I just took apart my last transmission, and I carefully documented the disassembly with notes and pictures. I did it so I could put one back together, but I might as well post it here for all to benefit from. It is not intened to replace Red-Beard's article, more to supplement it. The parts diagrams and Red-beard's article are not enough to turn a pile of parts into a transmission. (There are three similar tapered washers that are all different thicknesses, for example) You either have to just know where everything goes, or take very good notes while disassembling. I did not fully disassemble the transmission, just the most confusing parts that usually have to come off. I left a bearing race on the input shaft, and a bearing on the pinion shaft. I did not remove the differential. Without further adoo, (I don't even try to spell french) here's step one:

1. Drain the gear lube! Very important! Here's what happens when you don't:

2. Remove shifter: (2 13mm nuts with washers)

3. Remove tail cover nuts: (nine 13mm nuts with washers)

4. lightly tap tail cover "ears" with a rubber mallet. Don't worry if the intermediate plate separates first, just hold it in place and keep tapping on the ears, the cover will eventually separate.

5. Remove the tail cover once it comes loose. Reverse bits will fall off of the shaft that is part of the tail cover, but I'll show you how they go. In this pic, the roller bearings with the spacer are shown on the shaft of the tail cover.

The gear that actually does the reversing goes over the bearings as shown here:

The roller/thrust bearing goes over the reverse gear:

And the washer with the notch goes on top of the bearing like this: (the notch is for clearance of the intermediate plate bearing support assembly, which sticks out of the intermediate plate)

Make sure you find all these parts before proceeding.

Now tap the 2/3 and 4/5 shift rods into the transmission. Those are the shift rods that only stick out of the intermediate plate about 1cm. The one closest to the 1/reverse shift rod won't budge unless the 1/reverse shift rod is in the neutral position due to the way the detents work. Tapping the two shift rods engages 3rd and 5th, at the same time, locking the transmission.

With the transmission locked, you can now remove the pinion shaft stretch bolt (you will need a 30mm deep socket to clear the speedometer drive, and perhaps a hammer). After that, drive the pin out of the castle nut on the input shaft, and loosen it (but don't take it off yet)

Now remove the 1/reverse shift fork bolt completely, and then pull the shift fork and 1/reverse slider off

Then remove the 1/reverse slider hub and first gear:

Next the 1st gear roller bearing and its inner race come off (the inner race of 1st gear is different from the other gears (thicker)

Now the first tapered washer comes off. It is about 3.3 mm thick at its thickest point, and the flat side goes against 1st gear.

Now you can grip the intermediate plate and pull the gear stacks out of the case. Take it out and set it on a workbench you don't mind getting dirty. I put the shift rods back to neutral, so you can see how things are supposed to line up.

Here you can see the notches in all the shift rods line up when everything is in the neutral position. This is where the shifter selects which shift rod to move.

Now remove the plug from the bottom of the intermediate plate, and extract the short spring and ball from the hole.

Now you can remove the 1/reverse shift rod (make sure the 2/3 shift rod is in the neutral position or it won't come out). Once you remove the 1/reverse shift rod, a little metal pill looking thingie will come out of the intermediate plate. Next remove the bolt from the 2/3 shift fork, slide the shift rod out, and remove the shift fork. After that another ball, a longer spring with a rod in it, and yet another ball will come out of the intermediate plate. Now remove the 4/5 shift rod and fork, in the same way as 2/3. Heres a picture of the shift rods, and how they interact with the detents and springs:

Next, remove the castle nut and washer from the input shaft, and put the nut back on upside down, flush with the end of the shaft.

Alternate tapping the two shafts with a brass hammer, trying to get them to move together. When the nut hits the small side of first gear, stop, remove the nut, and remove the gear (a gear puller can help here, but you probably won't need it). Put the nut back on flush, and contunue.

Once you get the shafts out of the intermediate plate, the two bearing races that were holding them on will fall off. In the picture here, the intermediate plate would go between the shafts and the races on the right (note matching races still on the shaft)

Ok, for a while we'll concentrate on the pinion shaft (that's the shorter one). Remove the other bearing race. To get it to come off you may need to hold the gears and tap the end of the shaft with the brass hammer.

