Ok Who's Bench-built An Sm465?

I'm weighing options (built by herm, AA, etc.) It honestly sounds fun and it's a heck of cost savings.

I'm thinking:

1. Cheap transmission $50-100
2. Full rebuilt kit $230.00
3. AA adapter $580.00
4. Country music
5. Cool fall evenings
6. Getting my mech-minded middle kid involved (she rebuilt my hot rods rochester with me last year)
7. I get to buy a press (which one? no idea) and some die's, potentially.
8. Cleaned, painted and set aside for use with my 4.3l motor.

I'm TOTALLY fine with taking the complicated steps to a local speed/parts shop that I frequent here in San diego, as needed, if I run into issues. They helped me separate my drums from my hubs on my CJ2a for my disk brake install.

 

love the smell of gear oil in garage . as long it's not from something BROKE
go for it
another excuse to buy tools

 

I recently did a rebuild on a T18. Much easier than I thought it would be. Take pictures and study them as you reassemble. I used a fixture I saw on a video to help organize the parts. two dowels sticking horizontal out of a small piece of wood (vertical). used this to stack the gears/snap rings/ bearings on as I took it apart.

You can kind of see the fixture behind the transmission in this photo.

 

Yes, you need a BIG bearing puller if the SM465 is anything like a t18

 

haha, i agree.
I have a good pair of snap ring pliers, several plastic rubber mallets, a vice, a nice solid workbench with great light, a good camera with tripod to take good pics as we go along (for reassembly, ALL the hand tools, torque wrench (might pick up a better one).

I'm aware of the trick of putting the shifter between 1st and reverse to get the cover on/off easily. But there might be others that I need to know...

 

I rebuilt one including the shift tower, the third gear upgrade and installed Novak's Dana 18 adapter kit (mainshaft and adapter plate). The Novak quality was excellent. I found it all quite enjoyable.

I paid $75 for the transmission with the bell housing and NP205 adapter still attached, owner said it would pop out of third gear (which most of them do eventually).

Everything is much larger and heavier than say a T14 as you can see here...

 

If you get Novak's rebuild kit, it comes with the upgrade sleeve to replace the problematic snap ring. Also, you might consider the 3rd gear upgrade while you are in there, it is supposed to help eliminate the popping out of gear issue. Quite a few good youtube videos on how to rebuild these.

https://www.amazon.com/Sm465-Speed-Granny-Torque-Sleeve/dp/B00V473OSI

 

I rebuilt mine and it wasnt difficult and only took an afternoon. The hardest part on my sm465 was taking the shift fork mechanism. You will need a large bearing puller and a shop press, i went with a 20 ton. A good snap ring plier is important to. The novak rebuild kit is good except the snap rings. They give you several extra but some were too thick and i had to reuse a couple of the originals.

 

I put the main shaft in the freezer, overnight. I heated the sleeve till it just starts to smoke. Using heavy welding gloves, the sleeve will drop in place. Ron

 

Same here

 

The sm465 is 175lbs and heavy.
Sm465 and t90 by Joe with a jeep, on Flickr


That is all.

 

So, i hear people saying this, and no doubt the sm465 is a heavy beast. That’s actually part of my plan. I’m putting together a fairly heavy roll cage that likely adds at least 100lbs in exactly the wrong place- raising the center of gravity.

My thought is that the SM465 (along with some other plans) will help me mitigate that. Might make it less prone to go rubber-side up.

 

The additional ballast, in that position, in my opinion would work. Total vehicle weight maybe be something to consider. The height of the 465 can be an issue with some swaps, Ron

 

I may have done this too, it has been awhile.

I definitely did (and recommend) this. I had my press all set-up to go, got the frozen mainshaft in there, heated the bushing, set it on there to press it and it slid right on.

Truth. The empty case, the main shaft and the cluster gear aren't too bad by themselves, but when they all get together, the gravity is strong!

I do recommend rebuilding the shift tower as well. Take good pictures and keep track of all the shafts, forks, springs, detent balls and lock-out pills; there is a fair bit going on in there and it has to go together in a specific order.

Again, I really enjoyed it. Like a big 3-D man-puzzle!

 

I did the same thing with my main shaft bushings. I also didn't need a bearing puller when I did mine.