This week will be my first ride in my Mav, after I get the brakes bleed and the clutch needs to be adjusted. I still have a couple of things to finish up. The shifter handle needs to be heated and bent away from the front of the bench seat. The exhaust pipe needs to be created. Next week I will start the body work. This has been a very relaxing project! Ken
Tonight I got to drive the Mav, up and down the street. Oh,the 4-speed sounds so great, the gear whine. I only got into 3rd gear. I've got to do a lot of little things to get the car back to driving shape. I'd do it again! Ken
Paul, It's just the transmission noise. Its OK. The transmission shifts great, smooth and no gear clash! Thanks, Ken
What gear oil did you use in the transmission ? Toploaders need 90-140 gear oil. Nothing fancy, just plain old 90-140. If it still whines with 90-140, then I'd suspect it's got mismatched gear sets in it. Not talking about ratios, but gears in it that have never been run (worn)together for any length of time. I assembled one such back in the 80's from parts of three Toploaders, the damned thing sounded like a supercharger under the car.
Thanks Baddad457, Dan Williams is where I got the transmission, fresh rebuild. The decal, he added, on the side of the transmission said use 80-90W gear lube, no hard shifts for the first 50 miles and after 500 miles change lube again. Here is an interesting article dealing with Toploader Lubrication: http://www.davidkeetoploaders.com/specifications.htm Thanks, Ken
I've used David Kee several times for parts and sold him two transmissions (which he drove here from San Antone---430 miles to personally pick up) Nice guy to do business with. I don't know what Dan does when he rebuilds em, but David changes all the gears in his rebuilds, probably due to the same outcome I had, way back when. I've got one in my shop to rebuild now, but it'll keep the same gear set, it was quiet as a mouse running after 40+ years. Just needs new blocker rings in it to make it new again. I used 90-140 in mine with a few squirts of black moly axle grease added in for good measure. Ran this transmission in my 89 V8 Ranger for 7 years without an issue.
Thanks Baddad457, very interesting. I have a question, the clutch cable I have is adjustable at the clutch fork and I have an adjuster on the firewall. How do I adjust the cable at the clutch fork? Companies sell these cables and don't include instructions on how to adjust them. Thanks, Ken
Don't know, I've never used anything with a cable clutch. But as with a mech linkage, I'd think you want the throwout bearing just shy of touching the pressure plate fingers when the clutch is released.
OK, I'll buy that. How do I measure that? By wiggling the clutch fork back and forth by hand then tightening the fasteners there? Also, what does the cable adjuster do on the firewall? I just want to make sure I have the clutch adjusted so I don't have to do this again for a while. I made my adjustments based on being able to put the transmission in reverse easily, no grinding of the gears. The forward gears shifted great. Thanks, Ken
Well, I'm not far off. According to the Clutch and Flywheel Handbook by Tom Monroe, there are two ways to adjust the clutch. One way is to drill a hole in the bottom of the bellhousing and measure the air gap between the pressure plate and the pressure ring. This measurement for a Diaphragm Pressure Plate is between .030-.040. The other method involves adjusting the clutch just past the point of preventing the transmission gears from clashing when entering reverse gear. This involves revving the engine to your shifting rpm, depressing the clutch pedal and putting the trans into reverse. If no clash, back off the clutch cable fork bolt and repeat until you hear clash. So, my plan is to adjust the cable at the clutch fork to allow just a little clash when putting the trans in reverse, then adjusting the cable at the firewall to remove the last bit of gear clash. Both methods involve having the rear tires off the ground and the engine running. Since I am not going to do the first method, if anyone needs more information doing your measurement with a feeler gauge, let me know and I'll elaborate more from his book. If this doesn't sound correct please let me know, Thanks, Ken
Me too. I had 3 points of adjustment when I initially put everything together because I wasn't very confident about the measurements (did this in 1999). Once everything was together and I found that the measurements were spot on, I changed the adjustable cable to a fixed one and I still use the firewall adjuster and factory adjustable quadrant. That gives me the ability to adjust the pedal height and freeplay independently or together. With the adjustment, I adjust the pedal to keep slight tension on the release bearing (just enough to eliminate noise) with the stock Mustang diaphragm style clutch and cover.
injectedmav, What clutch pedal are you using? I have read many articles about using the stock 5.0 cable, which in a month I just may change from the double adjustable cable. Thanks, Ken
I'm using a Mustang upper pedal attached to the stock Maverick pedal bracket. I welded the upper mustang pedal to the maverick lower pedal(to retain the stock appearance). I have a piece of tubing that I welded into the Mav pedal bracket so I could use the late Mustang quadrant. When I did these mods, everything that I found was for a Mustang and I had the same issues with the cable arm hitting the the cowl. The pedal pivot mods allow the quadrant to mount to the tunnel side of the column and clear the cowl since it is also lower than the brake pivot. I have some pics in my gallery and I have more on my computer that I'll try to upload later. Hope this helps, Jason
