thing
after his uncle just "rebuilt it" with silicone & 'make a gasket' sealers

 

[dan juhasz]

your MoPar 'man card' is safe

you can heat the bearing in an oven
(or use a torch if careful) to like 220*- 250*ish
they will expand some to fit 'more easily' on the shafts
less sanding & grinding or forcing them on
if you don't have a press especially
you can use cold compressed air, a cold rag in the freezer
wrap it, if cold enough to cool down
(or put the shafts in the freezer) if still accessible
or N2O/Nitrous Oxide to "shrink" the shaft the bearing are going over

I didn't do a Ford top-loader, not for a long time now
but;
I just did a Borge Warner T-17 3 speed top-loader & Atlas overdrive
in a 68 CJ5 Jeep/Kaiser, I got a blown-up photo off the -www-
& I winged it
make sure to get "all the proper seals & gaskets",
silicone or just 'make a gasket' isn't long term & they will leak

ask me how I know, been there done that

View attachment 1201327

my neighbor painted it black (it's his Jeep)
he has since taken all the black off after we had to reseal the whole thing
after his uncle just "rebuilt it" with silicone & 'make a gasket' sealers

View attachment 1201328

I did heat the old bearing with heat gun then was able to ( with a brass drift) hammer the main shaft out. It was still pretty snug. I have a conventional press at work and was thinking what I could rig up to support the input side of the main shaft while the case is vertical and find appropriate tube to just contact the inner race to press. Seems like a not well thought out design. I’m sure the dealerships had a very specific tool to press these.

 

[AR67GTX]

did you use something like this View attachment 1201292

I can’t remember right now if I used one of those or a small hone for wheel cylinders. I may have tried both. I would just check your shaft OD and the bearing ID. I had 2-1/2 thousands interference and that was a losing battle. I think I had SK bearings. Maybe you won’t be facing the same thing.

 

[dan juhasz]

Got it all buttoned up, on the input I heated with a heat gun and tapped it off, to install the new I put the input in the freezer for a couple hours and tapped the new bearing on without much trouble, the output bearing was a little trickier as I had to invert the trans vertical with input out and support the mainshaft input side , then heated the bearing with heat gun and with a brass punch tapped it in place. Just for the books an A833 is easier to do for sure.

 

[AR67GTX]

Glad to hear that. I’ve rebuilt a Muncie and a Toploader, but not an A833. After getting my 66 I checked the trans fluid and it was way low. I’ve only driven the car once and it shifted fine but I’m expecting to have to rebuild it one of these days. I don’t need more difficult challenges.

Hope it shifts fine and stays dry. I had a hard time getting my toploader dry. It wanted to leak at the lower tailhousing bolt that goes into the sump (open hole). Finally had to put a stud in with a heavy dose of thread sealer, RTV on the gasket and an oil pan sealing washer under the nut. So far this has worked.