Teardown Time!
When the time comes to start a transmission overhaul, you may have to dig in and tear down a drive quickly in order to start a cleanup and inspection. With the assembly in a stand or on a bench, you might find that the job is much easier if you disassemble the transmission quickly with power tools, rendering a pile of dirty, worn parts. As tempting as it may be, taking this fast and dirty approach to transmission disassembly can, unfortunately, increase the likelihood you could miss the problems that led to the need for a transmission overhaul in the first place.
While it is true that every measurement should be brought to specification during the reassembly steps, waiting until this point could mean more downtime if parts were not identified as being out-of-range during the disassembly.
To save time, consult the service procedures in your truck repair information resource during the disassembly process. Most transmissions have measurements that should not be taken during the teardown. When these measurements are out of specification, it provides a signal for the tech to pay particular attention to worn or damaged parts in different transmission assemblies. It is not uncommon to see transmission parts that look perfectly fine but are in fact worn beyond specification. It is much better to know this before walking up to the parts counter to order the parts needed for the overhaul.
It is pretty frustrating to have all the new parts in and the major components cleaned up and ready for reassembly only to discover that one washer or bearing that looked fine is worn to the point where proper distances can’t be reached during reassembly.
So when it comes time to teardown, take a moment to consult the disassembly procedures to see what needs to be measured or tested as the transmission comes apart. A few extra minutes in disassembly time can save much more time in your overall process, reduce your frustration and help the overhaul run more smoothly and accurately as all the pieces mesh together.
