[Bob Carriere]

We had the same situation when we replaced our tranny seals. We could not source a replacment seal with the sheet metal flange. Luckily our sheet metal flange was good ..... we basically drilled out the old flange on the spot weld and used it as is to hold the seal in place. In a pinch one could cut a flange out of 20 ga sheet metal as a substitute. We were concernd that without a flange the seal might move out.

Like Harry, and thanks for his insight fromt he Convly magazine, we looked and found the elusive ring...... but it seems that the yoke bolts do work free with time....like 50 years and can them strike the bolt heads of the tranny rear cover with varying devastive results.

Interesting to note that early rear casting had the speedometer gear hole machined and plugged when not used.....as shown in Robert's rear cover.... as the cable goes to the transfer case. It seems that later in production... cheaper white metal castings were eventually produceed with the same provision for the speedo cable BUT knob for the speedo cable was left blank and not machined...... probably castings made exclusively for the CMP 4x4 as opposed to early off the shelf Civvy type.

Needless to say the cheap white metal castings really desintegrate when the bolts are hit by a flange bolt at full torque.

The other weak area of the tranny casing are the two "ears" at the front that allows the top 2 bolts to connect ot the bellhousing.... but hat is a different story again....

BooB