My TH350 Rebuild

[adaml23]

You say you're certain all the drums and cluthces are indexed properly, but it sure sounds like that is your problem. Unless you replaced the drums or pump with different parts, there's really no reason for this problem other than indexing. If anything, using all the same parts, you'd be to loose on the end shaft play due to worn thrust washers. Just saying, I'd go over that again and make 100% positive all the clutches are properly indexed on their hubs.

Hotrod, I agree that if anything, it should have more end play...but it doesn't. I'm about 99% sure I have had it indexed correctly at least once with the amount of times I've taken out the drum assemblies out and put them back in. See my next responses...

I had the same issue when building mine, bolted the pump doen to check end play, no go. The friction closest to the apply piston was not lined up, the direct clutch drum lugs were flush with the top of the sunshell, they should be 1/8-1/4 below(ish) the top of the sunshell, when i bolted it down, it bent the lugs on that friction.

As already said above, taake it apart and look at the indexing, and make sure.you didnt damage the friction

I will look at the friction lugs just to make sure. Although when I put the drum assemblies into place, the drum lugs are approximately 1/8-1/4" below the top of the sunshell. With everything put together, I can turn the shaft if I hold on to the input and output at the same time but it is not as free as it should be (I have two other th350s laying around to compare it to). If i remove the any of the thrust washers after the snap ring on the planet gear and put it all back together I do have enough end play so it's really close to being within tolerance but I don't want it blowing up when it goes in the truck.

 

[adaml23]

I had a similar problem with the input shaft not wanting to turn and after disassembling I noticed one of the bushings (forgive me but I can't remember which one, maybe one in the stator) was getting galled from the input shaft. I took a scotch-brite pad and scuffed the silver off the bushing to the copper and it assembled easier. It took a lot of time and test-fitting until it was right, and I still had good endplay measurement. It may have actually been the direct drum wider bushing, something was different and required a little clearancing. I had read somewhere that sometimes people will scrape it to clearance it. I wish I could remember which one but it was obvious when I inspected them and could see it galling from the input shaft. Don't know if this will help but it may be something to look for.

Crazy, I think I read your previous thread about your problem over the weekend. I replaced all the bushings in this tranny except for the ones in the pump stator. I also used the wider direct drum bushing... I'm wondering if I didn't get it positioned correctly as well, but I haven't had time to get back downstairs to look at it. Hopefully soon... HotrodPC, would this affect the endplay?

Luckily, I'm in no hurry to get this thing done as it won't go in until springtime at the earliest so I can take my time with this rebuild... It's been a little frustrating at points so far, but I enjoy a challenge...

 

[HotRodPC]

Crazy, I think I read your previous thread about your problem over the weekend. I replaced all the bushings in this tranny except for the ones in the pump stator. I also used the wider direct drum bushing... I'm wondering if I didn't get it positioned correctly as well, but I haven't had time to get back downstairs to look at it. Hopefully soon... HotrodPC, would this affect the endplay?

Luckily, I'm in no hurry to get this thing done as it won't go in until springtime at the earliest so I can take my time with this rebuild... It's been a little frustrating at points so far, but I enjoy a challenge...

In the way Curt describes it, yes it can. You wouldn't think a bushing could affect it since you'd expect everything to slide through it, but if the bushing is sticking out and keeping one surface from riding on it's intended surface, then certainly so.

Above you mentioned the lugs are indexed 1/8 to 1/4 in deep into the sunshell. Of course 1/8in variable is huge when it comes to talking endplay. The lugs do set pretty deep into the sunshell notches. I'll have to see if one of my pics show what normal looks like.

 

[adaml23]

Alright well I'm still fighting this thing. Last night i took it apart (again) to inspect the bushing surfaces and to see if they were seated to the correct depth and everything looked fine. I put some tranny fluid on the bushings, reassebled everything (again) and still don't have any endplay but I could turn the assembly if i grabbed on to both shafts (but not easily, which I guess is to be expected with not much fluid in it). I said screw it, torqued the pump down and called it good enough but was up this morning with the baby and decided to Google some more and found this thread.

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117706

Towards the bottom they talked about two things I had thought about but didn't do. One was switch out the bearing between the two drums for a pump thrust washer and/or adding an extra pump gasket. Actually I did try putting the old gasket in with the new one and it helped but thought it may cause a leak so I removed it. Any thoughts?

FYI here's a pic of the drums installed and indexed. Pretty sure they're down all the way.

 

[adaml23]

Yahtzee! So after thinking about it and reading some more, I realized that that wide direct drum bushing can't be bottomed out and needed to come up a little! (I had it seated on the inner lip of the hub). I'm sure this is what you guys were talking about...but I'm a newb. I pressed it up to the correct depth and put it all back together and got .031 of endplay. That's with using the thickest thrust washers I had in the kit I bought so that's what we're going with... Rookie mistake I guess, but at least I figured it out (and won't EVER make that mistake again ). Hopefully this thing will be finished by spring

 

[crazy4offroad]

Glad you got it figured out but now it makes me want to take mine apart and re-examine it lol

 

[adaml23]

Well I finally got it finished last weekend! Hopefully it'll actually work when I go to put it in the truck... Unfortunately, that won't happen until the spring sometime though. I'll report back when that happens. I was hoping to have this rebuilt in a few weekends but it ended up taking 3 and a half months of random days and nights to finish...darn family and job. Thanks again to everyone that helped along the way answering my questions. I hope someone can find this thread useful in the future when tackling this rebuild!

 

[adaml23]

Well, it's been awhile... figured I'd give a little update.

I finally got the tranny and tcase back in and everything buttoned back up over the last few weekends and... everything shifted/performed like its supposed to! So far, at least.

Was able to take it on it's first real drive back to my house so I can work on the truck easier... Everything went as smooth as you can expect for a truck that hasn't really been driven in 10-15 years...

Here's some shots of the maiden drive and its current resting spot (bad pics).

Thanks to everyone that chimed in to help on this rebuild and my questions along the way especially HotrodPC and his th350 threads!

 

[HotRodPC]

Great News, Thanks for the update. At least it's rolling on it's own power now.