Inspection of a 904 torqueflite
On this note. I was able to get the reaction shaft bushing out in less than 5 minutes. the first time took a lot of frustration and about an hour just to sort through a good way of getting it out. I tried all kinds of stuff.
This time.....I dremeled the joint to thin it out.
I was able to get the busing driver down through the other side with the first piece that would fit through, but kept slipping on the bushing. I had tried this before with a socket and extension. It worked just ok. The sockets rounded ends didn’t bite nearly as well as the bushing driver.
The fact that I dremeled it on the joint so thin made it weak enough in the right place......that even though the driver slipped sometimes. It pushed it right out in 30 seconds. It was a seamless ordeal this time.
Here is the driver and dremel tip I used
-
I was weary and dreaded doing it. Now that it’s sorted it won’t be a problem again if it ever needs to be done.
-
-
-
This is what the brand new bushing looks like now
When it was installed. It looked perfect. It went in very smooth.
I used the micrometer on the shaft itself all over to see if it had high spots. There were none.
The reaction shaft would not seat all the way down.
Look at the wear ring in the middle. How did this happen? I can only speculate.
So after I got it out. I checked it loose. Even out of the housing it would still only go that far. It is the correct bushing.
The spot was so high that no matter what I could not get it to wear down enough to seat. I pushed pretty hard and rotated it. I just got stuck. After it was out I micd it. The middle ring was .002 smaller than the shaft race. Outside of he ring was .004 bigger than the race. No wonder it was tight.
To make sure that was not one of the 3 small seal rings. I took them off to isolate the spot causing the problem. It’s like there is a huge high spot in the middle of the bushing. The wear ring inside the bushing would indicate this to be true.
The input shaft race would not go past this model ring in the bushing and seat correctly.
I ordered another bushing and we will see if that works.
I did also notice that the 904 and 999 bushings that fit into the reaction shaft are different. The 904 race and bushing is about 1/4” taller.
This was also the bushing where my driver set was the perfect size of the bushing and would not allow the driver to go any farther than the housing. It was too big to drop through. I’m wondering if that is originally the cause of this. I did put some pressure on it at the end not knowing this.. not much but it wouldn’t take much.
So the lesson here is. Make sure the driver sits well on the bushing AND goes through the housing.
The other lesson is to press the bushings in ....and THEN .....before putting the transmission together. Make sure they rotate on the races they are supposed to rotate on.
Honestly.....I’ll be glad when this project is done. I felt like I did it right and didn’t cut any corners on it.