It took a while, but I finally got the busted transmission out of my F100, and I’ve packed it up in my van and am taking down to legendary Turner’s Auto Wrecking in Fresno, CA where Jerry Turner has a healthy T85 waiting for me. So why am I taking mine down there?
Because the one he has has a cracked overdrive housing, and my overdrive unit is fine. So he’s going to swap the two, and send me on my way, all for $250. What a deal. But I will make a point to nose around their yard, where some 700 vintage cars going back to 1928 are resting.
Here it is nestled in the strong wood box I built for it, which just fit perfectly under my bed in the van. yes, it’s securely anchored.
Removing the transmission was actually pretty easy. The biggest problem was finding a transmission jack. Harbor Freight was totally out, anywhere in the Northwest. But finally one popped up on CL, and it was a the nicer, higher capacity and more expensive one too. Score!
I’ve got some other things to do in Southern Oregon, so I won’t be back until Tuesday, maybe late. Daniel Stern is going to keep an eye on things while I’m gone. And then comes the somewhat more challenging part: installing it.
A real transmission jack! Sweet! Good call on your part to get that. I have done so many tranies with stupid floor jacks including a cast 4 speed a month ago. I’ll follow your example. Cheers!
The last time I pulled my Corvair’s powertrain, I used a floor jack and a piece of wood. I somehow got the whole thing onto two Harbor Freight platforms with casters. I’d say I was young and dumb, but that was about four years ago, so it might be that I’m just dumb. 🙂 Maybe five years ago, I did the same thing with my Mustang’s C4, using a floor jack and a piece of wood.
A transmission jack is nice to have for this job, I’d say. Congrats on getting it out of there, Paul. It sounds like you’ve gotten a good deal on a replacement, not just for the part, but for someone who knows what they’re doing to give you one working transmission.
Sounds like the sort of thing you do when you don’t know there’s a specific piece of equipment for that purpose. That would be me down to a T. 🙂 My son’s forever bringing home useful tools and products I had no idea existed: “No, no, no, no. no. Here, you need one of these!”
I seem to recall a guy on a Corvair Facebook page that makes a jack or a fixture for a floor jack specifically for Corvair power trains. Whether it’s worthwhile for only 1 Corvair I don’t know.
I am right there with you guys. A floor jack and a helper was my method. This looks a lot better. I started to say that the downside is that you have to store it for the rest of your life, but maybe the better idea is to list it for sale again.
Other than when I worked in a shop, I never used a transmission jack either. The last transmission I dropped was a heavy C6 with a floor jack, which I manhandled onto the floor and pulled it from under the car.
Nice find on the transmission Paul, that is the prefect solution. I hope you can get it all back together soon.
That’s funny, just the other day two of us did an impromptu transmission change and we decided that digging out the buried transmission jack would be more work than just muscling the transmission.
“I don’t feel like digging that big transmission jack out…”
“Neither do I.”
“Let’s just stab it.”
“Okay”
Lol
And so we did.
Not a big deal with two guys understanding exactly what needed doing. Wasn’t that large of a transmission either, Torqueflite-8 with OD.
Plus we had just muscled the ingoing transmission out of a donor using even less gear. lol
We did utilize a stray piece of wheeled hospital gear that probably originally was used to roll around a pedestal of sorts.
Stabbing an automatic is always easier than lining up an input shaft through a throwout bearing, clutch plate, and pilot bushing.
I do agree though, that sometimes it’s simpler the man handle parts in place, rather than using bulky and balky special tools.
I’m happy to hear you found a replacement, and it didn’t end up at perhaps $1000 more than you’re going to have to spend. With luck, we’ll get a few interesting pictures from Turner’s, too.
Good luck with the road trip!
I am so glad this is happening, Paul. Few times, if ever, have I felt so relieved about the fate of a truck I’ve never “met”.
Ahh new jack.
Ahh new jack.
I wonder if the donor was damaged by external forces or if the overdrive blew up?
It’s not easy to remove the OD housing without “dumping” the OD unit and/or main box; takes a lot of finesse. Sounds like Turner’s have the ways and means for that.
