I’m reassembling my transmission after replacing the 2nd gear synchros, and as expected, the shift slider assembly came apart, leaving me both parts of the slider, three rectangular keys, three springs, and three tiny detent ball bearings. Thankfully none were lost, but I am struggling with reassembly. I can’t get the three spring loaded pieces into place with the ball bearings. Any tips or tricks you could share to help me along? It is super fiddly and frustrating...

Wow... sounds like a real pita. I don’t think there are many here that haveactually had their tranny apart. There was a great thread a few years ago about someone who did their own rebuild. I think you need to find that thread and reach out to it’s author. Good luck and hang in there - you’ll figure it out (hopefully someone with knowledge will chime in).

Thank you. I’m trying that over and over. This is hands down the worst job I’ve ever done as a home mechanic. So incredibly frustrating...

Still open to ideas. I spent the better part of five hours trying, and never got it. Those ***** and springs sure do launch! So frustrating.

Thanks all, I’ll give another go tonight. Thank you for the advice and guidance!

Good idea. I actually tried a hose clamp yesterday, and it was great for the reason you mention, it didn't deflect and did a better job of compressing the detent ball bearings. Unfortunately, it didn't work well enough. The "stones" (as they are named in the PET - rectangular blocks with a hole in the middle) deflected upward during installation, and it made it hard to access the detent ball bearings, which is key to getting this done.

I may have to combine some ideas.

The addition of using the synchro as the thing used to evenly push down on it might make all the difference!

I may modify the hose clamp with some small drilled holes - smaller than the detent ball so it can't fly out, but large enough to get a small tool (punch with a concave tip?) into. That way, I can get preserve the rigidity of the hose clamp, but still be able to manipulate the detents, as I push down with the synchro cone.

I also have a ring compressor that I could try too if the others don't work out.

I am not giving up!

Success!!!

edit: maybe not... I need to look at the manual, but looking at the photos I posted, I may have installed the inner hub backwards. I think those smaller dimples go on the opposite side from the marks on the outer hub. Sigh... I guess the up side is that I’ve done it once, there isn’t any reason I can’t do it again.






Thanks to everyone for the support, guidance and advice.

I told my kids that my vision of hell would be me forced to try to assemble this thing for eternity. If I never do it again, it will be too soon.

What finally worked for me was not very elegant. I held the outside ring in my left hand, with the synchro cone against the left side of the inner sliding hub, with the hub offset to the right so I could load the spring, stone, ball assemblies one at a time (using a large dimpled center punch to push the ball in). I got the first one in, centered it (like it was in Neutral), then carefully pushed it toward the first gear side as far as it could go without launching the parts, all the while I held the synchro cone against the left side to prevent the parts from launching that way. Then I put the second set in, centered it to neutral, then using the synchro cone, pushed it back toward the first gear side as far as it would go without launching bits. Then, holding everything with a vicelike grip in my left hand, I did the same with the third. I carefully pushed all three (of the spring, ball, stone) sets back to the neutral (centered in the groove) position, and quickly had my daughter throw three zip ties on the whole thing to hold it together.

I sincerely hope I never have to do this again, and wish anyone else luck if they have to.

My best advice is to make sure they don’t ever come apart when you dissasemble the gear stack.

Huge props to the pros who do this kind of thing regularly.