'57 Corvette transmission question

The guy I suggested in post 16 should have parts.

 

You have the wide ratio gear set from the look of the input shaft. It will come apart a lot easier than the other sets. Get a big clean place to do the tear down. Pull the front retainer and remove the input. It will come straight out. There are two sets of loose needle bearings in it. Put them and the washers in a zip lock. The tail shaft will come out with the housing. Pull the synchro. The cluster gear shaft is driven to the back. It also has loose bearings.

 

Nope, it's a close ratio. The input gear is larger than the bearing. I reckon it'll be a rubix cube.

 

Sorry, the cut down shaft usually means wide ratio.

 

Here's a pic of a close ratio rotating assembly out of one of these transmissions (not the one I have apart right now though), note the size of the input gear and the shape of the input shaft. This one I have is exactly the same.

 

We normally build just Ford based 3 speed trannies. A year or so ago I rebuilt a stock 57 Chev 3 speed as a spare for a 57 Chev we have. If I remember correctly, the input gear had to be installed from inside due to the larger diameter of the gear versus the ball bearing. But the real hassle was the double stack of loose needle bearings inside that gear. Took several tries to get it installed without jostling a needle out of place.

 

I don't understand everyone complaining about the needle bearings falling out. I have overhauled dozens of different manual transmissions over the years and I never have a problem with this. I always use wheel bearing grease to hold the needles in place. I can't think of a single time I ever had an issue with this.

 

A smear of wheel bearing grease should hold the rollers in place till it's assembled.

 

Beaten to the punch...

 

My close ratio gear set looks the same as these. If you need gears, look around on Ebay. That's where my gears came from.

 

Now I'm trying to imagine all these dumb fuckers struggling with 900 needle rollers and no grease to hold them in place. I can't even imagine how anyone could be successful with that. Maybe this is where all modern cuss words come from.