Another one bites the dust

[4bogginchevys]

Went out scoutin' for mud boggin to a place where we usually go and the 1008 needed a tow home.....

Didn't really do serious 4-wheelin', just puttin around trying to stay out of the ruts, it's very muddy in the hills right now. Most of the places we drove around at had just 2 deep tracks to drive in so I fought the steering for the high ground. Out of no where I smelled tranny fluid....my buddy goes, I thought I smelled coolant a little while ago but didn't think anything of it. No, I didn't over heat it, tranny fluid was right...

Upon further inspection we found that the tranny case had cracked even with the top/front most bolt of the cover on the passenger side of the tranny rear, might be governer gear housing...

Still had good gears so we hit the road quick, about half way home (10 minute drive) I pulled over and fluid was pouring out....still had gears but I called the wife for a tow.

No damage was done to the tranny, after towing it the rest of the way home it drove fine to what will be it's temporary resting place...

Already called and a buddy at the tranny shop will use these guts in a new case for super cheap, tranny worked awesome, fluid perfectly pink. For about 150.00 he'll make sure anything questionable doesn't make it's way into the new case.

****, bad timing on this one....

 

[surewriting]

That sucks man. I know how it is to blow a transmission lol, and it is not a fun feeling. Glad you're able to get it fixed so cheap.

 

[84cucv1ton]

wonder how that took place?

 

[T_F_E]

I have a spare transfer case up here i believe if you need it, worked when pulled.

 

[4bogginchevys]

thanks, the transfer is fine, looks like the adapter is ok too. As you sit in thed drivers seat...the case cracked right to left, not front to back.

Some of the ruts on these roads were deep, lots of slickmud, I may have throttled up at the wrong time trying not to get stuck and caught some rock under the mud. I had a half of cord of wood on the truck so it makes sense that a no traction...to good traction bite of the tires could have twisted the drive train. Was in 4wd though. The crossmember is nice and tight, I fixed that up as soon as I got the truck. Maybe the mount bushings were over worn... never checked them. Of course I got called to go back to work for more hours friday....hate to see the truck sit there broken up.

 

[4bogginchevys]

Update:
Started pulling the tranny today....

2 of the six holes that bolt the dust cover on are stripped and missing bolts...

Both of the rods from the back of the motor mount to the dust cover are gone, threads are ok....

the rod that goes from the transfer pass side to side bell housing bolt is loose, broken bolt in bell housing, (first one up from the bottom bolt). Looks like there may be enough shank left for a vise grip....

Tansfer case bushing bolts have been drilled cross ways through the head and secured with thin WIRE to prevent loosening, missing the lock plate on both....

Some bolts were barely tight, some were so tight I aquired a few scars when they came free, I finally gave up for the night when a cheater bar was needed to break free the 2 upper most bell housing bolts. I'll find one in the morning and finish the removal. Went today to the junk yard and got the donor TH400 case, guess i'll be going back for misc parts so when it goes in it is complete with all the bars/plates/bushings etc. that it is missing.

When the truck was purchased it was such a good deal I barely looked it over, and there's not as much room underneath as i'm used to, so it got a quick pass while laying in the dirt. Next time i'll be more thorough on an inspection when it hits my driveway!

Most surprising of the whole deal is that nothing leaks, and the motor is complete with every bolt, loom clip, and almost everything has been zip tied....almost like someone cared. Hope it wasn't a tranny shop that made all of those "installation errors".

I have seen blue/orange/ balck and red torque converters.....this one is green....think they painted it when the engine was swapped? (has rebuilt tag)

 

[4bogginchevys]

Got the tranny out today, wasn't too bad. I'll get pics of the crack when the parts come back from the shop...I usually keep cool little broken parts from these things, got a broken hub, diff cover that looks like a jack-o-lantern froma spider gear rolling up it, piece of a 14 bolt axle I broke. When I get a real garage they'll get a shelf.

The broken bolt mentioned before came right out with just a twist, no tools required, I lucked out on that one.

No end play on the crank, couldn't really notice it at all...I think the spec is a few thousanth's, still very good.

I noticed on the casting # of the tranny it was 39, isn't that the heavy duty casting? The # on the donor case is also 39, it was out of a 3/4 ton.

When separating the transmission from the adapter the threads in 1 hole came out with the the bolt, good thing thier in the new case.

There was an assortment of bolts....as in, someone has had this apart and used different lengths, and different "grades" where all the bolts for one purpose would generally be the same. It was never in a tranny shop, maybe the jokers that put the new motor in had something to do with it, guess i'll never know.

It seems obvious now why it cracked, good thing the internals were all untouched by the "mechanic" that did all the work on it.

 

[ODdave]

did you check your front drive shaft to make shure it was colapsing corectly and is the "correct " length? i have seen this happen in trucks that have a binding drive shaft or the shaft is to long.

 

[4bogginchevys]

did you check your front drive shaft to make shure it was colapsing corectly and is the "correct " length? i have seen this happen in trucks that have a binding drive shaft or the shaft is to long.

