Got my first roadster drive, what a blast! Two days of the cruisin the coast thing getting my elbow sunburned, then the rain came so back the 37, good thing too, The roadster pulled hard and sounded great going through the gears, then I began to notice a low growl from the muncie followed by a louder squeal,and that has progress to an "i'm about to gernade" vibration. Shame too, because this is THE month to be driving it. I just picked up a muncie service manual, this will be a first time teardown though so hopefully I can fix it. Seems like its more than likely the input and main shaft bearings? I coated the inside with oil after its Katrina bath but salt water and bearings don't mix at all. Odd that it ran quiet for 2 days though. Maybe it was just giving me a little reward for all the hours of work.
when working on the muncie countershaft getting all of the needles and spacers inside the cluster can be a pain. I found that if you cut a broomstick to the same length as the countershaft cluster gear you can feed it all together on the bench and the drop the cluster into the case then insert the countershaft through the cluster pushing the broomstick out. Make sure that you count the number of needles and use the exact number your transmission calls for IIRC my M21 took 127, too many and it wont go together, too few the cleances wont be right. Dont ask me how I know this. LOL
Sounds like that may be easier than fighting tons of grease to hold them in place. My main worry is that the case has too much slop around the countershaft.
The Jalopy Journal
