Preparing To Drop Transmission

Just don't pull and pry on the clutch control lever. The tabs on the arm can break off, you can't use force or it will look like mine did when I got mine off... the wrong way. Once you have it loosened up you can slip the ball out of the lever pretty easily. Mine may have been broken before I tried to remove tranny but I did push/pull on it pretty good before I learned about the whole ball on a stud thing.

 

My lever looked like that too. I had to do a little tweaking on my replacement to get it to work to my satisfaction.

 

That clutch lever does not interfere with separating the transmission from the engine does it?
I'm having a heck of a time moving the transmission away from the bellhousing.....it's like they were held together with magnets. A lot of choice 'colorful metaphors' were in use.


Getting the trans jack at the right height is crucial I have learned (the hard way), otherwise there's binding.
Hint: make sure your trans jack/floor jack rolls well and/or you have a very smooth driveway or garage floor, it's important.

A. Plus the trans/transfer case has a weight bias towards the passenger side, so it slid sideways, pivoting around the input shaft and almost fell off the transmission jack.
Hope I didn't bend anything.

It's separated from the bellhousing a little more than an inch here:

 

If you are still stuck, it may help to lower the rear of the engine to angle it down just a bit. The key is to keep that gap between trans and bell consistent all the way around, that way you know it is straight.

Really good to have a helper if you can. Let the jack hold the weight, you and a friend stabilize it as you jiggle it rearward. You may have to get a bit aggressive to wrestle it free.

 

Although I haven't used it myself, quite a few members here have used oven cleaner on the outside of the tranny/ t-case to get the major crud off. You are going to have some fun with this.

 

Well it's out! Hooray. But what a struggle and once the trans output shaft cleared the bellhousing, it once again swiveled and fell off the jack.
I'm such a newb.

Guess there's no perfect transmission jack for the T90/T86 with the Dana 18 attached, at least in the design of the cradle.
I have the HF 450 lbs low lift model. Might bolt a wide piece of plywood to it for the re-install.

Oh, I am going to use oven cleaner for sure. Nothing else even comes close; not Gunk engine degreaser, nor does you know, mineral spirits, nor a pressure washer--at least my "homeowner's special" doesn't seem to do any good.

 

Those spacers are factory? I thought the PO put those in when he did the V8’s swap. I pulled those out.

 

Late reply, but YES, those spacers are factory for the V6 Dauntless.

 

I bolted a piece of plywood about 2'x3' on my floor jack in place of the round swivel it worked

 

I use a chain hoist suspended from the roll bar spreaders.

 

With my F-Head it's easier to pull the engine/trans/transfer as a unit. I suppose the v6 is similar. I would do the engine seals while it's out. This is also a good time to clean and paint.

 

I would like to resurrect this thread to ask a quick question. I need a gasket and seal set for my dana 18, is the Novak kit so much better than everyone else's? It certainly costs the most. Has anyone had good experience with another distributor?

 

you pay for the ability to have good customer service. I went with a cheaper kit to rebuild my SM420, cobbled it together to save, in the end nothing...

 

I think so, I put one in my large index D18 and it leaked around the output spline, I was able to pull it and clean it up with Brake Cleaner and put sealer on the spline, like Walt said and now no problem. Thanks Walt, you were right on. I have not tried anyone else's, but I am happy with Knovak's.

 

Why don't you just start a new thread? Pick a descriptive title and post.

Likely there is a Crown or Omix kit that contains the seals and gaskets. You could buy that kit and discard whatever cheap seals it supplies, and replace with a quality brand like National or SKF.

Year, model equipment? There is a Dana 18 gasket set on RockAuto for a '69 CJ-5. Felpro is good quality stuff. More Information for FEL-PRO TS3181A Certainly the gaskets from this set will be acceptable.

Up to you whether you want to piece together what you need or not.

 

In my experience, the Novak gaskets are nice quality, but likely not any better than the Felpro kit as timgr mentioned. The actual seals in the Novak kit are likely Omix or Crown. I think the real advantage to Novak is if you get the entire rebuild kit as it comes with a better quality intermediate shaft of their design.

 

Ah. I'm back at it. Time to tackle this again, in a real way this time.

What engine seals can I do with the transmission removed and the engine in situ?

 

Replace the rear main seal.

I too am in East TN if you need any help with this.