Hey all,

I just finished a rebuild of a T56. Bought it off of a guy online who took the trans apart, dumped the parts in a bucket and gave up. I've never done this before but I am very mechanically inclined, however, its more difficult because I never got to see how everything was and how everything went.

With the help of online I've pretty much finished the rebuild, but there are a few parts left over. Can anyone identify any of these and know where they go? The 3 pins I'm assuming are for the shifter rods, the small round collar type thing with the holes in it i assume are part of that assembly as well. The two circlips with the holes in them I'm assuming one is for the small shaft and one is for the large shaft of the same assembly. I have no clue where the large plastic "washer" goes... The snap rings I have no idea either, unless maybe he bought new ones and there were extra in the bucket.

Also, upon completion, I notice the reverse gear does which is on the mainshaft (part #13-86-088) does not touch the small gear on the small 5/6 shaft. They line up but do not touch. Is this normal, I cannot see how it has any purpose whatsoever if these don't mesh but maybe I am missing something? I found a picture of a T56 apart online and it looked the same.

2 Pictures are attached.. If anyone has any knowledge and can help, it'd be appreciated!!

Thanks

 

Looks like your going to have to go back and go through everything again, I doubt the previous owner bought new parts and those are extras. Have a feeling those little snap rings are for the internal shifter rods, the plastic cup washer at the top is used for the ball end of the shifter. It's been awile now since I did my rebuild but if I were you I would go through every step in the instruction manual. Also the 2 gears your talking about are not supposed to touch they do that through the gear build into the end housing, if you have a quick look you will see what i mean.

 

Glad to see you took the initiative to repair this T56. It’s much hard to put something back together after someone else took it apart. Anyway, there is a pdf file that is floating around on the internet that shows the assembly order for a T56. It’s very helpful. If you can’t find it let me know and I can email you a copy when I have time.

The two gears in the second picture are not supposed to be touching. Those two gears are for reverse, that’s why the teeth go in opposite directions. If you look in the tail housing there will be a gear mounted inside there that connect these two gears together when the tail housing is installed. This caused the main shaft to turn in the opposite direction giving you reverse. So it fine. Don’t worry about it.

As for the parts. The 3 big snap rings go on the main shaft somewhere. They hold the gears or possibly the syncros in place. There are a bunch of these on the main shaft and most of them are the same size so it doesn’t matter where they go. When you put the gears on the main shaft some will just slide right on and other have to be press on. Make sure they are seated all the way. Once they are you should see a small grove cut into the shaft. That’s where the snap ring goes. If multiple gears or syncros stack on top of each other usually only the last component to go on gets the snap ring. Just look for the grove that is cut into the shaft and put a snap ring where ever you see one if it makes sense to do so.

The smallest snap ring goes on the tail end of the reverse shift fork I believe. Not sure about the other one.

The three pins go on the main shift rod assembly to hold various pieces in place.

The plastic cup goes inside the piece that you put on the end of the main shift rod assembly. This is what the actual shifter connects into.

That black rubber part with splines on the inside goes on last after you put the speedometer “gear” on. I think it’s just a bumper for the drive shaft. It’s not really needed. I didn’t put mine back on because I added a second speedometer gear and there wasn’t room. Didn’t cause any problems.

Not sure where the collar and washer go. I thing that washer is a spacer for one of the gears but I can’t remember which one.

Hope this helps.

 

The fiber washer goes on the back of the reverse gear syncro hub. You can see it laying down inside the hub in the pic. Pic is crappy I know, but it's a scan of a printed pic. Best I could do.

The small snap ring is for the the reverse shift fork and according to the Tremec manual needs to be replaced and cannot be reused. It was cheap..........couple dollars, I replaced it just because.

The rubber ring is a seal according to the manual. And VBMike is right, you don't need it. I machined my housing for a cable drive speedometer (and 20 or so others now) and the drive gear goes where the seal does, and again like VBMike I've had zero problems with any of my conversions I've done this way.

 

I'm getting ready to do a tear-down and rebuild on a t-56 I just bought and was wondering if there is a really good manual for rebuilding these.. Also, any sources for parts?

FBLT4, I commend you for having the guts to do it as I am a little nervous about it, myself!

 

Click on "service manual" on the right side of the page. It's a factory Tremec service manual. It's the only one that's available. http://www.ttcautomotive.com/English/products/T-56.asp

I highly recommend Hanlon Motorsports for parts. There are others out there, but if you run into problems Bob will be there to help you through it if you buy from him.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks a lot for the info and pictures - they've helped alot. Dr know, I got my parts at www.thegearbox.org after seeing their ebay auctions but decided its easier to buy directly from their website... Though listen to these other guys if they have a better opinion; I'm not familiar with T56 parts this is a one time thing for me but I'm sure a lot of people on here have dealt with this transmission a lot more than I have and have more knowledge about parts and their quality and who has good stuff... It's too bad you don't live close to NJ. I'd give you a hand with it if you were. I'd like to take one apart thats still intact. Since I've never seen one assembled I have to second guess anything that doesn't look right.

