Gearbox input shaft holder

[Henrik]

Subaru sell a tool to hold the input shaft to the gearbox so that the nuts on it can be torqued up.

From what I can gather the subaru tool grabs onto one of the actual gears, but I have made a cowboy version instead which grabs onto the splines of the input shaft the rod locks the clutch against the gearbox housing.

It worked well enough to allow me to torque up the nut to the required 88ftlbs , and I think it could be held in a vice too if required (eg if the shaft wasn't already in the gearbox).

Behold:

 

[Johnseat]

All I do on other gearboxes is to place the box in two gears with the selectors removed to access the rods inside.

 

[123hotchef]

what r u torqing up

 

[Henrik]

what r u torqing up

It's a 5 speed Subaru PPG straight cut box - the 5th speed "synchro cone stopper" ring had been broken at some point, and it was fine until i took the box apart, but then it fell to bits (it was held together by other bits, it seems). Anyway, I didn't spot the issue until I had the box together again, so swapped the 5 gear synchro gubbins from my spare box, but the problem was the synchros (and everything else) is held on by a 35mm nut (hence my other thread about making a thinwall socket).

Anyway, without taking the box apart, there's no way to hold the shaft in order to torque the nut up (short of using a rattle gun, which would do the nut up, but some random torque (probably much higher than intended)). The subaru tool relies on the box being split, and the tool then grabs one of the gears (fixed to the shaft) and you then hold the tool in a vice.

It's the top shaft in this picture, and the nut is holding the 5th gear cluster on (to the left, but out of shot).

This is the nut:

 

[Henrik]

All I do on other gearboxes is to place the box in two gears with the selectors removed to access the rods inside.

Hmm, do you mean like sticking it into 1st and 4th at the same time? Hmm, I suppose that would work as well

Still, at least I can use my tool to... er.. I'll think of something

 

[123hotchef]

ah i see clearly now lol, i take it that is a old clutch! lol

 

[Henrik]

build a shaft up outside of a gearbox, there we go!

 

[Henrik]

ah i see clearly now lol, i take it that is a old clutch! lol

Correct The disc has somehow warped, so no good, unfortunately.

 

[123hotchef]

it got too hot i expect

 

[dobbslc]

That pinion gear looks a bit blue!

 

[Johnseat]

Hmm, do you mean like sticking it into 1st and 4th at the same time? Hmm, I suppose that would work as well

Still, at least I can use my tool to... er.. I'll think of something

Yeah exactly that, with the box is pieces like it was then you could have just moved two syncros into mesh and locked the box up.
Other option as well would be to place a bar into the diff housing with the planetary gears set as get someone to stop the diff spinning.

 

[angellonewolf]

That pinion gear looks a bit blue!

grease ?

 

[Johnseat]

Looks like engineers blue to see the teeth engagement point between the pinion and sun gear.
You either shim the diff outer bearings to move the diff in or out to move the engagement point or shim behind the pinion to move that in or out to the correct position

 

[Henrik]

Looks like engineers blue to see the teeth engagement point between the pinion and sun gear.
You either shim the diff outer bearings to move the diff in or out to move the engagement point or shim behind the pinion to move that in or out to the correct position

Correct, as I had it apart anyway, and it was an unknown build, I decided to checho contact patterns etc.

Turns out everything was fine on that front, luckily.

 

[Henrik]

Other option as well would be to place a bar into the diff housing with the planetary gears set as get someone to stop the diff spinning.

Hmm, not sure this would work on this box in its present state. Reason being that as it's a 4wd box, the front diff is driven by the pinion gear (obviously), but the pinion shaft is not connected to the gear cluster in a way you might expect. The gear sets sit on a hollow shaft, which the pinion shaft runs through. The centre diff connects the outside shaft to the pinion pinion inside shaft, but as the centre diff isn't fitted at present the pinion is totally disconnected from the gear set.

Still, the two gears in mesh will work.