The straps on my 99 F250 are still just fine. Just saying

Heh. The tailgate straps on our GMC looked fine, it was just that some had come apart under load, which, I guess, could make corporate lawyers nervous. The replacements still look fine.

It's just the rest of the truck that sucks.

Just kidding. The 7.3 liter trucks are serious trucks. Unfortunately they ride like serious trucks too. But they will certainly do work and lots of it.

They have a really smooth ride actually! As long as you have about 1500 lbs in the bed. 😄

We replaced rear springs on a 2001 F250 (the one we put a crate diesel in a few years ago) and my friend said "Sure, I want the upgraded springs". Now the rear ride height is about 4-5" higher than it was, the springs weighed 110 lbs each and it needs 2 tons in the bed to ride decent. lol.

I believe it. Someday when I find about $2500 in the couch, I'm going to get the firestone airbag kit that replaces all but one leaf, and has an automatic ride height adjustment using an onboard compressor. You have a smooth ride, but when you load up the bed, it automatically compensates.

These trucks are all about compensating.

Honestly, that wouldn't be a bad plan. My old Chevy 3500 rode better than my friends F250. Whenever we took my truck places, he'd always stretch and say "Cadillac". Compared to his, it was.

Not sure how heavy you haul, but going back to stock tire sizes helps the ride assuming you always leave them aired up.

I've got a 2004 F350 6.0/ZF6 dually. I singled it up in the rear last winter and it was actually enjoyable to drive. It's amazing how much the extra 150lbs of wheel/tire hurts ride and driveability.

Airing up/down a dually is a pain, it's almost the same time to swap wheels/tires.

Transmission is out. We pulled it on Friday night. It was a bit more challenging than I remember so I'm apparently getting old, or this car is a bit harder to work on than the last few. Maybe both. lol.

Now to get time to go through it.

I've never just pulled a transmission, what's the challenging part?

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.

This trans didn't swing down as much I expected. I had a tricky time finding the bolt near the vent tube on the trans, or at least getting a wrench on it. I've pulled a few of these, but this one was a bit harder to get loose. Not sure why. lol.

Today's mission was to change the clutch master cylinder.

I wanted to drain the hoses and get the brake fluid out. So I drove the roll pin out of the old slave cylinder and removed the inlet. I clipped it onto the line from the master and let it drain. I ran some brake clean through it and pumped the pedal until it's dry. Then I removed the old slave parts and started to remove the master cylinder.

I got the old master cylinder loose and started to remove the U bolt but it still had the factory spring clip retainer on it (which is under the bracket from the pedals such that it sucks to remove it). I tried to pound it through and I split the board I was using. I tried some other things and finally I remembered a chunk of aluminum I had (it's a long metal shaft, I think it is part of a camera flash setup). I drilled a hole to index on the end of the ubolt and drilled a deeper hole on the opposite end so I could use an air chisel. That did a great job of punching the ubolt through the spring clip.

I hooked the new hose to the new master cylinder and got everything in place by myself. I felt pretty good until I realized that the Ram adjustable master cylinder heim joint is too thick to allow the snap ring to go onto the clutch pedal. I knew I should have checked that first. I had already adjusted the master cylinder to stock length before installing it. I had to pull the heim joint off and grind about .020" off of it so I could get the snap ring onto the clutch pedal. Why does nothing aftermarket actually fit the things it's supposed to connect to? I'd have been done about an hour sooner if it wasn't for the curse of the aftermarket part. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, things always seem to go this way.

Check your heim joint on the pedal before installation if you're using the RAM adjustable master cylinder.

I also tried to install the billet aluminum clutch reservoir and it doesn't quite fit the bracket on the 4th gen. Since I'm lazy, I just installed the new OEM plastic one and buttoned it all up.

Now to get time to open up the transmission...

I have a huge paperweight that might be usefull for you.
Forged LS2, whole engine (except accessories) and intake manifold... headers too.
made 510rwhp.

It's a useless paperweight for me... until I get a new toy project... thinking maybe Suburban baja and slap a twin scroll on it, and change its pistons for low comp.
I don't need more toys now.

I'm afraid to ask how much you'd want. That motor ran hard when I last drove it in a convertible....lol.

It had become a slouch for my standards... Lol
Call me.

Bwhahaha....If it was anybody else saying that I'd just laugh at them. However, I've known you for far too long so I know you're quite serious.

Hey so I just saw that you know Jeff at CAM! He's a tuning genius. When my dad had the 396 LT1, nobody could tune the cam surge out, except Jeff.

