Removing/installing T350

[huggybeara3]

First time poster, long time troller, these forums seem to always have great information.

 

A buddy of mine has a 72 K10 Longbed Chevy that recently started leaking tranny fluid. After a long day of dropping the tranny the process we went through was removing the transfer case, then the tranny. It has a 203 w/ T350 mounted to a 5.7 SBC. The tranny looks like it only had a bad seal in the front.

 

I have no experience with ever dealing with a 4x4 vehicle in terms of the transfer case, have only ever had to deal with the front end, so here's my question if anyone has any experience with this (his Chilton Manual for this year is very vague). Would it be easier when doing the reinstall to go ahead and have the transfer case connected to the tranny, and install that whole assembly back into place, or to install the transmission first, then after that install the transfer case afterwards?

 

Thanks for any input,

 

Aaron

Owner of 1989 K2500

[Mike G]

First off, welcome aboard.

 

Secondly, after seeing this was looked at 25 times, I figured I would toss my $.02 in. Personally, getting just the trans itself lined up and installed correctly is challenging. That said, I would disconnect the two components and do them separately. Unless of course you have one of those cool trans floor jacks or similar attachments. Then in that case, it may be worth a shot to do it in one stab.

--Mike

[2COR517]

I have a TH350/NP203 laying on the ground. I had to look at it before responding. I agree with Mike. Since you know you can reach the top case bolts, and that case is so heavy (over 200 pounds), I would put the trans in first. Plus, you can bolt the adapter to the trans, and the adapter to the crossmember. Now the motor/trans combo is stable. Get the NP203 into position and bolt her up. Be careful, take you time. Drop that case and someone might get hurt.

 

Make sure you can put all your adapter plate bolts in with your fingers. Clean the threads with a tap if you need to, and maybe good bolts. You want those bolts torqued properly, with locktite. There is a tremendous amount of force on those bolts, so you don't want them coming out. Do this for the adapter to trans and adapter to case. Also a good idea for the bellhousing to engine bolts. The leverage on the bellhousing bolts is much less, locktite is up to you.

 

Good luck, and keep us posted how it goes.