How Practical? Building a T18A from parts

[Turbogus]

I'd be interested in knowing if your roll bar goes to the floor? The late 78's went to the floor, early went to the wheel well another transition with the 78.

When I first got 'BB' she had a six point 'family cage' but it interfered with the top bows when I'd switch to the bikini top in the (brief) Oregon summer (both weeks) For a time I ran a Kentrol roll bar the mounted on the rear fenderwells






...that you can see in this profile that'd allow the top bows to retract.

Wanting better protection I had a local fabrication shop graft the two together and for a little over $100 clams they aligned both, welded and painted the completed cage and set 'er in 'BB'. Other projects have abounded but I'm intending to get the support tie in bars to weld to the frame.

 

[RatDog8o8]

There should be a built date (month and year) on the upper right corner of the above dash sticker. Could you post the month?

Key words there being "should be"......



Naturally, my CJ is gonna be one of the "difficult" ones.

 

[Turbogus]

Seems we got off of the original post but general information is always welcome.

Planning to straighten out my workbench saturday so there's room to work. Got a double bottom gardening tub at Hab for Human that'll serve as a parts washing/assembly bin.
Also now that the things' in neutral going to have my first look at the gear teeth and the synchronizers. I'm planning on going through the whole thing, learning as I go, these T-18 's are reputed as being one of the simplest transmissions out there save for all those needle bearings

Going to be posting pics of progress, once I get going although there's likely to be stalls as I get short parts/tools.

Keep those tips and info comin' thanks to all and a lift of the lynch lid.

 

[IOPort51]

Ac you do this I would like to know tooth counts on the cluster and main shaft gears and internal spline count. ID and length would also be interesting.

lots of pictures.

I do know how hard it is to stop at every stage to document your work but please give it a good try.

 

[Turbogus]

As I did with the Contour/Mystique radiator fan setup I get right dedicated at such (must be my inner German coming out). So as long as the camera holds up there's goning to be pics

In the meantime I found this on another site that'll be right helpful;

T-18 Transmission Rebuild (Part 1) | Ford Trucks

 

[hole]

If the T-18 is anything like the T19, you'll need an good pair of Transmission lock ring pliers and a press.

 

[Turbogus]

Thanks for the tip hole, I've two rollaways and two banks of lockers plumb full of tools but this is one I don't have.

 

[IOPort51]

If the T-18 is anything like the T19, you'll need an good pair of Transmission lock ring pliers and a press.

what do you do with the press?

 

[Turbogus]

Could it be the means to place the gears on the shaft, or the bearings in the case? ...other than a drift and hammer?

 

[hole]

On the sister/cousin T19 I needed to press off first gear to completely disassemble the main shaft, and press it back on for re-assembly. I'm sure it could be done carefully without one too, but I have a press and it made short work of it.

 

[IOPort51]

On the sister/cousin T19 I needed to press off first gear to completely disassemble the main shaft, and press it back on for re-assembly. I'm sure it could be done carefully without one too, but I have a press and it made short work of it.

would that be the gear at the inside end of the input shaft??

 

[hole]

IO, you got me thinking, it was first and reverse gear that I had to press off. They are the last two gears on the main shaft. Neither one put up much of a fight using the press.

 

[Turbogus]

Yesterday with the gearshifter already removed I took my mini mag light and found the 1-2 shifter rail and put 'er in 1st. Revolving the marked input shaft and counting the turns on the output it yielded 6+ turns so I'm in the clear. I removed the Shift Control Housing and rotating the input shaft again I see that the First-Second Clutch Sleeve showed signs of wear on the beveled side while my cursory novice look inside the case I saw no other signs of wear. I took several photos with my phone which promptly were lost, going to drag my work camera home tonight and post photos of what I found so far.

 

[Turbogus]

Okay here's some pics of what I found so far;

The Inner Sanctum


Close up of the 1st-2nd Clutch Sleeve




The Shift Control Housing


...and the teflon pads on the Shift Forks

 

[GARGOYLEJEEPER]

Turbogus,
That Transmission looks clean and fresh, the other posters where part right, your first shot would of been a CJ Transmission w/ the 300 shaft and adapter, (dealer option thru 1986 all CJ`s). The second CJ Transmission w/ the 20 shaft and adapter. The third would be the Ford 4x4 . And the fourth is what you have now, don`t worry you did good. The front is fine, get the adapter pilot bushing, or swap for CJ shaft & retainer $. On the rear you have a couple of choices, send shaft up to Dutchman`s (stay away from Linn Gear, Lebanon) have it cut and find the adapter, or go with aftermarket Novak, BJ`s etc.
P.S. when you go to replace your first clutch slider, have someone help or put in plastic trash bag, you can catch 2 of the balls but not the third, and it will fly to parts #&%$ and never be seen again.

