Ford t18 top cover rebuild?

I was forced to buy the top cover rebuild kit from novak for my t18. All i needed was the teflon guides for the forks but figured I might as well rebuild the top cover if i am getting the parts anyways. The whole kit came in with various springs, plugs, balls. On second thought, this looks extremely hard/frightening. I can't find any documentation on it anywhere nor any horror stories or delightful experiences. The top cover worked, though it did have a lot of side to side slop. Is this something that is easy enough to take apart and replace the parts or should I stay away from it? It looks like a horror show tho I could be wrong. I had no problem rebuilding the t18 itself. Anyone have experience with the top cover?

 

Typically they really don't wear out except for the late model tops with the aluminum forks and the guides wear out as you indicated. The side to side slop from the lever is probably one of a couple of things. The slots in the pivot in the stick are worn out, the pivot pin is worn, or the hole the pivot pin goes through in the top is worn.
The most common problem though is the reverse spring wears out/breaks. There is a spring loaded plunger that when you move over to reverse it compresses this spring. VERY common for it to be bad. In fact, I rarely rebuild a top (not necessary) but I put a new reverse spring in every top before it goes on a transmission. It's really not hard. you need to watch out when disassembling the piston (held in place with a "jesus" clip) that you don't lose that clip. No longer available. By the way, the spring is available from Ford new or from places like R&P. If you want to rebuild the whole top that's a good thing, but I think you'll probably find the only thing wrong is the reverse spring unless you have rust issues. Make sure the forks/rails are in the neutral position, remove one shift rail at a time, watch out for the detent springs and balls (they love to shoot across the shop, put a rag over the rail when moving it to help contain the ball) and install with the new spring and ball, then move on to the next rail. There are interlocks in between the rails as well so be careful to not let them fall out or you could accidently shift into two gears at once. I'll dig around tomorrow if I get a chance. I may have a diagram showing the parts. There typically won't be rebuild instructions as the tops don't typically get rebuilt, but there may be something out there.

 

just ordered this manual to use on my t18 rebuild... this is a very thorough manual. I got it on ebay from the gear box.

it does show the exploded diagram of the shifter components

 

What do I gotta do to get you to take a picture of the diagram?

 

let me take another look at the manual.. i can take pics of that section and post it here...

Took another look at the manual... 4 pages of diagrams for disassembly and the same for reassembly. Very thorough manual like I said.. let me know if you still need it after the holiday and maybe I can get photocopies of those pages.
Heres the ebay item no.360103646135 $15 is cheap enough and a good manual to have around.

 

$15? that sounds great. I think I am just going to put it in for now. I changed the teflon guides, and took the sifter out, peened the groove over a little bit, replaced the pin...and seemed to have cured the side to side slop.

 

that kind of manual should be included in all rebuild kits!