So this 1SC tends to pop out of 3rd once in a while. It has only done it on downshifts while decelerating. So I might be doing something similar soon.

I'm being lazy because I know it's probably in here. Are you rebuilding the tranny yourself? I'd be interested in just a simple rebuild, no upgrades.

Is that something that's doable by me and how much does something like that cost? Or maybe I should just get a T56 from Hawks for $1500 with lower miles and sell mine for whatever I can get for it.

Yea, I met Jeff at the 2005 NFME (National Fbody Motorsports Event). I traded some parts for some beer and they brought me the beer on the last night of the event. So, I'm out in the parking lot giving away beer to those who would help me drink it. Jeff was among those guys (I fed him a Shiner Bock or two). I was texting with him about cams the other day and waiting to see how yours runs, etc. If I do anything, it will be later this year.

There's a sticky with the transmission rebuild manual (hosted by the New Jersey Fbody board now):

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=5167

You need some specialty tools. Racerdad916 rebuilds these things and we were going to do it. Depending how things go, I may just do it. You'll need some snap ring pliers, specialty pullers, etc. I think I have $800 or so in the new 1/2 and 3/4 synchros and the "Stage II" upgraded internal parts. You don't have to go that far. Throw a synchro and new blocker rings in it and put it back together.

Be gentle with the snap rings. A friend over stretched one and it came off, the gear ground on the housing and it made a mess that could have been avoided. Also, a few snap rings say to replace them when you remove them. A snap ring kit for the whole transmission is about $19. So just buy one with the other parts.

I started going through my parts and looking at what I received. Oddly, I had two sets of billet keys (3/4 and 5/6 that are the same set) ordered from different companies and both sent me the same thing and it looks pretty odd. See attached pics.

I received my orders in November/December. I just emailed Hawks and The Gearbox to see if they can help me get the right parts (assuming these aren't, but I've never seen a synchro that takes mismatched keys). I'm not sure that a couple of those even fit a T56 (unless they fit reverse, but I don't think so).

I'll let you know what they say. And while I'm at it, I guess I'll order the billet reverse keys (no reason...but since I'm in there). I don't expect to be doing full power burnouts in reverse. lol. But you never know.

Heh, you never know. Back when a local club used to run drag racing events, one of the members with a 4-speed Trans Am (1977, IIRC) would accidentally roll forward through the lights when he was staging. Sooooo, he backed the car up until both staging lights were lit.

Sure enough, when the lights started coming down, he reved the engine for his launch, and dumped the clutch, in reverse, when the lights went green.

And he did it two more times during the same event!

Luckily, we was running street tires, and the track didn't have much prep.

The reverse shift pads were actually the most worn out off all the pads in my T56 when we were messing with it yesterday. Either the PO was into gymkhana or just loved to bang into reverse.

Ah, you mean the synchro pads that go on the shift fork. I'm talking about the 3 keys that go in each synchronizer. These are part of the strength upgrade of the Stage 2 package.

I was just surprised the pads had that much wear.

I could see that. Reverse is the gear that everybody "mashes" into the gate. You sit down in the car, start it, step on the clutch and "bam" over and into the reverse gate. The other gears tend to "slide in" when things are moving. And the moving gears are likely covered in fresh oil that helps minimize wear when they are typically used. But reverse would seem more likely to get beat on.



You know, it seemed odd that I'd get the same mismatched set of keys from two vendors. The Gearbox just emailed me back and I realized, I didn't flip those keys over. I didn't believe they were the same width, but I am guessing that flipping one over will fix my mismatch. This will teach me to be tired when I start looking into these things.

However, Tick is sending me the keys/springs that were missing from my synchro assemblies. I found it odd that I didn't get them. I'm upgrading them anyway, but I'll put them in the parts box for some other time.

Ah well, sometimes I'm just dumb.

Today we went through the transmission and did the full rebuild.

Unfortunately we found out that I accidentally bought the standard blocker ring kit and not the carbon fiber blockers for first and second. I'm sure it's going to be fine, it's all fresh and new synchros for 1/2 and 3/4. So, the transmission is back together (thanks Racerdad916) and I got the clutch installed before my shoulder decided I was done for the day.

Tomorrow I hope to get the transmission reinstalled. We'll see how it goes.

I ended up having to work today or else I would have invited myself over.

One of these days I will have to bring my trans over so I can have someone who has done it before make sure I don't make mistakes. Previous owner really did a number on 5th, and it's slowly taking everything else out with it.

