making a dummy shaft for Tcase

I would jsut use a peice of wood the size you need. No sense in spending the time to ruin a good peice (not to mention the tool bit and time it will take).

 

you can use wheel bearing grease to load and hold the needles and spacers in place.
the last one, #48, you'll have to push in from the end.
then push the shaft thru the gear outside of the transfer case to seat everything and make sure everything is lined up okay
remove the shaft (carefully) then install the gear and thrust washers
use heavy grease to hold the thrust washers in place
push the shaft thru carefully, watching from the other end to make sure nothing falls/drops down; you can push the shaft almost all the way with your hand, till the last 1/2" or so
rotate shaft for lock plate slot alignment, tap the rest of the way and your good to go
easy, right ?

 

What Jpflat2a said but I'd recommend using petroleum jelly (vaseline) instead of grease. The grease doesn't always melt away and mix with the gear oil very well and can cause oil starvation as the grease can plug oiling holes. The Vaseline will immediately melt away and mix with the oil allowing oil to flow freely to the bearings and through the oiling passages but stays long enough to allow ample lubrication until the oil can reach everything. I've seen the remnants of grease and partially blocked holes with grease still in them years after people have rebuilt tranny's and transfer cases when they brought them in for new synchro's, seals, etc. I've also seen first hand the oil starvation caused by this. I too used to use grease until I burned up my personal transfer case because of this.
Another option for a dummy shaft is a piece of aluminum turned to the right diameter. Easy to machine so it doesn't tear up tooling like a heat treated intermediate shaft. Nickmil.

 

Brian I have an aluminum one that I made that is 2.800 long by 1.240 diameter. I actually have a whole set of tools I built for the transfercase and the t14.

 

I've had good results with Vaseline hand-pack on T-90 lower counter assembly installs. I also agree with the disolving properties Nick mentioned.

 

didn't need the tool when I rebuilt the spare case last year. used just enough grease to hold the needles in place.

 

I use Lubriplate grease for assembly, also to help hold needles in I used electrical conduit for a dummy shaft, It is cheap, easy to cut for custom lengths. It works for me.

 

Hey, before you waste time turning a part out on the lathe, (not that it isn't fun!), head to the hardware store and pick up a couple copper slip-over unions for joining sections of 1" copper water pipe, solder them together and they are the perfect OD for a transfer case dummy shaft with the 1 1/4" intermediate shaft! Simple, quick, and it wont scratch your needle bearings like steel ones can.

Daniel

PS I used to rebuild transmissions on a regular basis, and as some of you mentioned, vaseline works the best for the assembly of the roller bearings.

A funny side note...guys at a transmission shop I know of in town, used to tell the story of how they'd always send the new guys to the stores to load up on vaseline, and let them get red faced as the people behind the checkout counter wondered what these kids were up to buying so much vaseline in the middle of the day!

 

TIme, it took me all of 2 minutes. One other thing if a steel shaft scratches your new needle bearings you better throw them in the garbage and find better ones. No steel you can readily turn on the lathe should ever scratch any type of bearing.
Use what ya got, if you have a lathe and a piece of aluminum it shouldn't take more than 2-4 minmutes to make a dummy shaft.