Please e-mail me at GARGOYLEJEEPER@yahoo.com
would like to help with BB

 

[IOPort51]

Turbogus,
That Transmission looks clean and fresh, the other posters where part right, your first shot would of been a CJ Transmission w/ the 300 shaft and adapter, (dealer option thru 1986 all CJ`s). The second CJ Transmission w/ the 20 shaft and adapter. The third would be the Ford 4x4 . And the fourth is what you have now, don`t worry you did good. The front is fine, get the adapter pilot bushing, or swap for CJ shaft & retainer $. On the rear you have a couple of choices, send shaft up to Dutchman`s (stay away from Linn Gear, Lebanon) have it cut and find the adapter, or go with aftermarket Novak, BJ`s etc.
P.S. when you go to replace your first clutch slider, have someone help or put in plastic trash bag, you can catch 2 of the balls but not the third, and it will fly to parts #&%$ and never be seen again.

Please e-mail me at GARGOYLEJEEPER@yahoo.com
would like to help with BB

Is that clutch slider or fork slider?

 

[Turbogus]

Turbogus,
That Transmission looks clean and fresh, the other posters where part right, your first shot would of been a CJ Transmission w/ the 300 shaft and adapter, (dealer option thru 1986 all CJ`s). The second CJ Transmission w/ the 20 shaft and adapter. The third would be the Ford 4x4 . And the fourth is what you have now, don`t worry you did good. The front is fine, get the adapter pilot bushing, or swap for CJ shaft & retainer $. On the rear you have a couple of choices, send shaft up to Dutchman`s (stay away from Linn Gear, Lebanon) have it cut and find the adapter, or go with aftermarket Novak, BJ`s etc.
P.S. when you go to replace your first clutch slider, have someone help or put in plastic trash bag, you can catch 2 of the balls but not the third, and it will fly to parts #&%$ and never be seen again.

Please e-mail me at GARGOYLEJEEPER@yahoo.com
would like to help with BB

Thanks for all the details Gargoyle, down this way I did find a full Ford T-18 4wd with attached Transfer Case on the ground but from what I gathered from others this was unadaptable to the old CJ's. As far as finding a T18a out of another Jeep I've been checking the few yards in Corvallis and Albany but didn't turn any up in the last three years although there's been a few late Wranglers.
I was somewhat familiar with Linn Gear when they used to ship on Skinnymutt when Albany still had a bus depot. Didn't know they had a bad rep. though. I thought that Novak's adapter was my only choice for mating this Transmission . up to my 300 tc.
At this point I'm collecting tools for the job, two small rollaways and no brass/copper hammers, drifts or lock ring pliers.
Once I begin disassembly I'm inteneding on using a half sheet of plywood as adjunct to my overcrowded workbench so I can lay everything out and make it wasier to photo and catalogue my (slow) progress.

 

[Turbogus]

Hey IO, I think I saw the plastic pads for these in a small parts kit for these transmissions. In my Jeep manual the exploded view of the Shift Control Housing they don't list those plastic pads as a seperate item, just "First and Second Shift Fork" and "Third and Fourth Shift Fork" From other exploded views on the web I think I saw them listed by another name.

I've got a Tremec bulletin book coming for this so they may have better diagrams/info

 

[Turbogus]

Tools so far
5 lb cross pein hammer
Brake Spoons
Pry bar set
and just purchased a made in Taiwan lock ring plier set. I know, I know but hopefully this project will be the only time I use 'em.

To go;
Brass punch
Bearing Seperator and Puller
Copper faced mallet
Magnetic mats ~ available at Robnets Hardware to catch and dropped small parts
1 inch dowell ~ for needle bearing replacement
Petroleum jelly
and inumerable ziplock bags for parts

 

[Turbogus]

Thanks for all the details Gargoyle, down this way I did find a full Ford T-18 4wd with attached Transfer Case on the ground but from what I gathered from others this was unadaptable to the old CJ's. As far as finding a T18a out of another Jeep I've been checking the few yards in Corvallis and Albany but didn't turn any up in the last three years although there's been a few late Wranglers.
I was somewhat familiar with Linn Gear when they used to ship on Skinnymutt when Albany still had a bus depot. Didn't know they had a bad rep. though. I thought that Novak's adapter was my only choice for mating this Transmission . up to my 300 tc.
At this point I'm collecting tools for the job, two small rollaways and no brass/copper hammers, drifts or lock ring pliers.
Once I begin disassembly I'm inteneding on using a half sheet of plywood as adjunct to my overcrowded workbench so I can lay everything out and make it wasier to photo and catalogue my (slow) progress.

btw I've got a case of good German HofBrau beer we can use as patience medicine if/when we get together on this Craig.