214 Skier

I know the age old debate of LS vs SBC power goes on and on, for a variety of reasons I decided that I wanted to build a LSx for my Skier resto-mod project. What I'm hoping to cover in this thread is the build of the motor and the parts that are needed to bolt it up to a Velvet Drive, then how to install the set-up into an '84 Skier. To my knowledge this hasn't been done, so bear with me, I'll be figuring stuff out as I go. Tons of LSx swap info as far as cars go, in my mind I have it all figured out, but time will tel. I'm not gonna go into too much detail about actually building the motor, there are tons of books on LSx motors out there, but I know everybody loves a good motor build thread so I'll include a bunch of pics etc along the way. So the jist of it is I've got a 6.0L LQ4 (cast Iron) short block that has been bored and stroked out to a 408 or 6.7L. The rotating assembly is forged with ARP main studs and rod bolts, and Manley dished pistons with offset pins. This forged bottom end with the cast iron block is pretty much bomb proof, and easily capable of handling some forced induction at some point. There is a slight weight penalty with the cast iron block, 75 lbs I think, but I chose to use one for a few reasons, cost and strength being the two major ones. The LSx engines are awesome, you can go all the way from a 4.8L to a 7.0L (from the factory) in the same basic platform, they are extremely strong, have an unbelievable aftermarket, and the power to weight to size to cost ratio's are unbeatable. That being said I've be slowly acquiring parts over the past year or so to build this engine and I've finally got basically everything I need. I didn't build the short block, I was able to buy one built for me for basically the same price as I would have paid to buy the parts plus a few hundred bucks. I would have liked to do it, but the amount of time it takes to do it properly is too much for me at this point with family and work. The cast iron or LQ4/9 blocks dont have a provision for a timing chain damper, which I wanted. Trickflow makes an adapter bracket that bolts on to the cam retainer plate that allows you to attach as LS2 style damper, which is what I did. I used a Cloyes Hex-adjust timing set, I've had good luck with them in the past. The LS motors have thrust bearings in the front behind the timing gear to locate the cam. LQ4/9 blocks originally had a 24x crank trigger and cam trigger on the cam at the back of the block, I'm running a 58x crank and the cam sensor will be on the front cover like LS3's etc. I spent alot of time researching LS engine combos etc. Martin Smallwood at Tick Performance is a real cam guru. We talked for about 45 minutes on the phone and emailed back and forth a bunch. We came up with a top end setup and he designed a custom cam that will work for the power band I'm looking for. The cam specs out at 231/239 .631/.610 113+3. It was ground by Comp Cams. I tapped and plugged what used to be the cam sensor hole at the back of the cam, the hole doesn't need to be drilled I just ran a 1/2" npt tap and plugged it. The heads I got my hands on after much deliberation are some LS3 821 castings that have been cnc ported by Advanced Induction, there is obviously way more to it that just the numbers but these flow over 350 cfm intake and 220 cfm exhaust at 650 lift. Given the port volume they will be giving up some on the bottom end but should more than make up for that once they get flowing. You can see the porting work in these pics along with the work in the combustion chamber. The heads were milled once complete to 68cc chambers which is basically what a stock LS3 head measures in at. So once the heads were all ready to go I started with the measuring, the pistons ended up being around 0.009 out of the hole. I was looking to try to get around 0.030 of clearance and at the same time boost the compression ratio a bit with the thickness of the head gasket. I ended up going with a set of MLS Fel-pro's with a compressed thickness of 0.041 compared to the stock 0.051, which shrunk the compressed volume by 2.6cc getting me my 10.2:1. I then mocked everything up with light checking springs and checked piston to valve, which I wasn't expecting to be a problem given the cam specs and piston style but better safe then sorry. I'm running Brian Tooley Racing dual springs with titanium retainers, they are good to 0.660 lift. I like the insurance of duals over single beehive or otherwise, simply because of the cheap insurance should one let go. The lifters need to go in next, I got a set of LS7 lifters (really just the new style LS lifter) in