The Ford Barn - What happens in a transmission rebuild

LINK TO ORIGINAL POST:
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278347

So, this post will introduce you to one of our favorite tools in the shop. I saw a demonstration of an ultrasonic cleaner at SEMA a couple years ago and was favorably impressed. In order to make a true test on our typical transmission gears & parts, we bought a very small cleaner and tried it out. The first unit was only big enough to handle a synchronizer or a second gear for example. Needless to say, I was very happy with the results and purchased a larger size. That cleaner has been moved to my shop at our main building, but another (bigger is better right?) cleaner took its place at the transmission shop. Some of the longer mainshafts will not fit completely inside the basket, but we set those in catty-corner and let one end hang out, reversing the position to clean the other half.

The cleaner uses a mix of roughly 50/50 clean water and a common degreaser (ie soap). We've tried Oil Eater, Simple Green, and other brands. They have all proven to work equally well, so we tend to buy the cheapest available. The picture of the open tank shows a freshly mixed batch, which in this case was a sort of lemon fresh Simple Green with a yellow hue. You see it in its virgin state.....the brown colors come after multiple batches have been run through it.

When we arrive at the shop, one of the first duties is to turn on the cleaner, including its heating element. We keep the heat setting close to maximum, which is below boiling but plenty hot. It takes about 40 minutes to get nice and hot, but we often put parts in it before it's fully warmed up. Between the hot soapy solution and the vibration, it really does a fantastic job of cleaning our transmission parts.

We run a load (actually no more than 2 or 3 big parts at a time) which can be gears, shafts, and multiple small items like bolts, pins, etc. The run time is usually about 7 or 8 minutes, after which we remove the parts to rub off any residue of grease, flip the parts over, and run them another 7-8 minutes. After the final run, we remove them and rinse them off in regular clean tap water. Almost immediately, we blow the parts off with compressed air.

Sometimes there is a cloudy look to the metal which is really a film of leftover soap I believe. Every part is then cleaned off on the wire wheel on the bench grinder. A wipe off with brake cleaner and the part is ready for installation.

The pictures of the parts laid out show the general family of gears, shafts, and so on from the 3 speed side and the overdrive side of this transmission. In this customer's unit, his cluster gear and reverse idler gear were damaged, so the picture includes those two as new gears from our stock.

I've also shown the effects of the ultrasonic cleaner on the shifter shafts & forks. After the usual twice dipped process, they come out amazingly clean. Virtually every part gets a final cleanup with the wire wheel to produce the final version of the cleaned part.

Here's the link to Part 5:
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278760