Pulled many trans with a floor jack. You haven’t really had any fun though until you’re pulling an Allison trans out of a garbage truck that’s painted dark purple, in July, that’s full of turkey carcass’ heading to the rendering plant. Broken flex plate. There was a rendering plant and livestock yards a short distance from the dealer and we got some fragrant jobs from time to time. The domestic turkey is stupid bird. These birds had “stampeded” into a fence because of a thunderstorm and smothered or crushed themselves to death.
Two PTOs, or just a “cakewalk” single? Lol
A real cake walk, Pump driven of the front of the crank, the old driveshaft thru the hole in the radiator trick.
Never fun – If you leave a full garbage truck and a over the weekend, you’ll frequently come back to a shop floor carpeted with maggots.
Had that happen once, in the summer of course. 6V-53 that ate its oil pump. Monday morning and there were maggots everywhere. Luckily the truck was in the last stall, as far away from sales floor and parts. Poured a dike of floor dry all the way around the body of the truck and soaked it with some kind of bug killer. In frame overhaul. Of course the body had a partial load, garbage trucks only break when loaded.
Garbage trucks were bad but rendering trucks were the worst.
Another gem was some BFI White Road Xpeditors, around 1990. BFI had bought a large order of these. The drivers beat them mercilessly. Frame crossmembers started cracking and breaking. Volvo came up with a different crossmember to install which required additional holes in the frame. That was a real fun job fixing those trucks, kept us busy for along time.
42 years in the business, I should write a book.
C.O.L.A. had Peterbuilt packers with the PTO through the radiators .
The entire parking lot of the sanitation garage was covered with maggots, in the morning they were wiggling & squishy/slippery, by noon the sun had dried them all out so they crunched underfoot .
Please do write a book or share shop stories ! .
I love ’em .
Sadly I have zero writing skills or I’d keep you all in stitches or horror….
-Nate
I had been wondering lately how you were coming on this problem. A matching unit with OD sounds like the perfect solution.
That’s good; we’d rather you remain alive.
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Over the past year or so, you seem to have developed into one of our most erudite and amusing contributors, Daniel. I love their ‘Rotary Nosepicking Kit’!
Thanks kindly, Peter! I think this what I shared here, this 4-page Hazard Fraught ad, is from Mad Magazine.
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This hits very close. I’m still trying get replacements for my recalled jack stands.
One of those funny-because-true things.
Who did those? They are quite good.
Mad Magazine. I’m surprised that Alfred E. Neuman isn’t one of the characters in the ad, but that may’ve been just to obvious.
In defense of Harbor Freight Tools however, I will say that two of the items I own from them work just fine, an 18 volt cordless drill and a compound miter saw. That said, I understand the “true” humor here…
The cordless drill has Ni-Cads which SUCK at holding a charge… Have these folks never heard of Lithium Ion… ok, even at the cheap price point, they could’ve sprung for at least the NiMH or whatever it was that replaced the Ni-Cads.
The miter saw works great, except for the dumb laser guide. It is not accurate, and I have to fudge it.
I will agree however that the their LED Flashlights are cheap junk, and should be free as advertised.
Having said all this, I can see where these tools would not be acceptable to professionals, but for the infrequency with which I need to use these items they work just fine.
Paul, I’ve got a 3 speed toploader from a 66 v8 Mustang that I’d like to get out of my garage. You could pick it up on your way back from Turner’s. I’m willing to let it go cheap. It’s probably unsuitable for your application but I’m confident that a man with your talent could make it work.
Ive never used a trans jack, a floor jack a few times but mostly the bench press method, Good deal for a new gearbox too and a view of some nice wrecks, COVID lockdown screwed up a similar plan I had for last week a guy Ive met thru the Humber Hillman club wants my spare tailgates Ive made a replacement for my car so I have two taking up space the deal included a wander around the 250 or so Rootes cars this guy has, he has a museum of the brand and also said he could use some help moving some around, sudden lockdown the day before ruined that plan.
A pat on the back to the curbside community. A number of folks suggested carparts.com and other resources that helped Paul find a economical solution to his problem.
I’m frequently saddened by the site of very complete cars arriving at the junkyard. I have the knowledge and skills to repair most of these vehicles very cheaply. Of course, it can be hard to make the repair argument based on total repair hours.
Also, kudos to Paul for taking on a new repair project. Transmission removal and installation is not very challenging technically, but it can be a daunting task when attempted for the first time.
