So yesterday I find a place on the internet where I can buy a rebuilt transmission for my jeep, no core exchange, no hassels, and delivered to my door for just under $600. I'm super excited about this because I have a bad feeling about the condition of the transmission, and had anticipated a full rebuild, which with all the parts, seals, gaskets etc would come out to about $400 if I did it all myself....which I have never done....and would probably fuck up if I tried, maybe. Probably.

In any case, I now knew where my next tranny was coming from, so I figured it would be no big deal to pop the top off of my current tranny and have a look see in there to check out how it all worked. Out comes the socket wrench....twist....twist....bolts not budging. So I get the blow torch and start heating the bolts up to loosen them. I heated the 6 bolts that held the shift cover on, and went to play catch with the boy while they cooled down. When I return to my cooled bolts, I apply some pressure to the socket....it budges....and then rips off! Dammit! Good thing this is going in the trash. The next bolt, a bit more careful, slight twist....and....snap!! Dammit!!!!!!!

At this point, I'm looking to the future and imagining that I have quite the project on my hands, and that many of the bolts are going to do this too me. It's disheartening. I bend over to remove the 3rd bolt, apply the socket, begin to twist.....pause....think for a second...realize that I have the socket set to TIGHTEN....and just stood there shaking my head. I was tightening the damned things instead of loosening them, no wonder they were snapping off. Fuck. Lets all reflect for a moment back to the point where I doubted my ability to rebuild a transmission, and realize that this is going to be a loooong road for a guy like me.

Tranny Swamp Once corrected, the remaining bolts came out without any problems. I lifted the cover off expecting to see some greasy gears, maybe some metal chips in the gears, and maybe something a bit out of whack with the shifter mechanism because I could never seem to get the thing to shift. What I ended up seeing was a pile of rusty gears, no oil at all, and about 3 inches of swamp water sitting in the bottom of the rust coated case. Oh Hell! Starting to fear that this thing was under water or something. Starting to fear that my axles might be looking the same way inside. Starting to fear that I might need a new transfer case as well. Wondering if anything but the frame on this hulk is going to be reused.