5th shouldn't be that bad. You don't have to pull the case off to get to it. If the rest is damaged, it becomes a much more involved process.

When we rebuilt the trans, the new 4th gear synchro seemed a bit tight. Once it was assembled, we pulled it through the gears using a roll pin punch for a handle and decided it was ok. Once the trans was in tonight, third gear was "vague" and it felt like the entire gate was bound up. It made it very hard to find neutral. So, I tried 4th and it ground into 4th....every time. So, we pulled the transmission back out. It appears that we got a defective synchro or something else strange is going on. I'll know more in a few days.

Ugh.

Oh no I'm sorry. That doesn't sound like fun

Actually I skipped a bit ahead in that story.

First, we couldn't bleed the clutch. I was getting bubbles in the reservoir and my wife said "this feels like a brake pedal". So we screwed around for a while and decided the quick connect wasn't connected properly. Just enough for fluid to leak. So, we grabbed the old hose, cleaned it off and it snapped right in by hand. We decided we were going to have to pull the master cylinder and change the hose. We managed to pop it out of the firewall and lay it on a long prybar to drive the pin out, even got it back together in that position. We managed to do this without having to pull the reservoir off of the hose and totally remove it (though we had it out of the firewall and under the brake booster). Once that was done, it bled and the clutch started working properly.

So, DO NOT BUY THE DOORMAN REPLACEMENT CLUTCH LINE. I linked it in here earlier, it didn't fit. If you do buy one, test fit it into your slave cylinder BEFORE installing it into the master cylinder and installing it in the car.

While I'm on that subject. The RAM remote clutch bleeder kit didn't have the right fitting to connect to the RAM slave cylinder (just an overpriced stock slave from what I can tell, I removed the bleeder valves from both and they matched). So, the remote bleeder didn't fit either. I need to contact a couple companies about returning the things that didn't work (Tremec synchro, Doorman clutch master hose, RAM remote bleeder).

The trans will be apart again in a day or two and I'll sort out what to do with it all.

I have to thank Racerdad916 for the rebuild and help and Voodoo92 (he's not on here much) for being crazy enough to leave work and head down to have fun with transmissions when my wife sent him a text yesterday.

When we rebuilt the transmission, we did it with a series of gear pullers and an impact gun. That worked well and is how Racerdad has been doing them for years. When we did my trans, it was tight enough that one of the pullers bent. And using them takes time and I'm not getting any younger. So, yesterday I delivered my trans and a new 20 ton shop press to his garage so we can tear this apart again. I think it should go a bit faster this time. Besides, every kid wants a shop press! (Or am I the only weirdo?)

Now we just need time to get it apart.

My 20T press is one of my favorite tools. Use it for just about anything

Every garage needs a press, or a conglomeration of home made pullers... What ever works...

Kevin- were the defective synchros from Tremec or thegearbox.org? I'm going to be rebuilding mine this summer and I noticed they have two options for synchros. I was planning on going with the aftermarket REM polished option, as they are a good bit cheaper than the tremec parts and always seem to be in stock.

I had a press for 15 years and never used it. Got it for free; gave it away.

Agreed. Something tells me we will use them both...maybe at the same time.



Mine were OEM Tremec synchros. Came from Tick Performance (not that it likely matters). I bought all Tremec parts for this project.

Edit:

The tight/bad synchro was a REM polished aftermarket synchro from Tick Performance. It wasn't a Tremec synchro.

The key is that if the assy is snug with the keys and springs, it will be really tight with the trans assembled. The sliders should move easily when moved without the fork on an assembled main shaft. I'll hit the inside of the slider with the bead blaster. That should remove enough of the coating to allow good movement....

I forgot to bring you the shifter with the trans. Once we get it back together, we'll know if it's right by putting the shifter on it. I'll try to remember it when we get time to get together and look at it.

I'm still puzzled. The Gearbox shows the aftermarket synchros as "REM polished". I ordered/paid for OEM Tremec Synchros (from Tick performance) and they showed up in boxes marked REM polished (with no Tremec decal). I'm not sure which synchros I got. So, I just ordered another snap ring kit (that I forgot) and another set of 1/2 and 3/4 synchros (OEM Tremec again) to go with the carbon fiber blocker ring kit. I'll sort out if I got OEM synchros or not once these arrive. Then I'll deal with it all, or I'll have lots of parts for sale. I have a this kit:

http://www.thegearbox.org/catalog/item/3838217/3503769.htm

that has 3 minutes of run time on it and was never on the "ground" (just run for a few seconds on jack stands). I guess it will be for sale soon since I'm changing over to the other parts. Anybody need some new parts at a discount?