Theres a pick a part not far from me most of the stock looks like it drove there but frequently its easier to finance a fresh set of wheels than try repairing the dead one,
Paul, I’ve got that exact same jack. It worked fine R and R-ing the Turbo 400 out of my Jag XJS, which I handled all by myself. After you use it, you can list it on CL again, there’ll be someone out there who will need it.
About twenty years ago I had a ’56 Cadillac and the transmission went bad. I couldn’t find a local shop willing to do the rebuild. Most didn’t even want to do it for a parts and labor cost arrangement. They claimed that they were unfamiliar with that vintage automatic. I started looking through Hemmings magazine and found Cadillac King in Pacoima. I called them looking for recommendations, they told me they could rebuild one of their cores, if I paid them beforehand. I charged it on my credit card, then I pulled the Caddy’s tranny and secured it in my minivan. I let my elementary age Son skip a day of school, and we hit the road for a one day round trip, road trip to So Cal. I exchanged the trans and the Caddy was fine after that. It was great Father and Son mini adventure.
This reminds me of the time, 15 years ago, I sold an Olds 403 engine to Joe Mondello Oldsmobile Performance in Paso Robles. The only way I would make any money on the deal was to deliver it myself. Shipping it would eat all my profits. It was a weekday a few days before Christmas and had no one to ride with me so asked my 80 year old Mother if she would like to go, thinking that she would decline the offer. To my surprise she said “Yes”. I loaded the engine into the back of my Jeep Cherokee XJ and chained it down. We took off at 6AM the next day and drove down 101 and got to Mondello’s at mid-day, unloaded, got paid and took my her to lunch. Paso Robles which was decked out with Christmas decorations and we ate at a nice Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating on the plaza. She had never been there before and we spent a little time doing the tourist thing before we left. It was one of the best days I ever spent with her. Although she lived until she was 94 I could never talk her into another day trip like that but then again I never sold another Oldsmobile engine to Joe Mondello either.
Sort-of CC Effect, I drove past Mondello just today, heading home after a long weekend (I live about 150 miles north of Paso). The name on the building caught my eye; a friend had the motor from his GMC motor home rebuilt there.
Years back, my elderly neighbor Fred came by with a scissors jack on castors and some pieces of steel plate. He wanted me to weld up a cradle on the jack, he had pulled the trans out of his FC170 and it had fallen off the tiny plate on top of the scissors. “Did it hurt the trans?” I asked – “Na, landed on my legs.”
Ironically, today I picked up a spare transmission. With my two hands.
It’s for my Suzuki Samurai. 😁
Good going Paul !
Glad you have it in control……
My ’64 F250 has a manual 4 speed, so since you could make use without the spare one I offered, I will keep it in case I need it for that truck. IF you have a future need before I do, it’s still in my barn dry stored with a bunch of other Ford parts for various projects I most likely will not get to.
Please show us some images of that neat old yard in Fresno. AND, safe travels !!
Mrgreenjeans,
Your mothballed transmission will be a no-fit for your ’64.
’64 used T89 and the last of the large bellhousing with mounts; trans has large input and the old “F” bolt pattern.
Thank YOU JimDandy for the info !
Much appreciated …. it fits behind a six and I thought they were all the same.
THAT tidbit most likely saved me some exasperating moments.
In case the tranny swap runs into issues, here’s some alternative transportation nearby.
https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/d/sandy-1961-ford-f100-unibody-rat-rod/7360564917.html
I never, _EVER_ let an old core go before the job is finished to my satisfaction ! .
I hope this works out O.K., I too have assembled many a good used tranny out of junkyards parts, the wrong case or damaged case .
Tranny jacks are great if you’re working in a shop with a lift .
I’m getting too old to lay them on my chest and wrestle into place but that’s how many (? most ?) farmers/junkyard apes/DIY’ers do it….
One handy tip : buy some slightly longer tranny to bell housing bolts and cut the heads off, hand screw them into the upper mounting holes, they’ll make a dandy alignment tool prevent any clutch disc damage .
I too am looking forward the junkyard pictures .
-Nate
That transmission jack made the job exceptionally easy, and I expect it will be of even greater help getting it back in. It works like a charm, able to pivot and tilt the box.
This T85 with OD is heavier than one might think: some 150 lbs. I did not want to risk it rolling off a floor jack on my hands or such.