You guys were great. As soon as I put out the word my phone started to ring
with offers to help. I appologize if I didn't close the loop with anyone
but I was literally flooded with people offering me everything from
expertise, to tools to parts.
Special thanks to Joe Young who gave me a great transfer case at very
reasonable price. Joe and I had much fun loading this monster into my
rental car (Geo Metro). The Geo had to be field modified to facilitate
loading and unloading. The car was returned in original condition after the
case was removed. Great car.
Rikk Rogers, Ken Engle, Dave Cole, Rick Welker and several others helped me
track down parts.
Billy Whyde even offered to meet me with his transmission jack and help with
the swap.
As it went Dan Bicker (not a list member) let me work at his place. I
dropped the shafts and loosened the mounts while at the truckstop. Dan was
milking at the time. He got done and then hooked me up to his 5 Ton with
his tow-bar and we brought my M35 to his place. Riding in the M35 behind
the 5 ton was like being on a 15Ton roller coaster. Definately a unique
experience.
Dropping the transfer case was easy. A come-a-long lashed to a wrecking bar
between the back wall and the dash (windows open) of the truck provided the
lift. I found a 'magic bolt' that when attached to a chain allows the
transfer case to be lowered or raised in the proper position to facilitate
alligning all the bolts. This was simply an amazing find. By 11PM we had
the new unit in place. I spent the next several hours bolting up linkages
and shafts and by 2AM I was back in action. Dan put Spike (my 4 year old
son) and I up for the night and we were on the road in the morning.
About 100 miles down the road I pulled off for a quick inspection. I found
oil pouring out of the speedo drive. Panic set in. I checked my fluid
levels and found them to be accpetable. I disassembled the speedo drive and
found the seal to be in rough shape. It turns out that an o-ring around the
shaft is just what the seal needed as a temp fix. A little more inspection
found the problem... mud in the vent. Once cleaned oil leak subsided and
has behaving ever since.
I make the trek back to Ohio tomorrow and will be bringing another load back
to NY in a day or so.
Thanks again to all who helped and I appologize fi I left anyone out. The
oversight is due to fatigue rather than mallice.
-=-
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:38 PDT