At this point, I should have purchased a T56 Magnum, I think I'd be ahead. Oh well....

I'll get it on the sling and open it in the morning. If the parts show up, maybe we can get it done in short order..

I suspect I'll have parts on Friday. If we can work it out, I'll come help you. Or we can do it when we can get together.

All that makes me think I should just send mine to Tick and let them do it for me. I do not have a press but I can get creative with pullers. The cheap side of me says do it yourself. If I do hopefully I wont have these headaches. I was planning on the gear box for parts if I do it myself

I was going to get the stage 2 kit from the gearbox and it was in stock when I first looked. I didn't buy it right then and I didn't know they are hard to get. So, I wound up "building" my stage 2 kit from a few vendors. At this point I'm headed towards the worlds most expensive T56 overhaul. And honestly, the gearbox was fine (2nd might have been slightly notchy) and I was doing it as a "while I was in there" deal.

If you have a harbor freight nearby, I just used a 20% off coupon on a $169 press and walked out for $140-something (tax and all). For that price, we should have a press around to use.

Also, if you're going to do it, I may be able to offer you a deal on some parts. My 1/2 synchro was perfect (for the 3 minutes I tested it on jackstands). So I'll have a spare one once the other two arrive. I'm going to have to go back to Tick and see if they will take the 3/4 synchro back. If not, I may have to deal with my credit card. We'll know more once it's apart again.

I also have a full carbon fiber blocker ring kit coming. I really just want the 1st/2nd gear parts. I have brand new OEM parts (3 minutes of run time) that I might be able to combine with the rest of the new kit (all the other stuff I have is the carbon fiber blocker rings, I just wanted the carbon lined 1/2 parts...not sure it's really needed, the stock 2002 parts have been great in several cars for me now).

Anyway, I might be able to save you some money on some parts. Or I may just send the new parts back to Tick and use what I have with the new synchros. I need to quit before the transmission is worth more than I paid for the car.

Also, the Gearbox builds their kits from parts (not a pre packaged kit) and I was missing the 5/6 blocker rings. I didn't know they came in the kit, but I noticed that they did. I emailed them and asked about them (and told them I had a 2nd day freight order that I placed that day) and they said they'd get them in the box and send them to me. Excellent customer service from them. I'm impressed. This is also a warning to check your parts list when it arrives and not 3 months later.

Mine is grinding 3rd to 4th and 4th to 3rd. I was planning on the synchronizers for 1-2 and 3-4 and 5-6, the bronze shifter bushing, bronze fork pads, steel 3-4 fork, snap ring kit and the billet keys. Tear down and hope that is all I need/want. I am always interested in saving money lol. I may have to go get that press for that price. I always seem to need a press more than a puller. Let me know about your synchro when your replacements get there. I am interested.

Cool. I should have the second set of synchros tomorrow. The 1/2 that I have works flawlessly. I intend to return the 3/4 that I got. I ordered two more just to compare. If they match...cool. If they don't, I just wanted the option of swapping both.

Your rebuild plans are what my rebuild plans are/were. Mine just went a little sideways. Let me see what all I have extra and maybe I can help you out/save you some money....at least a little bit.

Just google harbor freight coupon and print the page off of the sale flyer. That's what I did.

IIRC, Most of our plans go atleast a little sideways. Sometimes it fun, and sometimes, it's stupid expensive....

That's what I paid for my press. Carried it home in my Miata and I've been making use of it ever since. Most important job I used it for was suspension bushings but I've also used it for wheel studs and other random things. Was huge for rebuilding the 10 bolt. Don't have a vice either so it fills in there too.

Yea, I really need to quit living up to my signature. I've tried, I swear I have. It's not going well. Maybe I need a 12 step program? Seems unlikely I'd walk that far.....




In a Miata? You're more of a madman than I thought. I thought getting a 6' folding table in a 2002 Z28 coupe was a fun trick (with the hatch shut). A press in a Miata beats that by miles. Well done!

I have one of those presses. I bought it second hand from a friend who was relocating for work. I got to use it about two times, then it puked it's oil out, and I'm not sure it'll work any more at all. I need to replace the bottle jack so I have a working press again, but haven't had the need lately. I guess if I up the quality of the bottle jack, I'll have a better press in the shop.