Mike Frye

Keith, check out your original thread. I hadn't seen that before and just responded. There is a way to get the input shaft to spin, you need to get both wheels off the ground, but hold one still while you spin the other one. If you don't, both wheels will spin (in opposite directions) but the input shaft won't. I forgot this the second time I had my trans out and it hung me up for over an hour. I WON'T forget it again.

thal

Hey Mike, did what you suggested. The input shaft turns, but the central shaft has moved fore-aft such that the groove is not visible from the opening on the input shaft. lots of metal shavings came raining down as the input shaft turn, so it definitely did not ID-OD spline machining! Not sure I'd want to try and run the car even if I could line them up again. But it's good to know the input shaft did not break.

Thanks for the advice.

GregBBRD

Keith:

Compared to what I just went through, this is not a huge deal.

Pop that transmission out of the car, before the weather turns bad. This will let you survey the damage. '83/'84 fifith gears (input shaft) are tough to come by, but perhaps the new parts guy on the East Coast might have a tranmssiion with a good gear in it. If not, thinbk about a '85/'86 complete transmission swap...has much better syncros. This is what I'm going to do, for my son's car.

If you get stuck, I'll help you fix the transmission, from afar. Pictures and the internet make this easy.

Mark Anderson

You could always do the hack method. I bought a parts car once that had a bad 5th and torque tube shaft and the it was welded together. Sweet

Landseer

I have a donor 84 USA. It shifted very well for me. Problem is some play that lets it pop out of 4th on decel. Looks like the 4th and 5th gears are very much clean and intact, and synchros too, I think. (actually I think the codes say its an open differential 83)

Reverse gear is chipped.

This box is available because generous rennlisters as of last week made other parts available to me. (and I don't know how to fix this one, or any one for that matter)

So, I think this would help and its available to the OP at no cost for execution of this project.

I can take pictures if you guide me on it, it is clean and on my benchtop in the basement.

Landseer

Here's some pictures of a possible donor for consideration.
Internals after the camera battery recharges.
5th has very slight chipping around center.
Upshifts 1 thru 5 and downshifts 5 thru 2 were always smooth.

thal

thanks for all the advice and encouragement guys.

not sure I'll take you up on your, er, "advice" there Mark and weld them together.

I know you were being facetious.

all this good advice has got me re-invigorated to give it a go and pull that baby out. hopefully this is not just a short-lived manic phase to be followed by the horrible crash after i see what's inside the box. but let's not think bad thoughts, and go one step at a time.

thanks again all!

Mike Frye

We've all been there. The biggest obstacle with anything like this is the 'non-starter' because you don't want to open up the can of worms (or because you've just finished a big job and are wiped out from it).

Good luck and keep us posted.

thal

Thanks for the generous offer Chris!

I've started getting the clutch out, and hopefully will be in a position to know the condition of the trans innerds soon. I'll keep you posted on what I find.

Regards, Keith

Landseer

No problem. I think the right parts are here and in the right hands (the West Coast guys) you should be in good shape quickly.



(I know about the wedding thing, BTW, youngest daughter gets married at X-mas)

thal

congrats! now simply hand over all liquid assets to wife, grin, shrug, bite tongue and lip simultaneously, nod when appropriate, learn to say "sure, whatever you think" when appropriate. practice smiling, and holding the smile for long periods of time. it's worked for me so far.

thal

Well I'm beginning the process of getting the trans and TT out.

Clutch out? --> Check. [Note to self, remember to use shorter shims for the intermediate plate release springs]. I had one hang up at the top of the bellhousing and could not rotate the engine to loosen the clutch bolts. I had to get a bigger breaker bar to finally pop the shim out and re-do. Don't make my mistake.

rear wheels and brakes off? --> Check.



I was a little hesitant to pull on the wires to the brake wear sensor, but with a little elbow grease it came out. For future reference, is there a better way to remove the sensors?





Rotors are very worn, there is a lip of metal at the outer rim, the picture does not do it justice. I measured the rotor thickness at 17.64mm, which according to the WSM is below low limit. An unanticipated cost. Well, that can wait till the spring, keep your head down and forge ahead Keith.

By the way, anyone recognize the numbering on the brake pads?



Disconnect speedo sensor and backup light wires? --> Check.
[Note to self, next time take picture with wires in their original position BEFORE removing them you dumb ****!]





Does anyone know if blue up or orange up in the sensor matters?

Well, I've also noticed a couple of things that may be problems but I'm unsure about.

First, Pass Side Shock has a spacer sort of hung up on the shaft. I assume this is an issue, but does this mean I should replace the shocks while I'm in there?



Second, is what looks like a pretty good ding in the aluminum cross member, again on the pass side. I don't see any scoring of the half shaft to imply that it somehow hit the cross member, but there is nothing else nearby, any thoughts on what could have done this? Got me a little concerned. It's not covered in grime like the rest of the underneath, so it must have happened relatively recently, but I don't remember anything special to have caused it.



So now I'm ready to get some cable under the trans and hang it from the sawy bar, then loosen up and drop the rear suspension. Hopefully more pics tonight after a successful day.

Mrmerlin

dont forget to remove the e brake cable from the handle,
then with a spray of PB blaster on the housing where it meets the chassis twist gently and the cable pulls out of the chassis and stays with the rear sub frame

Landseer

I clamp that ebrake cable at the body with vice grips and tap the vice grips with a hammer to pop it free.

thal

yeah, i had forgotten to mention the ebrake disconnect at the handle, which I had done. However I'm glad you gave direction on how to extricate from the passenger compartment, I was wondering how I was gonna do that!

Thanks!