I generally am as well.....on most things.....but on this particular type of trans, taking out the 8 studs that hold the tail cone on....makes it far easier to align and re-engage the shift rods with the dove tails on the shift. Linkage. This tranny is a bit different than most ACVW....and the book method of slipping the tail cone back on and then aligning the shift mechanism is always a two hour PITA.....that more than once resulted in a non operable shift.Henryhoehandle wrote:I guess I might be too lazy to take the studs out lol. Good idea though.
The mid -case joint (these tranny have a three piece case, the center sectikn having a pan)......I dont pull the studs at this point because I still need to use the gasket. I treat the gasket both sides like this...one side at a time...letting it dry in between. Then drop it over the studs. Works much better. Adds about .00025" to .0005" max to the gasket thickness.
Since the gasket thickness is an important part of the spacing of the mid section gear transfer case to differential section on this trans......finding a decently correct thickness of gasket with a nice hard surface is hard to do.
Its why...back in the 90s I started researching how to seal a gasket with sealer without actively changing its thickness by much. After talking to a lot of trans and engine people and reading a handful of build articles in some of yhe muscle car mags......I realized that many people had been doing something similar for a long time with different ways.
Permatex calls it gasket sealing. A lot of the sprays do this. The object.....since vegetable fiber gaskets are porous and can/will eventually wick lubricants into their core and oit the outer edge (seeping)....unless they are highly compressed (cant put tons of torque on magnesium trans case nuts).......is to put just enough RTV into the surface to fill the pores and make the gasket paper oil and water proof.....while adding negligably to thickness.
I found the sprays at the time hard to use ....uniformly..... on this particular gasket.
I then ran into a particularly skilled mechanic that worked on a lot of obscure foreign cars and transmissions. ....and watched him first apply RTV liberally to a gasket and then when it tacked up......carefully "skived" or scraped 99% of it away with the edge of a fresh razor blade .....like spreading butter of toast. Then he let it dry....and did the other side.
When he was done.....the gasket was fully sealed.....and just had a tinting of RTV color where it filled the pores.
He did comment though. ...that the sad part is that what it removes is the nice micro-stipple pattern texture on the surface that thin, carefully applied RTV or adhesive can have.....that actually does really nice sealing work.
a few years later in the industry I work in, as I starting studying a lot of other film and coating applications (rheology).....I realized that shearing the RTV out thinner with a roller like I do with other coatings in the lab....gives it the thinness and the surface texture. Its just a faster and more even method of what many skilled mechanics do with their finger.
EDIT: Here is the unlocked link to the pictures of doing this. Let me know if there are problems. By the way...that silver "wheel" in the pictures is a wet-film thickness measuring tool. It shows that the rolled out RTV is just about 2 microns thick. For reference there are are 25.4 microns in .001"
http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/raygr ... pplication slideshow
http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/raygr ... pplication gallery with captions
Ray