Thanks, come to think of it the front shaft looked basically collapsed in normal run position. Has anyone found a stock shaft from a similiar application that bolts in? Could be something with a TH350/203....or even the very uncommon TH350/205 that used a flange instead of a yoke.....most that I find have the yoke. Thanks

 

[4bogginchevys]

well bad news about the new case...it's junk

Long story short is: tranny was already in the back of a truck.....assumption was that it was bad, and not purchased for that reason. I didn't have to do the tearout for this reason, and thats why I didn't notice that 4 of the 6 adapter holes were stripped....back to the yard. Atleast they will give me a refund, I hope there's another tranny there....

 

[4bogginchevys]

my tranny troubles are nearing an end finally. Found a 44 HD TH400 2wd and it is in the shop now. the best part is that it is a perfectly running newly rebuilt tranny. They're going to swap out the necessary parts and when all is said and done i'll have anther set of perfect running guts for when this tranny goes bad. So far i'm into it for 150.00 out the door...still looking for the bars and stuff that go from the dust cover to the back of the motor mounts, all new nuts/bolts and a can of the right stuff are on the bench.

Edit: between myself and one other person we have 5 bad 39 castings, mostly just ears broken off and stuff...they should probably be avoided. super light duty is a 28 casting, and i just saw a 68, or 89 casting, not sure on it's quality. Be on the lookout for 44 HD units when shopping for a tranny.

 

[T_F_E]

Awesome!

 

[4bogginchevys]

Ok, the next installment of the tranny rebuild....

pic 1 is the crack in the case about 3/8 of an inch from the bolt hole (hole is for governer gear housing bolt)

pic 2 is what appears to be a nail holding this assembly together, someone else's handy work

pic 3 is the heavy duty casting that I found, I didn't have a lot of time to snoop around for what makes this a heavy casting....it just says it is, good enough for me.

I ended up doing the output shaft swap (including all guts) with a buddy today. Figured it was time for me to learn, and the book was only 25.00. Very cool stuff when you get it apart and see the simplicity of the build. took apart the donor first in case anything gets broken ( not likely, just wanted to be sure). Cleaned the case and proceeded to take apart my cracked case next, lined it all out as it came off, and reversed to rebuild as necessary. Probably wasn't really important with 2 good trannys but I used the dial indicator to check for end play as suggested in the book, mostly within spec....tomarrow I will be getting a couple new thrust washers, the ones from either case were wrong to meet the .003-.024 spec for the front pump end play spec. Not knowing any better I will assume they always go bad (wear) and the book says they come in many different thicknesses. We also discovered what mods may have been done to mine for a shift kit which I believe it has. There weren't many differences between the two, the donor was a 1987. Will try to finish tomarrow and will update this weekend if installed.

 

[4bogginchevys]

GOT IT DONE!!!

Went in almost without a hitch....the bell housing was not clearanced quite enough for the oddly large nose cone of the starter. Had to dremel it out using my old case as a guide. Also didn't like the way the cooler lines wrap under the converter dust cover, a little bending brings them right in front of the tranny pan to cross. Also put n ew u-joints in the rear shaft, the front is fine.

After some inspection I have come to the conclusion that there was no issue with the front driveline length causing the tranny case to break. the shaft is not centered in in it's travel, does appear a bit too long...also it runs nearly horizontal, no way it could be compressed enough the cause bottoming issues. Also, the leverage provided from a front shaft bottoming out would actually cause the adapter to break, no way possible to break the TOP of the tranny case. Still remains a complete mystery as why the case broke....

No leaks, noise noises, and every gear is there...just like before. A successful mission. A couple buddies have tranny projects for me now since the re-stack went so well, and a shift kit is going in everything I own while i'm fresh on valve bodies.

 

[aebiv]

...Still remains a complete mystery as why the case broke....

My guess is prior stress.

I was putting a 700R4 in my old blazer (not m1009) and it got knocked off the stand and split in two, almost like a spiral fracture on your arm or something. Turns out, after going back to the yard where I picked it up from, the truck it was in had ran straight on into those dividers you see on the highway. My guess is the front driveshaft got slammed back hard and cracked the case, but it was not all the way through till if fell off the stand.

So yeah, long story short, I wouldn't think too hard that it was you

After all, I've flogged the TH350 in a blazer without much support VERY hard and never broke a case

 

[4bogginchevys]

My guess is prior stress.

I was putting a 700R4 in my old blazer (not m1009) and it got knocked off the stand and split in two, almost like a spiral fracture on your arm or something. Turns out, after going back to the yard where I picked it up from, the truck it was in had ran straight on into those dividers you see on the highway. My guess is the front driveshaft got slammed back hard and cracked the case, but it was not all the way through till if fell off the stand.

So yeah, long story short, I wouldn't think too hard that it was you

After all, I've flogged the TH350 in a blazer without much support VERY hard and never broke a case

Ya, i've seen a lot of horsepower go through a TH350 with a tin dust cover and have no trouble. In a way it was ok, there was some less than adequate work that had been done to the drive train underneath and I got the opportunity to correct it.

 

[aebiv]

Very positive way of looking at it