Rebuilding the tranny....

[Pete Ashby]

Bob

If you take your bearings out you will find part numbers on the race and cage, these are either directly crossed referenced and or current as Nick has indicated, from memory you will not have trouble with unmatched cups and bearings,... in the Chev box they are all matched pairs. If all else fails get a set of callipers and measure the outside diameter of the cup and the inside diameter of the bearing (shaft diameter) and quote them to your bearing factors, same with the seal i.e. housing and shaft diameters, as Nick says should all be off the shelf.

As for determining ware, it's best to replace with new and save effort in a couple of years time. If however you want to try to save the originals try this:

Take the cage bearings and cups and wash out in petrol NOT paraffin, examine the cup for scoring and or pitting use an eye glass if you have one. If you find any it's scrap and so is the bearing. If the cup is OK next is the cage, spin the cage look for the pits or cracks spin it by hand and listen, ............if it crackles it's scrap and so is the cup.
The roller cage on the main shaft/primary cluster is next, you need to check the condition of the end cages if they are loose discard them if the rollers are marked or discoloured again discard them. Now check the condition of the internal bore of the primary shaft cluster it should be smooth and perfectly round (by measurement with callipers), if not junk the cluster and the rollers same for the bearing spigot on the main shaft.

Sounds a lot of effort, but done once and done right it will last forever, not done and the box will rumble and howl until it eventually digests it's self at a most inopportune moment.

Pete