Transmission Progress

I began my holiday weekend by leaving work in Dave's truck and heading east to Pittsburgh. I had found another AX-15 transmission on craigslist.com, and after speaking with the seller on the phone, I decided that it sounded like it was worth the money ($325) and the trip (2.5 hours).



It ended up being a really good trip because I was able to obtain a number of different parts that I needed all at once.



In addition to the transmission, I bought a radiator fan cover (my old one is too long for the new engine), a transfer case shifter (for shifting into 4WD), a master/slave cylinder set-up (for my clutch), and a black seat which I am now regretting because I can't find a matching one online and I just discovered yesterday that it doesn't recline.... great.



I also bought a steering column and a power steering pump for Dave. He happened to call me while I was still there and I told him that this guy had EVERYTHING, so if there was anything he needed I could check, and of course the guy happened to have both things Dave wanted and new exactly where the stuff was despite having a garage filled with stuff.



I had a nice surprise on Monday when I showed up at Dave's place to get some work done: the firewall had been painted and clear coated and was looking very nice and clean.



I finally removed the motor from the engine stand and lowered it to the ground with the cherry picker so that I could mount the flywheel/clutch.



I had to go to Tractor Supply Co. to get bolts that would fit in the crankshaft plate-thing (not sure if it has a technical name). The bolts ended up being the perfect size and the flywheel bolted up nicely.



Next I used a clutch alignment tool to make sure that the clutch disc was properly aligned with the crankshaft, flywheel and pilot bearing. Then I bolted on the pressure plate. I once again did not have the right hardware but luckily Dave had a few coffee cans full of bolts and I was able to find some that worked.



Finally, after a bit of a struggle, Dave and I managed to get the transmission mounted to the engine. It was difficult because the engine crankshaft and the transmission input shaft were not at the same height, so the transmission needed to be simultaneously lifted a few inches and slid forward so the shaft could fit into the clutch disc and pilot bearing.



I finally had the two units secured together and it felt good to have made this much progress. The next step will be to attach the motor mounts to the engine and to hoist it up into the engine bay so that we can figure out where on the frame the engine mounts need to be welded. Then the engine can be bolted in permanently and the wiring harness can be reconnected (this will probably be one of the most difficult tasks of the entire project).

Body-work, Pt. 2

Yesterday Dave and I welded in the two replacement body panels after spending a great deal of time cutting them down to the right size and shape. There was also a fair amount of cutting, grinding and sanding that needed to be done to the body in order for the new panels to fit and for the new panels to have a clean surface to be welded to.





I got to weld for my first time ever! (My welds were NOT pretty) After many sloppy welds I finally started to get the hang of it, though.







All that's left to do now is to seal up all of the holes/cracks to make them water tight. Then we can begin painting.

Body-work

I spent a couple hours doing some body work yesterday. Dave and I had already cut out the rust damage on the body (see the previous post, "Frame-work"), and the next step was to cut the replacement body panel to fit the hole.



It turns out that the replacement panels aren't of the best quality (I'm disappointed, JCWhitney.com) which is making the job tougher than it should be.



We might start welding the new panel in place today, then we can weld in the new driver's side floor panel. The final step will be filling in the gaps and blending in the edges in preparation for painting. Hopefully no one will be able to notice that any bodywork was ever done!

Frame-work

Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning up my frame and doing a bit of body work. I bought some black, rubberized undercoating at AutoZone which is good for protecting everything under the vehicle and preventing rust. Before I could apply the undercoating, however, I needed to remove all of the dirt and rust from the surface of the frame.



This was not an enjoyable process. It took a few hours and required me to be under the vehicle a lot. By the time I was done, I was almost covered from head to toe with rust, dirt and dust.



With Dave's help I was able to remove the motor mounts. They are going to need to be repositioned for the new, longer 6-cylinder motor.





The driver's side floor and the front quarter panel were both pretty ravaged by rust, so they had to be cut out completely. I have two replacement panels ready to be welded in that I purchased online.






I am also going to be replacing the front shocks. When I tried to removed them the threaded bolts on top snapped off, so I now have no choice but to get new ones. They were old and rusty, so it probably makes sense to replace them anyway.





As you can see, the black undercoating really cleans up the frame and makes it look much better. In addition to making the frame look good, it will prevent rust from eating away at the metal when I drive on salty roads in the winter.





