I'm in the process of swamping out my stock LS6 for a forged LS, and figured I would perform some maintenance on my leaking, six speed, gearbox. I figured this would be as easy as opening it up, cleaning the mating surfaces and reassembling with some new RTV Silicone, but when I get the rear section of the case separated I find that the Countershaft's Extension Bearing Cone is distorted, and the Cup Race has backed out of its hole to the point that it is being contacted by the Reverse Idler Gear. This occurrence makes me wonder why the Mainshaft Bearing's Cup Race is being held in by a ringclip, while the Countershaft Bearing's Cup Race is simply pressed in place. All I can guess is they didn't expect this to happen, but...

Has anybody else had this problem? I don't think it could have happened upon diss-assembly of the case, but I didn't notice any problems while driving it either. If anyone has had a similar experience, I would love to hear about it.

The leak i was trying to fix and yes, I did fix the axle seal.


The damaged Bearing Cone


The Cup Race, against the idler gear.

 

What you see is normal. Call me and I'll tell you how to reassemble your tailshaft housing.

 

Thanks for the help Rick. I'll be sure to give you a call as soon as I get the new bearing.

I just received a service manual and is does say to check the bearing for distortion and "replace if bent or out of round." It's a relief to know that this is a common problem, but I can't help but feel that Tremec should have installed a ring clip to hold the bearing's Cup Race in place.

I wonder if some lock tight between the bearing and the case might help to keep the Cup from backing out into the idler gear?

 

Why would you put locktight? That's normal, as stated above. It's held in place by the clamping pressure of the shaft, bearing, and the extension housing. During normal operation, there is no way for it to back out of its designated place. The only thing you can do is verify your endplay, which you will need a special tool for.

 

Why Locktight? Because unless the cup became unseated during case separation (which I highly doubt), then the shaft did not adequately hold the cup in place, and may have caused the damage to the bearing cone. If this is the case, then I should be concerned about it happening again- especially since the car has under 50,000 miles on it and was never tracked. Besides, the mainshaft's Bearing race IS held in by a ringclip, even though the mainshaft should hold it in place as well.

 

I just replaced the reverse fork on mine and the bearing race slipped out like yours. It was not a problem as it pushes back in place on reassembly. The bearing is probably fine as long as all the rollers are in the cage with no pitting on the rollers. It all looks just like mine did.