The Ford Barn - View Single Post - Breaking free old frozen transmissions: Tricks?

Kilroy · 08-10-2020, 04:17 PM

I have this 49 Merc transmission that I'd like to see what I can salvage from it... It didn't look bad on the outside but the inside is frozen with some combination of rust and old grease. It's been soaking in penetrating oil and Posphoric acid in rotation for a couple days now and it's getting pretty clean inside, but unless it gets to where I can rotate the gears etc, it's probably all just wasted effort, so I'm starting to think maybe I've lost this one...

Are there any tricks to getting these old trans free enough to break apart? Take it to get hot tanked? Some chemical I haven't thought of? Or just a crap ton of torching? Can you just dump the whole thing is a tub and electrolysis its butt?

This one has an overdrive attached and I'd really like to get that off so I can attack both separately, but it won't budge...

08-10-2020, 04:17 PM	#1
Kilroy Junior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Orange Ca Posts: 28	Breaking free old frozen transmissions: Tricks? I have this 49 Merc transmission that I'd like to see what I can salvage from it... It didn't look bad on the outside but the inside is frozen with some combination of rust and old grease. It's been soaking in penetrating oil and Posphoric acid in rotation for a couple days now and it's getting pretty clean inside, but unless it gets to where I can rotate the gears etc, it's probably all just wasted effort, so I'm starting to think maybe I've lost this one... Are there any tricks to getting these old trans free enough to break apart? Take it to get hot tanked? Some chemical I haven't thought of? Or just a crap ton of torching? Can you just dump the whole thing is a tub and electrolysis its butt? This one has an overdrive attached and I'd really like to get that off so I can attack both separately, but it won't budge...