OK, OK.... I have a few quick but very important questions...


I am having trouble with my T-56 transmition that I bought used off of another TGO member. The tranny itself seems fine. My problem lies with the clutch fork.

I bolted it to the tranny when I was installing the tranny and left it loose. Then after the tranny was bolted up, I tried to have it clip onto the throw out bearing and it just won't. I seem to be able to get it on there for a second, but if I touch it, it falls off.

1.This is a worn out fork right??

I have no problem buying a new one, but is there anything else I might need now that I am double checking everything?

I went onto GM Auto Parts at Wholesale Prices and looked up stuff parts for this tranny. It says there is a pilot bearing. Where is that? It appears to me that there is just a plunger and the fork, and that the pivot is the mounting location for the fork. Can someone clear this up for me, PLEASE....

 

The pilot goes in the back of the crank. You do have one, don't you? ..... Not having one is an EXPENSIVE mistake, because it WILL destroy the transmission utterly.

Yes the fork will fall out, until you put the hydraulics on. I seem to recall having to use some optional body part to substitute for a 3rd hand while I was putting mine together.

Yes you do have a problem buying a new one; it's about $80. Ridiculous. I was just going to buy one, just to avoid problems or whatever; I ended up re-using the one I have. Which turned out fine actually.

Not sure about a "plunger"..... I don't think mine has one of those.

 

OK OK, I def had a brain fart. Yeah, my tranny def has that bearing. I just totally forgot what it was and the fact that I put it in. I have a roller one. Nice little part.

Now you say the fork is supposed to fall out? I just don't see how to get it intalled then. And how it will stay in there. I will try again tomorrow. The fork looked fine when I had it out so that is why it suprised me so much. It is totally bending my head outta shape trying to understand this problem.

And what sux even more is that if I could just get this to work, I could take the car for a spin. Something I havn;t done for 3 years.

I will try again. Thanks for the help.

Would a new fork fall off the bearing too? I am still thinking about getting a new one.

 

You do have the T stud on there right ? The fork clips onto the T stud not the bearing, it will stay in place once you havent pushed it all the way onto the stud, either you havent pushed it all the way on, or your clip on the fork is broken.

 

allright, I think my clip is weak cuz it will stay but only very weakly. Hmmm... I guess I will try again.

 

My fork has no clip.... maybe somebody broke it off, I don't know.... but however that may be, it works fine anyway, except that it was just exactly as you describe putting it in. It wanted to fall out until the hydraulics were in place. Which probably means, the clip is solely there, so that it doesn't fall out on the assembly line, but has nothing to do with whether it works or not. You might be surprised at how many things about a car are strictly artifacts of the manufacturing process, and have no connection to actual "function" of the car.

 

sofakingdom, how did you hold it in place as you put your hydrolics in?

Did you use the aluminum spacer thing. I am thinking about not using it so that I can grab the fork and hold it in place as the hydrolics are getting mounted up.

I know you can use the trany without it, it is more like a dust cover. The guy I bought the tranny from used it without it. I guess I would allways put it in after it is all bolted up if I just cut a big notch in one side.

Thanks for the help so far guys, I was getting ready to pull my Spoon x-member, un-bolt my tranny, pull some interior, pull my duals, drop my cromolly driveshaft, and buy a new fork.

I really hope this new advice gets it in there.

sofakingdom, if there are ANY more details at all that you might be able to give me I would appreciate it very much.

 

Yes I put in the spacer. I don't see how it could work without it. The slave cyl bolts down against it, and would be an inch and a half out of place without it.

It's been a while since I did it, so I don't remember for sure, but I think what I did was to just hold the fork up with one hand, and put the slave cyl onto the studs with the other, and hold it up there against the cyl trying to push itself out real slow while I tightened the nuts. I recall it being somewhat of a PITA but not insurmountable, and nothing that was so bad it sticks out in my mind (what mind?). I haven't driven the car all that much since I put in the T-56 though, probably not more than 10,000 miles or so; so I can't speak to the long-term reliability of doing it that way.

As far as the dust cover, the T-56 BH has screw bosses in the right place for the T-5 cover to work, so I drilled & tapped the BH. They don't make that cover for a T-56 and a 2-piece rear main seal, so no matter what, some sort of minor effort is required to put that on. After having a piece of debris off the road to fly up into the BH of a 4-speed car I was driving down the freeway and cause the disc to explode and slice the BH to shreds like it was butter (I hate to think what it would have done if it had happened to go where my feet were), I'll never again drive a car without the dust covers in place. Alot more than dust can get up into there.

 

allright, looks like I will find a dust cover first of all and I will try what you said.

The plunger is held in place with a twisty tie and a cap that it is attached to. Did you remove this entirely before inserting? I have seen reminants of the ties on my old T-5. It looked like they were cut after instalation.

If I take off the ties, wont the plunger come out all the way and make it almost imposible to install the slave?

How did you hold the fork with the spacer in the way and tighten the bolts. Doesn't the spacer sit exactly in the way of where you could grab the fork?

I might be mistaken but I really did try for at least 3 hrs the other day... so long I fell asleep under there trying to figure it out. hehe.

Anyways, I guess I will just take a look at it tonight/tomorrow and report back tomorrow with any more confution.

sofakingdom, you have helped a lot,