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Gearbox removal


Jamie L Butler

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Hi. I'm a mechanic, but I've never removed a transmission from a Dodge Brothers before. Mine is a 12v starter Generator type Dodge (slow) 4. 1926 Australian RHD, I think that makes it late 25 manufacture. My gearbox has lost reverse and 1st, I think there's sideways movement in the layshaft, bearing gone.

Can anybody please describe the process for removing the transmission from the car. I do have a spare gearbox, which I would like to fit to keep the car mobile while I rebuild the old one. It doesn't appear to have bolts to separate the box from the bell housing, being all in one. I'm guessing that I have to unbolt the rear springs and roll the rear axle back with the chassis supported to disengage the tailshaft from the universal joint. Does the exhaust also need to be removed? Floorboards obviously would need to come out. If I remove the clutch/ flywheel under-cover and support the engine on a couple of bottle jacks and undo the gearbox/ engine mount/ cross member bolts to the chassis, then the engine to mount bolts, will the gearbox pull back from the clutch and come out without a fight? Can somebody please advise me? Thank you. JB.

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I have done exactly like you say on my 1925 coupe. You have the procedure correct. You only have to remove the front bolts of the rear springs and then pivot the rear end back on the rear spring shackles. It's easier with a couple people to help. Then support the engine and transmission and remove the bolts through the crossmember. Putting it back together definitely requires some help with a second pair of hands, but still went pretty smoothly. Good luck. It was a lot easier on the 25 than when I did my 1928 Senior. If I need to do that again I think I will just sell the car.

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I think you may be on the money there. With the engine idling and the clutch pushed in with my hand, as I slowly released the clutch the sliding gear was being thrown back and was not engaging. The selector should hold it in place and I don't think it was moving forward enough, but being flung back out. surely the selector fork would throw the gearstick back into neutral if the gear was also flung back to neutral? (as it seemed to be). Well I have a spare box and I need to remove the floor to get the gearbox out, so I'll pull the top off first. I'm really hoping that is the problem, fingers crossed. Thanks guys.

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10 hours ago, Sactownog said:

I would like to see your progress on this as I will be pulling my gear box soon to rebuild. mine currently makes a ticking/grinding sound when driving, not sure if it is the transmission or the clutch. 

Try disconnecting the speedo cable. That could be your ticking. 

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11 hours ago, Mattml430 said:

Try disconnecting the speedo cable. That could be your ticking. 

the speedo is off about 15mph (I blame 1/2" larger than stock tires) but it only makes the sound when in gear, then sounds like a constant tick or grind but still drives fine. 

 

you think I should disconnect speedo from transmission and see if that fixes it? 

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yesterday my PRO mechanic friend took a look at it, thinks it may need a valve adjustment. 

 

I am going to remove the transmission and rebuild it and seal it up so both will be checked. 

 

but it seems hard to adjust valves as they are behind the headers and intake. 

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39 minutes ago, Sactownog said:

it seems hard to adjust valves as they are behind the headers and intake

No kidding! And I think they are supposed to be done hot.

 

Luckily in the 1939 Studebaker one can take off the wheel and inner fender and sit on the ground. No such luck here. You need to be a contortionist and learn to conform to the shape of the running board and mudguard and have heat resistant skin. At least you don't have a steering column with light switch and hand controls in the way, so it is pretty easy for you.

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23 minutes ago, Spinneyhill said:

No kidding! And I think they are supposed to be done hot.

 

Luckily in the 1939 Studebaker one can take off the wheel and inner fender and sit on the ground. No such luck here. You need to be a contortionist and learn to conform to the shape of the running board and mudguard and have heat resistant skin. At least you don't have a steering column with light switch and hand controls in the way, so it is pretty easy for you.

yeah, more and more I keep leaning towards ripping out the motor and trans and doing a full rebuild, that way non of the car body gets in the way. 

 

actually, while the front holes on the fenders where the BUMPER MOUNTS TO FRAME are the only areas of rust on the car and I need to take the fenders off to have the holes repaired and the fenders painted. so I may have to tear down car this year and fix all this BS. 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Sactownog said:

I may have to tear down car this year and fix all this

Reminds me of the story of Gordon V. with his Healey Allard. He rolled under it to tighten the sump bolts to quench the oil leaks. Before you knew it, the entire car was disassembled!  A full restoration followed.

