Disassembly of the T-18 Gearbox
After reading several articles on the internet, it seemed like the disassembly of the T-18
should not be too tough -- heck, the bearings should pop out with a butter knife. Not!
I banged and cussed, and none of my pullers were big enough to fit over the 6" shaft, so I
bought a set from eBay. They were of decent quality, but the ends were really rounded, and I
could not get them into the narrow space of the exposed bearing. So...I got silly with the
angle grinder, and 4 hours later, we were in business.
Once I had that puppy ground down, the front bearing came off in about 2 seconds. However, the
rear one presented the next nightmare. I could get the puller's teeth into the groove, but
it was really stuck in there, so as I torqued it, the stress on the teeth popped them out before
the bearing moved. It was really, really frustrating. I tried every trick in the book,
including heat, hammers, break-free, and even a few bungee cords wrapped around the arms to hold them still.
I gave up and had to sleep on it. But the next morning, it dawned on me that I was not going
to need that bearing ever again, so heck -- a few zaps with the MIG welder, and those teeth
weren't coming off! The bearing came right out, and found its way into the trash with the
help of a ball peen hammer!
I did run into some difficulty in getting the mainshaft out, largely because of poor
direction-reading on my part - I omitted the removal of the reverse selector arm, which made it
impossible to remove. Duh. Once the shafts were out, I was able to closely inspect them, and
they are in great shape. I did, however, find another pile of shavings at the bottom of the
case, but I am not sure where they came from. The gears are apparently new replacements, but
who would put them in without cleaning the case?
Well, the shafts are all boxed up and ready for the machine shop. I ordered the Novak T-18
rebuild kit at Novak Conversions and it
is wonderful, especially the detailed instructions. I am going to be cleaning and rebuilding
the gearbox while the shafts are being reworked. The tough part is going to be to find a
machine shop with the right tools to do drive shafts...
Proof is in the Pudding
created and maintained by
Matt Atkins
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