4+3 tranny overdrive help please.

[jp2002ls1]

Well my overdrive was rebuilt a few months ago it only worked for 120 miles and then stopped well today I was driving and in fourth gear I look back and I see smoke belowing from under my car, I looked and it looks like the rear seal blew out because all the tranny fluid on the overdrive of the 4+3 dranned out the back. I'm guessing I'm going to have to rebuild the whole thing. Can I pull the overdrive off without pulling off the whole tranny or does the whole thing have to come off? Any tips for rebuilding the overdrive would be helpful. Thanks.

I plan on doing this myself at my house so any tips would be appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[rrubel]

I'm going to play net-nanny and suggest you let one of the few 4+3 experts take a look at it. I've read that the overdrive is *very* hard to rebuild, with springs under 13000 lbs of pressure. I know that when mine dies, I won't mess with it.
[RICHR]

 

[Bigjons86vet]

4+3 tranny rebuild

I too plan on rebulding my own overdrive. I got the orignal GM shop manual with the car and the step by step seems relatively easy. I have been working on cars over twenty years and am shop foreman for a heavy equipment company presently. I have found and purchased a really decent overdrive rebuild kit for eklers.com $169 had to purchase a few specialty tools I didnt already have, just havent found the time to do the deed. Not sure yet If I can remove just the overdrive as yet I will keep you informed. If you do most or all of your minor to major repairs, I dont see the overdrive rebuild as being a problem, but as the others have mentioned there is alot of pressure on the clutch pack spring, hence the specialty tools. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Ken]

Have you clicked the tab at the top of each page here, marked "Tech Center", yet? There you will find that Dave Fulcher has an excellent article covering the rebuild of a Doug Nash 4+3.

If you can't find an answer in Dave's article, try The Gear Zone. There is a lot of information there.