Transfer case removal: mostly successful

After two days of work, the transfer case finally broke free from the transmission today. Well, almost two days of work. You see, Saturday started out ok, the bolts holding the transfer case to the transmission and the cross member mount came apart ok, but the nut holding the main shaft gear to the output shaft of the transmission proved to be its own problem. After removing the PTO plate, I saw the nut with the cotter pin run through it. After removing the pin, I went to grab the correct socket to pull the nut deep inside the tcase. Unfortunately, I had a 1-1/4″ socket and a 1-1/2″ socket, neither of which were the right size. After a trip to Osh to get some bolts to make the pull easier I stopped at Sears and was able to procure a 1-3/8″ socket. Unfortunately, after getting home and trying the socket, it was too big. This afternoon after getting home from my wife’s birthday dinner, I was able to exchange the socket, and go back to work.

After wasting what seemed like a full work day on getting the proper tool, this afternoon I was able to focus on removing the tcase. After propping it up with a floor jack and attaching the engine hoist chain to lift it from its perch, I slowly removed the case from the output shaft of the transmission. After making sure the main shaft didn’t pull out of the transmission, it eventually broke free and I was able to hoist it out. Once the transfer case was free from the frame, I set it down on an unused vehicle dolly for easy rolling around the garage.

Once I had the hoist out of the way, I went back to look at the main shaft gear. Luckily, it’s not only very clean, but also in very good condition. A few minor “scars” from old gear oil, but nothing that won’t come off with a little scratching. Now, this will take a little verification with some knowledgable resources, but there is a stamping of “F50” on the gear. If it follows similar dating system to other components, this may be an original gear from June 1950. That would put it inline for being the original gear, since Ike was likely built in the July-August range of 1950.

So, while I did get the transfer case removed, I unfortunately didn’t get the transmission removed like I was originally hoping. However, I luckily have a 3 day weekend (or at least something resembling a 3 day weekend) next week. Assuming that goes off without too much of a hitch, I may be able to remove the engine, also assuming that I’m able to actually break the head nuts worked free.