For example, I have a question about a thrust washer that goes on after the 3/4 synchro. The thrust washer for this is splined - But it doesn't come flush to the end of the grooves on the shaft. Is this just how it lands when it's assembled, or is this wrong? Anyone thats done a rebuild or taken down one thats been working should know. I've attached a picture.

Also, the collar piece has a groove on one side - is orientation specific? I know the grooves on the synchros are supposed to point down. Is it the same for this piece or is it irrelevant how it's orientated?

Also, after the big end bearing I see a small groove but I have no snap ring that would fit and the diagrams don't mention any snap ring thats supposed to go in there. Does this groove have a purpose, am I missing something or is it procedure to leave it alone?

Thanks for the help guys!

 

Also, for you Drknow and anyone else who wants to do this and hasn't - honestly it's really not hard. If you just keep track of where the parts came from it's pretty simple. If you're not good at getting creative to build tools, you'll need a press and a really really long puller. I was able to just get a $40 3 jaw puller from autozone and bought some lengths of metal with holes in them to extend the jaws so I could pull certain parts from the shaft - some are pressed into splines really tight. PVC pipe works good for pressing them on. You'll need to be okay with putting small puzzles together - the synchro keys are a bit of a pain to get into place but with a little time it all comes together. I've been using vaseline to lubricate certain parts to get them to slip into place easier as I assemble it.

To be honest, the actual rebuilding of the transmission was easier (to me) than the assembly of the transmission once all the gears are in place. The shift forks were difficult to figure out but after looking at it long enough I think I understand it. Does anyone have suggestions on making that procedure easy?

I've attached 3 pictures; one shows the 5/6 shift rail pieces not interfacing with the main shift rail. This is how it lines up when I put the 5/6 shift rail all the way into the hole for it. The other picture shows the 5/6 shift rail interfacing nicely with the main shift rail. To achieve this, the 3rd picture shows I pulled the 5/6 shift rail up out of the hole a distance. It's still in the hole but not to the bottom. Is this the correct way to achieve the correct setup, or should there be shims inside the hole for the 5/6 shift rail, or am I completely off?

Also, on that 5/6/reverse shift rail, are those 2 "arms" ever suppose to disengage from eachother under any circumstance? One slides into the other and with the collar set on the top of the 5/6 shift rail, it acts as a stopper and stops the movement before they slide out of eachother so they can never become independant. Is this correct or are they supposed to be able to achieve independence of eachother? I am assuming the pin lifts one of the arms to shift 5/6 and the pin when aligned differently lifts both arms which move the reverse fork to shift into reverse. Is this all correct or am I wrong somewhere?

If anyone has some info it would be much appreciated!

In the meantime if anyone has any questions on procedures up to that point I am sure I could help, this has been going on for a couple of weeks so a lot is fresh in my head =)

R

 

Thank you, FBLT4! You have given me the courage to try this myself! I plan to fill a memory card on my digital camera with pics during the dis- assembly so I dont screw it up!! Thank you ALLOY, for the links!!
I may hit you both up with pm's when I get ready to do this!!!

 

g force transmissions home page has the complete manuel on the t56

 

Alloy, I went there last night.. *whew* There is a lot of info!! Thank you! Looking at the exploaded diagram made me nervous again, though...

 

The exploded diagram of everything is too much at once. When you take it in part at a time its alot simpler.... Go by the manual thats out there. also theres 2 links I used:

http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...uild/tech.html

and

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=925032

good luck!!!

 

I agree it looks intimidating at first glance. Did to me too. But I've never let a project beat me, and I kick myself for worrying about this my first time. When you start taking it apart it all will fall into place. Get some freezer gallon size zip lock baggies. They are big enough to put sub assemblies in. Label them, make notes. Take lots of pics with a digital camera. I also tie wrapped things together inside the baggies my first time. Don't force anything, get a good set of flat snap ring pliers, along with set for the reverse snap ring. And I mean a GOOD set, not cheap crap. There are tons of snap rings in a T56. You will thank yourself for getting good quality tools for this.

You will also need a way to measure shim thickness, and a dial indicator and mag base to measure endplay. (about $20-$25 at from Enco) End play is critical in a T56. You will also need to make a special rod to screw into the rear auxiliary counter shaft to measure end play there. It's shown in the tremec manual. I can show you how I made mine out of 1/2" rod. But you will have to have about 3/4" of the 1/2" rod turned down in a lathe and threaded. Thinking about it I could make them for members here if you can't make one yourself. But I'm really not looking to get into the business of making these. I've got my hands full modding T56's for a cable speedometer already.

There are a few of us here that have been through this, and I'm sure we will do our best to help you. Just do the research and read all you can. Read the links FBLT4 put up. And I bet when your done people will be asking you questions about a T56.

 

Also if those links ever don't work, let me know, I've saved a cached copy of the sites with Httrack software and I could send it to anyone who needs it. They were so helpful I wanted to make sure I would always have them.