348 uh oh loosened the wrong bolt

Okay first DO NOT FORCE IT!!!! Second don't drive the car until you get it tightend back up. I can't quite remember exactly what that nut is for? I can't remember if it holds a guide in place, or what? But it is on the side of the gear box that the syncros are on. So again, DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING THING!!!

Someone should have an exploded picture of the bottom of the tranny.

My gear box is at billybobs so I can go into the garage to look at it. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

I'll take a guess at this, but I haven't had my 348 transmission apart, so I'm only going by the drawings in the parts book. Since Ernie has his box apart (?) he may be able to confirm.

I think what you have loosened is bolt #3, which is the "rocker arm fastening screw" which holds item #1, the "fork rocker arm 4th and 5th gear" into the gearbox housing. It looks like nut #6 and washer #5 are threaded onto the top of bolt #3. But #6 is a nyloc nut and #5 isn't a tab washer, so you should NOT be able to actually screw the nut off all the way without having a wrench on it. And bolt #3 is shouldered, so the nut can only tighten down as far as that shoulder. O Ring #2 should prevent fluid loss from the transmission.

If it were my car, I wouldn't worry about it unless there is now noticeable up and down play on bolt #3, or fluid is leaking out past O ring #2.

Experts?

Edit: I see that Ernie has already responded. One other note: washer #5 isn't JUST a washer, it's a spacer. My parts book shows 11 different thicknesses for this piece. So it's important how much "free play" there is once everything is bolted together, and your bits may now be out of tolerance.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Ooooooooh. Now I remember.

You loosend a bad one. As I said before, my gear box is at billybobs so I'm not gonna be of much help. I don't remember if you you can hold the nut (#6) still by taking off the syncro cover, or if you have to remove the front cover plate off the tranny. If memory serves me correct, I think you can get to in by removing the snycro covers.

I wouldn't drive the car because you DO NOT want that nut or washer to wreek havoc in the tranny.

What sounds like is happening is that the bolt is hitting the bottom of the selector fork when you are trying to put it back in. That or the nut is just spinning as you are turning the bolt. You may have even cross threaded the bolt into the nut. So don't force anything.

Play with the bolt to see if it will move up and down. If it does, then your gonna have to open up the covers to properly tighten it down.

 

I have changed my gearbox oil many times and would never think to mess with that screw. Why on earth would you turn that one?

 

If you pay me $100 bucks I'll give you the answer...Just kidding. Don't panic you will be fine. The nut/bolt hold a bell crank for one of the shift rods. If freely spins and is nyloced in the case. It has a rubber washer that sticks w/ crap road grime and feels tight. You lossen it and you think you got something loose but really it just spins. You have to hold the nut on the inside of the case to get that bolt out. The worse you will do is get a small leak if the rubber is really old and gets damaged by turning it. So enjoy yourself it will be fine. FBB has spoken!

 

Aaaaah finally someone with a better explanation.

 

all hail the fat boy!

 

Thats right kick him when he is down.

 

If after FBB's superb 'inside story' advice you are still bothered and want to have another go have you tried applying some axial load downward whilst simultaneously trying to re torque.

Admittedly difficult to work a system but could be done, thinking out loud I'd poss try with grips across one way whilst open end spanner across flats, turn with spanner whilst pulling downward. Try and get near tight, then when/if it feels like the nyloc has set down well enough, remove all other tooling and do conventional socket to try and achieve required torque.