Best way to proceed? ('71 frameup)

I've been stuck for a month at this point ^. I want to be able to run the engine for a bit and take the tranny through all the gears to verify werky-ness BEFORE installing the body. But here's the problem...wiring this thing up as-is means that I have wires draping all over creation, and somehow it's not been easy to do. However, if I go ahead and install the body & dash, all the wires could at least be correct/complete and out of the way. But if I run into a problem with the tranny (has 2 known broken teeth), then I'd have to remove the body again. .

For those who've been at this exact point...what did you do? Wire 'er up and fine tune everything before installing the body, or install the body and wire 'er up correctly and take your chances that everything'll be manageable?

 

rig up a can to the fuel line and to the carb,Gravity feed is fine for this, if you want, use the fuel pump line. for the first fire up, just the fuel in the float bowl is all you want. that way if some thing is wrong, she'll run out of fuel within a minute or so.(if something is wrong, be prepared to pull the coil wire...)
prime the oil pump(electric drill and a home made pump shaft)or turn the motor over for a few minutes(no more than 10 seconds at a time, don't want to fry to starter)with the coil wire off. better if the plugs are out for this portion of the priming.
wire from battery to positive side of the coil(go thru the ballast if need be.
attach ground and (hot to the starter) to the battery(you can get by with a set of jumper cables for this to.
either use a screwdriver or a remote starter button from the hot on the starter to the "S" on the starter solenoid.
as long as your engine mounts are tight, should have no problem.
if possible, put some kind of exhaust system on it. It is hard to hear something coming apart with all that racket.
when she starts, listen for any noises, you can probably run the engine for a couple minutes without water in it, better to run a hose into the heater hose opening and fill the motor up with h20, should be able to run for about 10 minutes then, watch for steam, you see it. shut down and let her cool with out adding anymore h2o. good luck, my 68 is just got her springs and shocks on, yours looks great, hope to be there by july.
dave

 

Alan alot of this has to do with your confidence level in your ability. When I rebuilt mine last (march thru may) I reassembled everything and then wired it up, primed the motor and then fired it up, drove it 26 miles around town and then drove it 184 miles to Crawfords campground and Tellico in early may to test it out. Worked great with only a battery problem that was caused by a missing bolt in the battery tray mount. I have since added another 350-400 miles playing around town.

I do agree that if you know theres teeth missing on the transmission you should fix it now or you will be in a few months at most.
Besides with a little help the body can be removed in a few hours to work underneath it. I made my wiring totally different than the factory setup in that I have no wires attached to the underside frame, all the wires stay with the body when I take it off.

 

Alan,

I have to agree with the check out the tranny/xfer first. Get that done, then rig up the wiring (not really that hard to do) and run it without the body on. That way, you can see if there's any oil leaks to deal with. I'm really glad I did mine that way, as I had one oil galley plug in the back of the block leaking. That would have killed me had I put the tub back on first.

 

Thanks for the tips.

Some thoughts...
68CJ, this V6 isn't a total rebuild dealio, so no oil priming is necessary. Good idear on the heater hose H20 adding. I'll do that!

Howard: re: the tranny teeth...fixing that is currently beyond me. And because I'm under significant time constraints, I have no time to learn how to rebuild a tranny. Gotta make due with what I have for now. There's a pristene T-14 on standby just in case.

Mike: this is unchartered territory, lol. I've already had probs with wiring it up as is. Might be better to just install the body/dash and all the wiring & take my chances...that's something I do seem good at.

Thad: initially I agree with you, but have had probs wiring. I've got mebbe 5 or 6 wires to get 'er running. The entire harness installed would be best in order to test, especially with one person around. I'm managing solo, but am nervous about wires draping over groundable areas & such. Body + dash + proper wiring would get all of that out of the way (right?? )

 

Save a bunch of very predictable grief and just install that "pristine" T-14 that you have on standby NOW! Why go thru all this effort and end up with something that you 100% KNOW just has to be torn all down again? That'll suck the pleasure out of the project in a hurry -- and it is supposed to be fun, after all, isn't it?

 

Alan, You will hate having to go back into the trans when it shells a gear. You can easily rebuild a T-90 in a weekend once you figure out the order of things. When we converted Jerry's 4 cyl T-90 to a V-6 I must have screwed up the reassemble order 3-4 times which only delayed me an hour or so. Not bad at all.

The key is to punch out the retaining pin on the lower counter assembly first which allows the counter assembly to drop slightly into the case. Now the top guts come right out! Make your repairs on the gear set. Use vaseline to stick the needle bearings back in that lower assembly and lay it back into the bottom of the case. Install the top gearset, finish by gently raising the lower counter rotating shaft into position and re-installing the pin. They do sell a temporary retaining sleeve to hold the needles in (saves you some hassle). the sleeve will come out when you tap in the retaining pin.

You almost don't need a manual but have one handy anyways. It is the first transmission I have ever rebuilt and probably the most rewarding since it appears very difficult (but isn't). Amaze your friends! Cupcake will be impressed!

Herm has nice rebuild kits available!

 

So don't drape the wires over the groundable areas. You ARE going to protect those wires with split looms or something when you do the wiring, right? Buy a few foot extra to protect it during testing (body off), make sure all is well, remove temporary wiring, then body on! I'm certain that someone on this list can provide you a diagram to follow for simple, temporary wiring.

I guess you can tell that I'm for running it first, huh? I just firmly believe in checking everything before proceeding. Running through the gears before body on falls in that catagory.

 

Pull the trany, xfer case and check them out. Then go from there.

 

The T-90 build is easy , so easy I could do it . Just take your time and it will be fine . Or why not drop the T14 in now? The engine wiring should be a cake walk . You dont need the alt wired in for that. Lets see +Batt to starter , from starter Wire to ballist resitor from there to coil , - Wire to engine for ground . Cross seliod to start , pull coil wire to cut off. That should be all you need , guys check me on that.

ETA: Might want to at lest replace that shaft in the tranfer case while its on the floor

 

Yes yes yes! That was my first plan, but it fell through when the x-fer case gears were blotto'ed and I've since sold the entire case.

 

Agreed. Don't worry about doing the tranny and xfer. They really aren't that bad to rebuild. Once you get over the gut wrenching sound of needle bearings hitting bottom, it's easy.

I second the Rick Stivers rebuild guides. Made it a piece of cake.

 

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Still feel like I should press forward (under major time constraints) but I've got the "gears" turning in my head.

Howard: the gear in question is in the bottom. It gets action when in 2nd and reverse. In this pic I rotated the assembly to show a portion of a tooth broken off:



There are 2 teeth like that; the rest is fine. When I asked the board a couple months ago, someone said that it'd just be a bit noisy if I left it as is. I'd be fine with that.

 

Hadn't even caught that but yea you're right that is a t86 not a t90. Alan t90's don't have angular cut gears they are straight cut.

 

ya hippo, I wasn't sure how long your motor's been sitting, no sense taking the chance she was dry. If she has been sitting for awhile, squirt alittle oil in the cylinders so not to score 'em when she starts. Just incase the carb floods and washes the cylinders. just a CYA. I'm alittle over cautious when it comes to advice to someone. one 12 gauge wire to coil from battery pos, jumper cable from grn and hot on battery to engine ground and starter solenoid/battery post. screw driver. the old way to hot wire cars in the 60's guys.