well, i just finished the rebuild and i want to thank gary ramadei (GTR1999, I think) for loaning me the muncie wrench to install the front nut on the input shaft...gary did a superb job of rebuilding my steering boxes (now that's a job i have NO interest in attempting) and he was kind enough to mail me the wrench to do the job correctly (the wrench is simple and i traced a pattern to make my own during the first real bad snow storm we encounter)
it was gary who also pointed me to
www.5speeds.com for a dvd done by paul canglialosi titled "muncie basics" and it shows how to rebuild the beast with simple hand tools (i made a custom tool for holding down the ball bearing for the rear shifter arm from an old screwdriver, the only pause in an otherwise straightforward job).....i literally had the laptop playing the video on the bench while i did the reassembly and i knew exactly what to expect....according to the video, you can bypass the special muncie wrench and use a big ass pipe wrench if you're careful, which is what i'll do next time (yup, there will be a next time during the off season)...
....i admit that i haven't driven the tranny yet but everything works that way that it should (VNV has a good idea about converting my home made buffer machine to drive the input shaft and run it through the gears and i'll do that before i drop the old trans...pretty clever idea)...the sliders move easily, it shifts through all four gears and reverse works fine......i WONDERED how to pop the tail on a muncie and now it's pretty clear, the reverse gear has a lip on it that's grabbed by the reverse shifter arm and to remove the tail, you just pull the shifter arm out and you're good to go...whoulda' thunk?
i also bought the rebuild kit from 5speeds and was real pleased with the quality
...so, i bought the tranny for $100 and i put maybe $150 worth of parts into it...if this works, i'm in hog heaven when you consider how much some guys charge for this service...and you never know the quality
now, if i could find a gear vendors overdrive that needs rebuilding, that'd be sweet!