Transmission clean-up, ZF Steering Box

I thought I should get an update done in regards to how things are going, and how I hope them to go.

First off, when I imagined school would keep me busy, I underestimated a little bit. It is keeping me really busy. I've had about 6 hours a week or less to work on the car during the last month. That's compared to about 20-25 hours a week that I was spending back before the end of August. There is no choice but to cut back on the pace of the project because of this.

The slowdown is also causing me to assess my priorities for what I need to be doing to keep the project moving ahead, as well as finish the project in some "reasonable" timeframe. The bodywork is about 75% done at this point. The major remaining projects are the nose repair/replacement, the right side lockpost/door area, repairs to the old bondo junk on the tail, and putting the rockers back on. I mean, there is plenty of minor dentwork and straightening to be done beyond that, but those are the major tasks. At this point, I'll be happy if I can get any of those done myself. It is looking more and more like I will have to farm that work out to someone with more dedicated time, though.

Dee Lashley at Millersport is the obvious candidate, because I know him and he knows me, and we understand what I'm trying to achieve on this project. He's busy, but he knows a good metal man who he says could help him do the work. I've talked to him about getting the nose done, and he is on board. There is an additional problem though: I can't find a nose!

If you look back at some of my older entries, you'll see that I got a T-6/C nose clip off a car from Massachusetts for a very fair price. The problem is, it was very fair because the clip isn't in great shape. It has some previous repairs and is thin from rust damage on the back in some spots. That said, it can probably be made to work, with a bunch of high quality filler and some additional patches.

I wanted to find a complete new T-6 nose, but Trevor's Hammerworks, where everyone recommends getting it from, won't be making any new noses for 4 to 5 months, at a minimum. I don't want to stall the bodywork portion of the project for that amount of time if I can afford not to. Stoddard Import Cars has a two-piece T-6 nose that they have reproduced, but I have heard numerous bad comments about it from several sources. Basically, it doesn't fit very well, and the effort required to rework it to make it fit will cost a lot of time/money. If anything better is available, I've been told to skip it.

The final option would be to get another clip off an old parts car or wreck. This may be an option, I'm checking into it. No matter what, I would like to have the part in hand by mid-October or thereabouts. I am sticking to my plan from the Summer to have the car painted by the end of the year, if at all possible.

This brings me to discussing what I've been doing on the car besides bodywork. Truth be told, I really did need a break from the welding, paint, and seam sealer. Putting a wrench in my hand again has been good variety, which is absolutely essential to keep from burning out on a project as long as this one.

My first order of business was the finish cleaning up the transmission. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, so let me try to recall what I've done and what is left. Back in mid-August, I pulled the axle tubes off the transmission and painted them with black epoxy paint. Then school intervened, etc. I still don't have them back on. The main reason for that is two-fold. One, I got replacement boot kits, but the kits I ordered (OEM is Febi) come with these crazy hose clamps that aren't intended to be put on by small time mechanics. Instead, they require a special installer/crimper tool that I don't think I've ever seen nor ever will see. I gave myself a nice blood blister trying to use vise-grips to stretch the larger clamp, which goes around the big part of the boot where it meets the transmission housing, when the pliers let go and my hand banged against something.

After a bit of cursing and swearing, I vowed to get some better boot clamps. They arrived today in an order from Stoddard, along with a few other miscellaneous parts I found I was missing for little projects here and there. I haven't had a chance to put the boots on yet, though.

The other problem was that I second-guessed myself and though I might have pulled out the axles too far from the differential, and caused the fulcrum plates that the end of the inboard side of the axle fits into to fall down out of position. Close examination (after pulling the axle tubes and looking carefully) seems to lead me to believe I was initially wrong, and everything is just fine. The axles do spin just fine when the input shaft is spun, but they don't spin smoothly opposite each other when one axle is spun. I think it is supposed to be that way, though, from what I can tell.

