Quote:
Originally Posted by ERASER5
As i recall, you have to push real hard on that spring. I think ended up using a block of wood at the frame and a prybar. A third hand would help too.
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I was all geeked out to have to push like hell to get it out, but it wasn't an issue. I put a pry bar on it, saw it had moved. It only needs to move about 1/16" or so. Just enough to get the pressure off the wire retainer ring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Low Elco
Comin' right along! It's gonna be funny when you're out bombin' in it and some dude offers you a pile o'cash for it.
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I don't see that happening. They'll see me beating the snot out of it and will back away thinking..."that drive train aint gonna last long."
As I said above, getting the cover pushed inward wasn't an issue. I could do it with my fingers, at least after the initial push. The hard part, and it took me a half hour to do, was getting that damn ring out of there. The ends on the ring were flat and the groove it fits into is rounded, so there is no little corner to dig into under it to get it started. And the gap was positioned at the bottom, where I can't see it and was doing it by feel. After about 10-15 minutes of fruitless effort I got a small punch and hammer and started working the ring around so I could see the gap better. Eventually I got a scribe hooked under it and once that happened it was just a few seconds later to pop it out.
Just in case I have to go back into it I ground a taper into the ring ends to make it easy to hook out of there next time. Sometimes I actually think ahead. I just don't make a habit of it.
So here are the parts...
There is the cover, the retaining ring that holds it in, the cover O-ring, the spring and the piston.
Hole the parts came out of...
The piston edges are a little rough. The O-ring kit came with new rings or seals for the piston, so I swapped those out and I cleaned up the edges of the piston with some fine grit paper.
The tranny book I have (Turbo Hydra-Matic 350 Handbook, by Ron Sessions) is one of those ones that tells you how to rebuild it, how to modify it, how to fix the more common problems (leaks) in the vehicle, etc. In my reading I find the little section that says how to fix this particular leak. And I'm thinking I should into what this thing does since I'm cracking it open.
In the part of the book that talks about inspecting the parts it mentions that hot rodders (me) will leave the spring out to have a more abrupt shift to 2nd.
Then in the modification area of the book it talks about shift improvement kits and how they work, and again talks about eliminating the spring (the kits will basically block oil flow to it essentially doing the same thing). So thats what I do. This piece is on the workbench.
It went back together easier than it came apart. How often does that happen right? I wiped everything off again. Oh, a LOT oil tranny fluid comes out when you take that cover off. I now have 1 less t-shirt and 1 more oil rag. And when you pull the piston out, even more oil comes out. And it keeps coming out. Have a pan handy.
I added some tranny fluid, started it up and so far, so good. So it was test drive time and I beat the snot out of it. Must have half a dozen fresh black streaks on the local roads and may have frightened a couple other drivers with some sideways drifts down hwy 14 with smoke rolling out behind me.
This thing is a burnout machine.
And the teams warming up for the homecoming game tonight (my son included) got a little show past the west end of the football field.
So back to the garage. When I first started it and there was no gushing oil spewing out in all directions, I backed it onto the driveway so I could clean up my mess (my pan was not so handy), and the accumulated puddle stains from the past several months. So when I returned from my joyride I parked it back on the now clean(er) floor. Went to the game, came back and no fresh red puddles.
There was a little brown oil puddle though.
I think it's the oil line to the pressure gauge. I cut a few inches off and put a new compression sleeve on it, but I think the plastic tubing is just done in. I looked at a hard line kit at the parts store but holy crap they want more for that little kit than I spent on my hole cluster. So I will be looking for a new line, or some 1/8" copper tubing.
Almost forgot to talk about the shifting thing. I honestly didn't feel much difference after removing the spring from the accumulator. My C-10 shifts a lot harder than the jimmy but it has a shift kit installed, and it's just a 2wd, and it's probably a much fresher tranny (probably about 10-15,000 miles on it). It's not any worse. May be slightly better. Maybe I will try to install a shift kit some time down the road.