Next is the second tapered washer. The washer is about 6.6 mm thick at its thickest, and the flat side is against 2nd gear. Then remove second gear and it's associated roller bearing and inner race.

Now remove the 2/3 slider and its hub.

Next 3rd gear comes off, with it's roller bearing and inner race.

Then take off the 2.5mm thick flat washer.

Next take off 4th gear. The ridge goes against the spacer.

Now take off the spacer that's between 4th and 5th gears.

Then remove 5th gear (ridge goes twoards spacer)

Now remove the 4.2mm thick flat wahser.

The last thing to come off the pinion shaft is four shims, about 0.3mm thick each. The number and thickness may vary between transmissions.

Now we move on to the input shaft. Clamp it in a vice like this: (make sure you grab the splines well, and don't pinch any gears anywhere.. Gently rotate it back and forth as you tighten the vice so it gets seated tight. Get the vice very tight.

Now pound the locking tab with a screwdriver and a hammer until it flattens out like this:

Here's where the big-ass crecent wrench comes in.. Put it on the nut, and pound until it comes loose. Be sure to pound in line with the vice, like this:

Once you get that nut and locking washer off, take the whole thing out of the vice and flip it over. Hold on to the gears and bearing, especially towards the bottom. Now pick up the whole shaft and lightly drop it on the anvil part of the vice like this: (being ready to catch the stack of bearings, washers and gears that will come loose)

The input shaft parts come off in the following order:

Bearing (flatter side of the brass part towards 5th)

5.9mm thick tapered washer (flat side towards 5th)

5th gear, associated roller bearings and race

4/5 slider and hub

4th gear, associated roller bearings and race

2.5mm thick flat washer

3rd gear (flat side towards washer, ridge towards second gear)

2nd gear does not come off of the shaft, it's part of it.

Whelp, there you have it. I hope this helps people take on their transmission troubles without fear. I will probably add a couple of syncro details later, but this is it for now.

Holy cow! Cheers and you rock! Great article, and awesome timing, as I am just starting my own tranny disassembly. Instant classic, I say.

Thanks! Glad to help.

Damn. That's a great article.

I nominate for Classic Thread status. Anyone second me?

-Rusty

Looks like it's already in the classics.. I guess that's your second Dunno who did it. Thanks guys, I really appreciate the positive feedback.

About the pics of syncros I was thinking of adding, I decided against it because it wouldn't really add anything that isn't covered by Red-Beard's article. Besides, I don't fully understand what goes on with those brake rings and stop blocks, etc. I don't want to mislead anyone with misinformation.

First of all GREAT JOB and THANKS for the hard work........ but some of us are pretty uninformed about all this stuff. It is great seeing the insides of a tranny for the first time, but little arrows pointing to the parts mentioned in the text would be great, so we can learn without taking our tranny apart.

just my $0.02

thanks again!

I thought about that but I don't have any arrow drawing software on my computer right now. I tried to do my best with the photos though, in most cases you can go to the previous pic and see what's different.

Good pics and info, thanks. Where do I find "Red Beard's" article?

Right here

Bondo,

Great contribution. One day I will need this along with Red-Beard's tech article.

Thanks to both of you.

BTW, if anyone needs further explanations or pics, I'd be happy to do what I can.

Does anyone have info on where to get cheap trans bearings. I was going to replace all of mine while I had it apart but I could buy another junk car for what the new bearings cost.

You could do what I'm doing.. just replace the worn stuff with used stuff. not as good as new, but much cheaper. I'm selling off my extra stuff, so let me know if you go this route.

Wow. Your shop is way cleaner than mine, huh Mike....

Good job on the tranny. I used 2 vise grips to act like one of the special tools, to help prevent rotation. You put the two vise grips on the splined end of the input shaft, lining up the teeth with the splines. The Vise looks good as well.