Taking a break from the transmission, I moved on to replacing the seals on the ZF steering box. Simple task, I assumed. OK, maybe not so simple. I quickly found out that removing the oil seals that go around the input and output shafts was basically impossible without disassembling the box so that the shafts could be removed and the seals removed "properly." So I did. I mean, the box was still leaking oil, and I had the replacement seals in hand. The one difficult part was removing the pittman arm (the arm at the bottom that attaches to the inner sides of the tie rods). First, the castellated nut needed to be driven off with a strong impact wrench. Then, I needed to use a pittman arm puller (imagine that!) which is a stout u-shaped one piece puller, to press the arm off the output shaft.

I took pictures as I disassembled the box, but it was really pretty straightforward. Taking it apart also let me actually understand how it works. Without looking at the guts inside, it was really somewhat of a mystery. In reality, the business of the worm gear on the input shaft meshing with the output shaft is really a rather simple affair.

I used my seal drivers to replace the seals, and then reassembled things. Again, the only question I had on reassembly was on the output shaft side of things.

In my memory of how things looked before I took them apart (and I wish I had a better picture!) there was less distance between the bottom of the steering box housing and the pittman arm before I disassembled the box. In other words, it looked to me like after I put things back together, the output shaft protruded farther than it had before. I post to 356Talk reassured me that everything appeared OK. I probably just didn't notice it before because of all the grease and dirt in the area.

Back to the transmission now. While waiting to be reassured that the axle/fulcrum plate situation wasn't screwed up, I decided to replace the main shaft (input shaft) oil seal. Hadn't I learned anything from my oil seal adventures with the steering box??? I guess not. I flipped open the 356 Shop Manual to the page advising main shaft seal replacement. "Deform the seal with a screwdriver, being careful not to score the sealing surface. Then pry out the seal," it claimed. "Removing the seal while the transmission is disassembled is facilitated by being able to drive the seal out from the inside." Basically, this was supposed to be a cakewalk.

I took my hammer and a sharp flathead screwdriver and started tapping against the middle portion of the seal, being careful to avoid the edge (and the soft aluminum metal of the sealing surface). Instead of deforming, the seal started to walk inward along the main shaft. Hmm, I though. Perhaps I'm not tapping hard enough. Put some force into it!

A little bit later, I had myself totally screwed. I had driven the seal inside the transmission case. It was now dangling there on the main shaft. Screw the stupid shop manual!!! How was I going to get the seal out now!?!?

An hour or so of attacking it with various vise grips, pliers, and picks only managed to remove lots of little rubber bits from the seal. Nothing got enough grip on the seal to pull it back outside. Finally, I put a pick in through the hole and got behind the seal, and pulled with all my might. I broke the stupid pick, embedding the tip into the seal. Now I got really frustrated.

Chuck got the idea of using a small slide hammer into my head, and Dee had one. It had a small hook on the end, presumably used for attaching to dent-pulling wire. It fit behind the seal perfectly. 10 seconds later, the slide hammer had pulled the seal free. Oh crap! The pick-end wasn't embedded in the seal anymore!!!

Visions of the piece of pick getting chewed up in the transmission gears (taking them out at the same time) danced through my brain. Then, I started thinking, "where could it be?". The answer was straight down from where it fell. And that location was right inside the case, behind the drain plug. I opened the plug, put my finger in, and felt something. I slid it out, and guess what? It was the piece of pick. Saved, at last. And to follow up that incredible fun, putting the new seal into place was really easy. Total time elapsed: 3 hours. I didn't get to put the axle tubes back on, after all.

So, what's next? I will put the finishing touches on the transmission. I will assemble the front suspension. I will put on undercoat in the rear wheel wells, paint the whole area black, and then put the transmission back in. Then, the car can come off the rotisserie and go back on jack stands or (dare I say it!) wheels. Speaking of wheels, I brought them home, because I want to drop them off at Carolina ChemStrip to have all the old paint and rust removed. Sand blasting would take a long time, and I don't have a lot of time right now. Then, I will take the wheels to get powder coated.

That's about all for now. Check out the picture gallery, especially the pages on Suspension/Steering, and Transmission. There are many more pictures than I have included here. As far as future entries, I may be back to once a month or so, but I will try to keep it up, because these entries also contribute to keeping the whole project on track for me.