How to inspect A-833?

[Andre68]

Right now I'm restoring my 68 dart, so the engine is out and the transmission is out. The car was not running when I bought it, and I pulled the motor and transmission that weekend so I have no idea if it works or how to go about finding out if it works?

Any ideas on how to check if it's good or it needs a rebuild?

 

[dustya_383]

Open side cover . Check for play on shafts check for pitting or rust on gears pretty much all you can do .. See if it spins freely

 

[BrianT]

Before you pull the cover, you can twist the input shaft and shift it through the gears. It should behave just as you would expect it to. Output shaft should spin faster as you go up in gears and of course backwards in reverse. Input shaft should spin smoothly with no binding or popping. Then pull the cover off and look at the internals. I did this recently at a swap meet when buying a used transmission.

 

[Andre68]

Cool thanks guys!

 

[bluesuitah]

Is it normal to have some play in the input shaft up/down. Not forward/aft. I just picked up one that has a bit if movement here, insides look good though.

 

[autoxcuda]

The biggest thing I learned after buying a manual trans was checking the engaging teeth condition on each gear. If these are bad it will pop out of gear, not shift into gear smoothly especially on hard acceleration and powershifting. The engaging teeth on each gear should be pointed at the top and not rounded off. These teeth are part of each gear. So if the teeth are bad you have to replace the gear; ~ 200+ each!

Inspect each gears engaging teeth. Don't just do one. You'll need some brake clean and a flash light to remove the gear oil and see the engaging teeth. See pictures below. The side cover MUST come off of course.

So if you have two bad engaging teeth, you have two bad gears. And that is about the same cost of a whole used trans: ~ $450. Many people "rebuild" a manual trans with new bearing, brass syncro, seals, etc BUT cheap out and do not replace the gears with bad engaging teeth. Beware!

Same goes for the syncro rings' engaging teeth. But those are like $15 each and part of a general rebuild.

 

[TrailBeast]

Yes, up and down play on the input shaft is normal to a point.
The rule I use is if the input shaft touches the throwout bearing sleeve it needs a new bearing.
Another trick I use is to partially fill the trans with solvent and spin the shafts to rinse the gear oil out of the bearings.
It makes a noisey bearing way louder so you can tell if it needs them without having to tear the whole thing down and actually look at them for pitting.