I have a 1950 mercury with a 3 sp. O/D. I received help here on the message board diagnosing where the trouble was with my OD some weeks ago. It's inside the OD unit and I have now removed the trans from the car. In order the remove the OD housing from the adapter plate the shop manual says to drive out the tapered pin from the rail shift lever housing and then to remove the 4 bolts holding the housing and adapter plate to the case and then pull the housing off. I removed the pin and bolts but the housing will not come off. I will come off about 1/4 inch and that's it, no more. I must be missing something but I have no clue what. Any suggestions?
Someone either on here or the Barn just had a post on the same problem. Unfortunately I don’t remember the solution. But I think it was internal to the transmission and became apparent when he pulled the (in his case) top cover. Might try a search. Hell to get old and not remember.
As 302 GMC said, remove the soft plug and expand the snap ring, however, thing could have been changed Simcoe 1950 and have a small plate with two bolts covering the access to the snap ring. Whether plug or cover, once removed you will have access to the large snap ring. Once that is expanded, the housing slides off and you have access to the planetary overdrive gear ***embly. Simple stuff once you have done it.
There is a small cover held by to bolts on my trans that covers the port to get to the snap ring. I'll try to remove it later today but I didn't try this first because the shop manual didn't say to until later in the dis***embly.
There are two things you need to do in order to finish getting the tail housing off. Remove the two bolts that hold the metal cover plate on the top of the housing (there is no soft round expansion plug on these types). Second step is to remove the 1/8” retaining pin that secures the lockout shaft….sounds like you’ve already done that. Pull the lockout shaft outward as far as it will go (roughly 1/2”). Set the transmission horizontally on the workbench. Reach into the opening from the cover plate you’d removed, with a pair of lock ring pliers and spread the tips of the snap ring inside. Now (with the four housing bolts removed) keep the snap ring spread while you rap on the end of the output shaft with a deadblow hammer. This will move the housing and the inner ball bearing away from the snap ring about 1/8”…..enough for you to wiggle and pull the housing off. If you keep a finger on the output shaft, the housing will come off by itself.
Things are never easy. As the shop manual said, I removed the tapered pin holding the rail shift lever in place and pulled the lever out as far as it would go, about 1/2 inch. The four bolts holding the tail piece to the case are removed and the tail piece will come back about 5/16 inch then it makes hard contact with something. According to the shop manual the tail piece should now come off but it doesn't. I removed the small cover plate that revealed the snap ring. I've attached 3 pictures. When looking at the snap ring the ear on the right side is up against the housing and stuck there. The ear on the left will expand all the way back against the housing like it should. I still can't get the tail piece off when the snap ring is expanded. The only thing I can come up with is the snap ring is stuck in the groove on the right and won't let the bearing slide out. Any thoughts?
Ok, I soaked the snap ring in penetrating oil and I was able to get it where it's not stuck in the groove anymore. It slips freely around in the groove but so far when I expand it as far as I can, the tail piece still won't come off. Could I try warming up the case in the area around the the snap ring? Could the bearing be stuck in the case at this point?
If I recall correctly, the T5 (or Mopar A-833) has a very similar external snap ring, and it had to be 100% fully expanded to have the inside diameter large enough to allow the bearing/shaft to slide through the snap ring. If you can, try pushing down on the ends of the snap ring, too, which should help it expand around its full cir***ference.
If you’ve expanded the snap ring as far as it can go, it should be free of its groove in the ball bearing. Keeping the ring expanded, and the housing bolts all removed, did you use the dead blow hammer on the very end of the output shaft a few times? This normally pushes the bearing forward, allowing it to move past the snap ring just enough to clear it. I usually hold the lock ring pliers (expanding the ring tips) while rapping the output shaft sharply. Only a short movement is needed to clear the snap ring….it will stay with the housing as you pull it off. The bearing is fixed to the output shaft. Make sure that the lockout shaft hasn’t moved back into the housing while you’re jockeying things around. If you’re still not able to make the housing come off, you’ve either missed a step or something else is preventing the housing from moving.
Thanks to all for your input! I now have the case removed. I was doing everything right, bolts removed, lockout shaft was out, and I hit the output shaft with a hammer while the snap was expanded, still nothing. Then I did all the same things again but after I warmed the case around the bearing with my torch, not cherry red but a few hundred degrees. It finally began to move. It appears some kind of corrosion between the bearing and case had it locked together but by expanding the case a little with heat it turned loose. Anyway, thanks again for all your attention to this. You didn't have to but you did and I appreciate it.
In case any are interested in what I found when I finally got the OD housing off. I had to knock the ring gear off the planetary gear cage and the picture tells the story . All the pinion gear teeth and the sun gear teeth are completely gnarled up. Don't know what would have done this, maybe no lube but whatever I'm in the market for at least a planetary cage, ring gear and the sun gear and probably more. Thanks again for all the good insight from you all.
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