lubrication T-14 to D-18

Just rebuilt T-14 trans. I had to replace the needle bearings to the main shat coming out of the front of trans. It seemed to be a lack of oil that caused the failure. With gear oil being able to flow between the trans and the trasfercase, how does the gear oil stay or return to the front of the trans while crawling up a steep trail for hours before leveling out. Can this oil passage be pluged. there seemed to be some discusion on this topic a long time ago. Any knowledge or thought about this would be greatly apriceated.

 

Has anybody else seen isues with trans lubrication on long steep up hill trails or climbs.

 

The transfer of oil through the bearing between the transmission and transfer case is very slow. I can't imagine that you could make any difference in the level by driving uphill.

 

oh yes
well known in my opinion
very good friend lost his T14 trans front bearing 3 times, 3 seperate trips, all up the same road or hill, but pulling his Jeep trailer.
Tried all the mechanic-in-the-can oil remedies: teflon, etc etc etc.
never could cure the problem; but it would only happen on this one long steep road/hill.
he'd get 50-100 yards from the summit when he'd hear the bearing noise.
He gave up trying to camp up there....
so, yes, you can starve it for oil on very steep, slow speed roads.

 

just to add..
apparently not enough oil splash at slow speeds

 

they make a sealed rear bearing to seal the two apart dont know if it would keep the oil in the front bearing any better though

 

Where is the grade? I want to make sure my T14 avoids it.

 

All I can say is BG oil additive MGC

 

Red Rock Canyon..Jawbone Canyon....Stuby Canyon
somewhere in that area

it's not a case of oil leaving the transmission and entering the transfer case
it's a case of running on a prolonged steep and slow drive in first gear pulling a small trailer. The oil all runs to the rear of the transmission and doesn't keep the front bearing lubricated.

 

The up hill climb is Chapi off road area by shasta lake near Redding Ca nortern Ca. Adding gear oil duing the climb is a great idiea. I have also thought about taking breaks and turning around and stoping pointing down hill to to let some of oil drain back. What I really want to Know is it possible to plug off the passage between the trans and tranfercase and why or why you should not do this.

 

Back in the day around my part of the world, it was very common for everyone to put in a sealed bearing. Heck we have one road that goes up the mountain from about 3500 ft to 7200 ft in just one long pull. It takes about 3-4 hours to get up it, all up hill. Another problem was if you have a PTO, on a long climb it will fill up the adapter to the top and then going back down hill it will not drain back all the way because you have to get at such a steeper angle. It was so long ago that I set mine up, I don't remember for sure, but I was thinking that besides the sealed bearing, there was one or two drain holes that we put bolts throught with a nut on back side to plug them off. I will admit that I never really understood what Jeep's thinking was for having the oil being able to go back and forth. Maybe there is a good reason, but I converted mine shorty after buying it, and now almost 40 years later, it has never caused me a problem. Maybe somebody else knows what the thinking was for the open passage!

 

If I understand what the OP means, he's saying that the bearing in the center of the input shaft is failing. If you had the problem of oil draining away on long uphills, this would be the bearing that's starved first. The front main bearing could be replaced with a sealed bearing, but the bottom of that bearing is much lower than the needle bearing, and will pick up oil at much steeper angles than the needle bearing will.

One possible solution might be to replace both the front and rear main bearings with sealed bearings, and then overfill the transmission. You could add some ATF to the oil to reduce foaming. There may be some other issues with this, such as oil coming out of the shift top, but you could try it. I'd also make sure you have the proper clearance in the pocket bearing, and are using needles of the right hardness. I recall Herm has looked into the quality of the needles, and could help you get good quality parts.