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yeah, I have never taken apart this old car, I always imagined I would want to FULL RESTO this car. to be 100% honest, it scares the hell out of me. 

 

I have built full custom vehicles in the past BUT the difference for me is that if something is broken on the new vehicles, there are parts readily available. 

 

with the old 33 if something gets broke, well then a search begins. 

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36 minutes ago, Sactownog said:

yeah, I have never taken apart this old car, I always imagined I would want to FULL RESTO this car. to be 100% honest, it scares the hell out of me. 

 

I have built full custom vehicles in the past BUT the difference for me is that if something is broken on the new vehicles, there are parts readily available. 

 

with the old 33 if something gets broke, well then a search begins. 

If you DO end up taking it apart, take LOTS and LOTS of photos and make a LOT of notes. Bag and tag EVERYTHING.

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One way to reduce the fright is to do one thing at a time. Take something off and restore it. Either store or re-fit. Repeat.

 

I get restoration paralysis so that is the way I do it. Keeps me focused.

 

The other thing, of course, is research. You will need every reference you can get. Find out where other (original) vehicles are and visit them for photographs etc..

Edited by Spinneyhill (see edit history)
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14 hours ago, Spinneyhill said:

One way to reduce the fright is to do one thing at a time. Take something off and restore it. Either store or re-fit. Repeat.

 

I get restoration paralysis so that is the way I do it. Keeps me focused.

 

The other thing, of course, is research. You will need every reference you can get. Find out where other (original) vehicles are and visit them for photographs etc..

This is how I have been restoring the vehicle, just got steering done (kinda) and next will be the transmission for sure. that is going to be a fun job. well see what happens after that. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had a better look, not pulled the top off yet. It looks like stripped gears on the bigger cog of the sliding gear. I'm going to pull it out and put my spare gearbox in after I've cleaned it up and got it in good shape. I bought a mechanics instruction manual. Only thing is that when I tarted pulling the floor boards out, the top one which has the starter button mounted and steering wheel going through appears to block the top of the gearbox from being pulled back? Not sure how I'm going to proceed there?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apparently the steering column comes out with the top floorboard in one piece after disconnecting the steering coupling from the steering box. I was told by somebody who's done it before that it's easier to pull the bonnet and radiator out and use an engine load leveler and pull the whole engine and gearbox out in one unit from the front as I've been told doing it from underneath is much harder and getting the gearbox back in with the clutch lined up is a terrible job otherwise.

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On 4/3/2019 at 8:34 AM, Jamie L Butler said:

Apparently the steering column comes out with the top floorboard in one piece after disconnecting the steering coupling from the steering box. I was told by somebody who's done it before that it's easier to pull the bonnet and radiator out and use an engine load leveler and pull the whole engine and gearbox out in one unit from the front as I've been told doing it from underneath is much harder and getting the gearbox back in with the clutch lined up is a terrible job otherwise.

I wouldn’t pull the engine to remove the gearbox. You can get to it from the top once the floor boards are removed. As Spinny said lift the board around the column up a bit out of the way. 

Edited by Mattml430 (see edit history)
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Ok, well back to the drawing board. I was looking at engine cranes as I had been told that pulling both out the front was the way to go, but if not I'll try the other way. I'll be needing at least two decent bottle jacks to support the back of the engine and I'll find out how hard it is to get the clutch shaft back in when I get to it. I've got to pull the top off either way, but at least I won't need a crane to get the box out, just some muscle power.

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I took the overdrive gearbox out of my 1939 Studebaker. It is a heavy beast. I made an a-frame out of Dexion and set it up inside the car. I used a ratchet puller to lower the gearbox to the floor, slung from that frame. A big floor jack might have been a better bet, but this way I had full control and it couldn't fall off the jack and I wasn't lying on my back under the car messing with a heavy thing. The tricky part was getting the sling so the gearbox didn't slide out of it.

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