hifiwasabi 0 #1 Posted July 16, 2008 Just finished disassembling the #5053 uni-drive out of my '68 Lawn Ranger and wow is it ever a mess. The oil has emulsified with water and now I wish I had a varsol tank at home. The gears don't look too bad but the 2-3 shift fork is not currently moving so beyond replacing all the bearings and seals, I should be alright assuming the planetary gearset cleans up alright. Does anyone know of any particular trouble spots to watch out for on these units? Sean Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TT-(Moderator) 1,129 #2 Posted July 17, 2008 Believe it or not, if you replace the bearings and seals you will have conquered the weakest parts of that transaxle. After your repairs, it should be "good to go" for another 40 years! :whistle: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sorekiwi 761 #3 Posted July 17, 2008 I'm not an expert, but I've had 3 of these apart and successfully back together, so I know a little bit... All of mine had water in the trans, and I was surprised that the gears and shafts werent in worse condition than they were. They were all a nasty, brown gooey mess when I got them apart, but they clean up OK. In my opinion a little bit of pitting on the teeth due to rust isnt the kiss of death. What are you going to do about it? Unless you find some NOS gears you are going to have to put up with it. I tell myself that the pits act as tiny reservoirs for oil and provide better lubrication. On the other hand you do have to look out for longitudinal rusting of the rollers on the shafts. This can cause a small depression that will "trip" the roller in the bearing, and the bearing will eat itself really quick. There are a few tricks you can use to save the shafts, but I only had to do this on one of my transmissions. I bought my needle rollers from Motion Industries, they were about 60% of the price of my local WH dealer. Note that the 2 ball bearings on the differential are specials that need to be bought from Toro - dont remember the price but it is horrible ($50 each?). Oil seals I got from NAPA, Circlips are generic. One of my transmissions I assembled without a gasket, but sometimes you need the gasket to provide adequate end float. As far as assembly goes its all fairly straight forward. Its easy to lose the detent ball if you are not careful (ping!!), make sure you get the interlock pin between the shift rails, and make sure the differential assembly goes in the right way - put it in backwards and the bolts hit something (dont remember what) when you turn it (dont ask how I know this! ) Hope this helps, it's really not as hard as it looks when there's an ugly, oozing pile of parts in the bucket... and there's plenty of people here to give advice and tips. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hifiwasabi 0 #4 Posted July 17, 2008 I do plan on reusing all the gears, shafts and forks as they all have minimal wear and pitting. I'm not going to be driving 100 mph or anything like that so no worries there. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve if the bearing surfaces aren't quite perfect (J.B. weld is one) but it should be a fairly simple reassembly assuming I don't lose anything and get all the parts washed in varsol. Sean Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sorekiwi 761 #5 Posted July 18, 2008 I do have a few tricks up my sleeve if the bearing surfaces aren't quite perfect (J.B. weld is one) JB weld wont work as a bearing surface. Mild steel wont work as a bearing surface. A hardened roller bearing needs a hardened surface to run on, it will eat up any sort of bondo you put in there in a heart-beat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
