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Agree with "williamh" about the condenser. When I was a young man all gasoline vehicles had "points and condensers" . No such thing as HEI or any electronic ignition. One major "give away" in your statement was the engine would fire back up after stopping. The condensers job is to "absorb" the...
Well I finally finished tearing down all the HydraMatic transmissions.
I took a picture of all the cases and parts I had to throw away. Really sad to look at.
Yes. This problem can be real serious. Hopefully adjusting the "modulator" will fix it. If not than you will need to get back into the transmission.
Sadly, a lot of repair shops do not change out all the seals in a rebuild. I never used the "nylon" seals in a TH400. They were never meant to be...
There is an adjustment on the "Modulator" . Take off the vacuum line and you will see a small "straight" slot for a screwdriver. Turn this in or out to fine tune your shift point.
The modulator is the transmissions way of knowing how much throttle you're using. So if your pressing down hard on...
Got another question today about the front and rear clutch pack plates. I guess I never answered it, something else I forgot.
Anyway, there was two types of steel plates and two types of fiber plates. Waved and flat. The wave plates came from the civilian market and where initially used in the...
I was asked a question today about where I get my "new" clutch plates from. The answer is from private collections. "Fatsco" still has some "fiber" plates around but they want almost $10.00 a plate. They cannot get new fiber or steel plates either. So when their stock is gone, it's gone. I have...
Well I did it again !!!!
I had the machine shop make-up some throttle valve shafts so I could replace all those bent ones, but I didn't ask for a quote. Again !
I didn't think having 20 small shafts made would cost so much. WRONG !!!
Here's what $1002.00 will get you.
The wife wasn't too happy...
I have good days and bad days. That post was a bad day. Though it has been getting harder trying to keep a positive attitude about these old 303M HydraMatics.
Now with the "border" issues with Canada I don't even know if I will be able to see "plowboy" in Edmonton this June. Really pissing me...
I was a commercial welder for 10 years. During that time I welded "steel", "aluminum" , "stainless steel" , and cast-iron" . The cast-iron was the worst. One of the major problems is that cast-iron is very porous. That is especially important when welding cast-iron that has absorbed oils like...
This is just a "general" wake-up call to everyone in the military vehicle community. Our parts are old and getting older. Cast Iron in particular becomes more brittle with age. Today after spending hours cleaning a bellhousing, I found a major crack in the flange. I couldn't see it until all the...
On a sadder note, I know most of you know that "Tom Woldt" passed away a few months ago. He and I were working on finding parts for the 303M HydraMatic transmission. In fact he was going through his inventory for me when he died. I didn't realize he had passed for awhile since he told me to give...
Since tearing down all these 303M HydraMatics I've come across several things of interest. The number one being what is the difference between a 302M and a 303M unit. We know that the military had durability problems with the 302M . The question has always been "why" ?
Over time I have found...
Another thing I need to mention is when installing the rear band you need to "screw" down (tighten) the "band strut" all the way and then back off half a turn. When you go to adjust the rear band the "strut" must be in this position for proper operation of the "automatic" adjuster.
These are...
I'm in the process of rebuilding another 303M HydraMatic transmission. When I installed the rear pump discharge pipe, I noticed a small hole had been drilled in it. I've seen this before. I "assume" some rebuilders did this to prevent high reduction pressures. That is the worst thing you can do...
Today I'm giving out a little "tech" tip. I mentioned earlier how I'm reusing the four lip seals used in the reduction unit as they are no longer available from anyone. I also mentioned that I soak them in a solution. I forgot to mention what that solution is.
So here it is.
You might need to...