I was minding my own business, working on my Transmission when DISASTER struck!

[jaded13640]

So there I was, it was gloomy night, just about to rain, I was walking down a dark alley and....
Ok so maybe it wasn't a dark alley I was just trying to put the transmission out of my 57 Dodge back together. There were three bolts that had to go in around the middle.
They looked about like this,
Not exactly something you'd see at the hardware.
They go in these holes here...

And there's one around the other side.
So I start with the one on the inside of the case...
And get out one these things...
But before I can even use that thing...Disaster strikes!


So I got out one of these...

and between that and my trusty ball peen hammer I got it out...

But of course, just my luck, this thing fell down inside the transmission


But lucky for me I have this fancy stick with a thing sticks to metal so I got it up out of there.

Like I said, this isn't something you're going to find at your local "Gilroy's got it". Just because the name says they got it...I've found that's often not the case...

But lucky for me I've got one of these contraptions...

So after some cussin, throwing wrenches around and making some of the most aweful noises I ended up with one of these...

Now mine wasn't nearly as nice as the originals, in fact I don't know for sure if I got a picture of the one I made or not...anyway, you can take my word for it.

About half way through the process my roommate comes out and says, "why don't you just buy a bolt? Why do you always have to do everything the hard way when you could just...." then I handed him one of those pointy, goofy looking things and said, "sure, good point...go pick me up one of those". He threw it down on the bench and went in the house. While me and my buddy were laughing at him the bolt I made rolled off the bench and right down the sewer pipe!


But fortunately I have one of these things....

So I just whipped up another one...

put one in each of the holes,

grabbed this thing for no apparent reason..

And pretty soon I ready to put the transmission back in the car.



Boy, I had almost as much fun making this post as I did making those fancy bolts!

Wayne

 

[Aukai]

What an adventure,,, or misadventure?

 

[jwmay]

Maybe you should think of blogging and monetizing. That was clever and funny all the way through. Thanks for sharing!

 

[RJSakowski]

One of the best reasons for having a machine shop is you can make things like this. Considering the age of the transmission, I expect that attempting to find a replacement bolt would be about as close to impossible as you can get. Nice save, once, twice, thrice!

 

[Manual Mac]

Excellent story, I can relate.
And a happy ending as well.
Cheers, Harvey

 

[BGHansen]

Boy, I had almost as much fun making this post as I did making those fancy bolts!

Wayne

Wayne,

Go buy a lottery ticket RIGHT NOW! You must have used up all of your bad luck. Nice fix!

Bruce

 

[brino]

the bolt I made rolled off the bench and right down the sewer pipe!

....but I thought that .....

I have this fancy stick with a thing sticks to metal so I got it up out of there.

Need a longer stick?, or just didn't want it back after that?


Thanks for the photo documentary!

-brino

 

[jaded13640]

Good point! Now I have an extra!

Yea, being able to find that bolt...unless it was in another L-466 "cast iron air cooled torqueflite" it would probably be impossible. But now that you mention it I have a few that are much newer than mine but might have the center support bolts....I didn't think to check and I was trying to get my roommate to participate in making something out of essentially nothing, another bolt I had in a bucket. He didn't. Then I got a good look at the hole the pointy part is only there to align the center section. But you have to have it pretty much dead on with the diameter that aligns it. But the length of the alignment thing is very non critical. The hardest part about making those was retaining the little bastiges in the chuck while I lopped off at least .175" from the end assuming they'd hit something if they were too long...no, it's wide open under that. The rear clutch drum, planetaries and over running clutch and assembled before installation and are located by way of those three bolts. What they locate on is just sheet metal with a hole in it. In reality all I needed to do was throw away the broken parts I dug out of there and call it a day. Once it's in two bolts locating that assembly was more than sufficient. But that really would have made for a crappy story. LOL

 

[pacifica]

So there I was, it was gloomy night, just about to rain, I was walking down a dark alley and....
Ok so maybe it wasn't a dark alley I was just trying to put the transmission out of my 57 Dodge back together. There were three bolts that had to go in around the middle.
They looked about like this, View attachment 373500
Not exactly something you'd see at the hardware.
They go in these holes here...View attachment 373501View attachment 373502

And there's one around the other side.
So I start with the one on the inside of the case...View attachment 373503
And get out one these things...View attachment 373505
But before I can even use that thing...Disaster strikes!View attachment 373508
View attachment 373512

So I got out one of these...View attachment 373507

and between that and my trusty ball peen hammer I got it out...View attachment 373510

But of course, just my luck, this thing fell down inside the transmissionView attachment 373509
View attachment 373512

But lucky for me I have this fancy stick with a thing sticks to metal so I got it up out of there.

Like I said, this isn't something you're going to find at your local "Gilroy's got it". Just because the name says they got it...I've found that's often not the case...View attachment 373512

But lucky for me I've got one of these contraptions...View attachment 373499

So after some cussin, throwing wrenches around and making some of the most aweful noises I ended up with one of these...View attachment 373498

Now mine wasn't nearly as nice as the originals, in fact I don't know for sure if I got a picture of the one I made or not...anyway, you can take my word for it.

About half way through the process my roommate comes out and says, "why don't you just buy a bolt? Why do you always have to do everything the hard way when you could just...." then I handed him one of those pointy, goofy looking things and said, "sure, good point...go pick me up one of those". He threw it down on the bench and went in the house. While me and my buddy were laughing at him the bolt I made rolled off the bench and right down the sewer pipe!
View attachment 373512

But fortunately I have one of these things....View attachment 373499

So I just whipped up another one...View attachment 373498

put one in each of the holes, View attachment 373501View attachment 373502View attachment 373503

grabbed this thing for no apparent reason..View attachment 373505

And pretty soon I ready to put the transmission back in the car.

View attachment 373514

Boy, I had almost as much fun making this post as I did making those fancy bolts!

Wayne

Could you have grabbed one of these? -

 

[mmcmdl]

I often have nights like this . After busting my arse for 12 hours I'm right back at where I started the night . Great post !