All of the components on the firewall that couldn't be removed have been masked off in preperation for painting.

Still Workin'

I hadn't planned on doing any work on my Jeep yesterday, but when I stopped by Dave's house to drop off the painting supplies I had bought earlier in the day, Dave came outside and called me out for not doing anything on weekdays. So I of course had to prove him wrong. One thing led to another and I ended up working for 4 hours. Here's a quick list of what I did:

- Sealed and replaced my front differential cover

- Filled the front differential with gear oil

- Put my rear wheels back on, rolled the Jeep out of the garage, then did a ton of organizing and cleaning (it's always nice to work in a clean garage)

- Vacuumed all the rust/dirt/dust/crud out of my Jeep's interior

- Unbolted the windshield from the roll bars to see what it would look like folded down

- Watched Dave and his buddy tear apart an old Trans Am for parts


Pics:

Murphy's Law Rears It's Head

I woke up Saturday morning feeling quite confident that I was going to make a good deal of progress that day. I had spent the previous night doing research and reading Jeep forums to determine what parts and hardware I needed in order to finish assembling my transmission and get it ready to bolt up to the engine so I could finally drop in my drivetrain and make sure everything works.

I had received two vital transmission components earlier in the week that I had found for sale online, and after I stopped at AutoZone to pick up a clutch kit (which included a pressure plate, clutch, internal slave cylinder, and pilot bearing) and some Penzoil Synchromesh transmission fluid I figured I had everything I needed to complete this major milestone.

The first step was to remove the bell housing and front bearing retainer plate from my old transmission (see below, model AX-5). The only reason I removed these components was so that I could re-use the bolts in my new transmission.

Bell housing removed.

Front bearing retainer plate removed.

The next step was to assemble my new transmission (AX-15, pictured below) with the old bolts. I already had the bell housing; the new parts I received last week were the front bearing retainer plate (the AX-5 plate doesn't fit the AX-15) and the gearshifter mechanism.

Output shaft, connects to transfer case, which then connects to differential(s).

Input shaft, front bearing retainer plate goes here.

On the right is the gearshifter that I found for sale on JeepForum.com

Here is the new AX-15 with the bell housing and retainer plate attached.

At this point, I attempted to install the new internal clutch slave cylinder and pilot bearing, and I discovered that the pilot bearing did not fit the output shaft of my transmission. It DID however fit the output shaft of my old AX-5. So I figured I must have received the wrong clutch kit and I exchanged it at AutoZone for what I was told should be the right one. But after driving 20 minutes each way and lugging the kit to and from my car I realized that the new kit is set-up for an external slave cylinder... which is not what I need.

It seems that I need to exchange the kit again for the original and purchase a new pilot bearing that will fit the AX-15's output shaft. In case you were wondering, Murphy's law basically states that "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong," which was beginning to become the theme for the day.

Gearshifter bolted in place.

This theme only became stronger as time went by. After I had the bell housing, retainer plate, and shifter in place, I decided to mess around with the shift lever to make sure I could shift it into all of the gears (1 through 5 and reverse).

But of course, this was not the case. I was able to shift into 1st and 2nd, and I was able to shift into 5th and reverse, but for some reason I could not shift into either 3rd or 4th. In addition to this issue, I noticed that when I shifted into neutral and turned the input shaft, the output shaft turned as well. This should only happen when the transmission is in gear, so clearly something was wrong. I tried adding the transmission fluid to see if that would loosen things up and get it working, but the problem persisted. After a great deal of tinkering and cursing, I finally gave up for the day after my frustration level reached its limit.

The next day at work, I talked to a guy named Donnie who has a good deal of experience rebuilding transmissions. He had some suggestions on what could be wrong and how to fix it, but after work that day I followed his advice to no avail.

Eventually, Dave and I decided to load the transmission into the back of his truck and bring it over to Donnie's house so he could take a look at it. Without taking too many things apart, we determined that one of the gear forks must be broken or stuck in place, which is preventing me from shifting into any other gear. So, I am now in the process of tracking down the guy who sold this piece of junk to me so I can get my money back...

Donnie investigating the problem.

In other news, I removed, sandblasted, and painted my front differential cover on Saturday, so the day wasn't a TOTAL loss.