How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

Some more pictures of the greasy bits.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

The inside looks pretty good. The things to look out for are slop where the main shaft inserts into the front input shaft, and that the reverse gear slides well its shaft. Apparently this gets little lubrication and can bind. All bolts on the rear cast (or white metal) bearing cap need to be snug as the output flange will sheer off the bolts and crack the cap if not. Have a good look at the cap to make sure it isn't cracked already as many are.

[Jordan Baker]

Left the housing sitting in a bucket of degreaser solution for a few hours. Took it out and scrubbed it down then hosed it it off with a hot water hose. I then used a wire wheel to clean it up and remove the surface rust. I still had to go back with some small scrapers and aresol parts cleaner to get a few hard spot. Man that 75 years of grease really gets hard. Some spots were like chipping cement. Lastly brought it inside and washed it down with the marine clean from POR and then some metal prep to get rid of any final rust.

Now the hard part what colour to paint it? From what I have read here on the forum they may have come Chevy grey, semi gloss black or even have been painted the final body colour of LG#3, SCC2 or SCC15

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Jordan

I bought a NOS transmission a couple of years ago and it had been sprayed or dipped in cosmoline which had dried out. Took same sort of treatment soaking with degreaser then washing down with 160F hot water to get it clean.

You nailed the problem of cleaning hot water works much better than cold or even room temp.

How do all the bearing look? Was there any sign of water having been in the case, ie any pitting on the gears?

Enjoy your restoration reports.

Cheers Phil

PS I've painted the last couple of transmissions after assembly but before adding gear oil with Por15 black. Seems to help seal the gasket edges from leaking.

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks Phil

There was some very minor rusting on two of the gear right at the bottom of their rotation. When I drained the oil about two teaspoons of water came out first. I’ve ordered new bearings via eBay yesterday. Will hopefully have them next week. The bushings in the reverse gear are still in great shape with no side to side play on the shaft. I’ve cleaned up the gears using a brass wire wheel on an electric motor. That removed all of the rust scale. There is no pitting and very minimal wear on the gears. The cast bearing retainer housings were also polished up on the brass wire wheel. I’ve got all of the bolts and washers being cleaned up in my media tumbler. All in all this has gone smoothly.

For my colour I decided on using Ford Grey. I know I know but the online Chevy folks say it’s a good representation of the Chevy grey. I also figured the lighter colour would be easier to spot any leaking.

[Jordan Baker]

The cast parts and gears all polished up.

[Bob Carriere]

...."I’ve ordered new bearings via eBay yesterday". ......

these are the two lower one I assume...... were they visibly pitted..? curious about the rear bottom one which was problematic to match a few years ago. Could you share how it fits and possibly the source.

On the gears....... I took a fine diamond stone and went over the leading point of the teeth one by one to reduce the wear pattern evenly .....cause by crash shifting in its previous life.....sometimes only a few needed some minor dressing....hoping it would help my shifting in the future.

Have you decided on the oil you will use???? I have used synthetic from Lucas and as predicted it tends to leak ever so lightly...... a particular feature of synthetics is the ability to creep into tiny crevices/space. .....but then it is a CMP and they love marking there territory.

Bob C