LS motors the lifters are all roller lifters and they are held in place with lifter trays. I chose to drill some holes in the trays to aid in oil drain back. Given the sustained high RPM operation it is obviously better to have more oil in the pan as opposed to just sitting in the trays. Once all the checking was done, on went the heads for the final time, torqued the ARP bolts and there she sits. I measured for the pushrods and ordered a set of 11/32 0.120 wall rods with oil restrictors in them from Manton today, waiting on those to move ahead. The stockers are smaller and thinner wall, the extra weight does not really matter on the cam side of the valve train, stability is whats important here. The weight, or lack of it, on the valve side is what counts . So more progress, got the oil pump on, on LS motors they are driven off the crank. To put them on properly is a bit finicky using feeler gauges on the pump drive and gears to get the spacing right then snugging up the bolts. After the pump was on I put on the windage tray, which I had to shim up to get clearance for the stroker crank and rod bolts, I ended up using two washers on each stud. Then then oil pump pick-up tube went on. I measured the clearance which turned out to be just over an inch, way higher then I expected but after some research I found out that the Hummer H3 pan, which is what I'm using is supposed to have that much clearance compared to the usual 3/8" or so. I got the pushrods made by Manton, they are 11/32" rods with 0.120 wall, so nice and stiff, and given the sustained high rpm they put 0.040 restrictors in them so the motor doesn't pump too much oil up to the top of the engine. That's why the rods have the red marking on them. Below in that pick is the rocker stands. The LS3 heads use offset intake rocker arms to clear the larger intake ports compared to the cathedral port design. The exhaust rockers are the same as other LS motors except for LS7. The factory are nice steel pieces, very strong yet with a light tip weight. The only weakness on the factory rockers is the needle bearings, the needles aren't retained and there are cases when the bearings fail spilling small needles out into the engine. There are a few companies such as Comp Cams and Brian Tooley Racing that make upgraded trunion kits for the rockers with retained bearings and stronger shafts. So I got some Brain Tooley Racing rockers which are Cryogenically treated and micro polished with the upgraded trunions. I installed the pushrods, rockers, rear cover, front cover and valley cover. I got an aftermarket valley cover. The older LS motors use knock sensors in the valley of the engine, which I what my block would have originally used, you can see the two bosses for them in the earlier pictures, but since I'm running my electronics based on the 58x crank and forward cam sensor the knock sensors are different and located on the outside of the block. And there she sits for now, just gotta weld some bungs onto the valve covers for the PCV system, tap and plug some holes in the water pump, port match the intake manifold and I think she is pretty close to being all buttoned up. I've got the water pump mounted, I'm using a LS1 pump from a Camaro, most common engine accessory drive system spacing. I tapped and plugged the heater core inlet/outlet holes using 1/2 npt and 3/8 npt plugs. The Alternator is on, using a billet alternator mount was the easiest way to put the F body alternator onto the cast iron block. Only kind of issue I ran into was I had to drill and tap a hole in the block for the upper alternator mount bolt. All this stuff is available off of e-bay. I got a billet manual belt tensioner too, also e-bay, with F-body spacing, the LS tensioners mount to the water pump housing. Nothing too crazy going on with the accessory drive, I'm trying to figure out what to do for the raw water pump drive right now, I'd like to reuse my old one and make brackets for it, but haven't had a chance to mock it up yet. I've installed the motor mount plate adaptors, they simply convert the LS style four bolt pattern to the SBC style three bolt pattern. Because the boat originally had a Ford in in, I've had to order the engine side of the font mounts for the SBC bolt pattern form SKIDIM. They should bolt onto the adapter plates already on the motor now. Nothing special with the harmonic damper, just an F-body one, I really wanted to spring for a ATI of Fluidampr but just can't swing the money right now, hard to beat $70 for a stock GM one, at least to get me up and running. Waiting on some more parts, but I'm very close to mating the engine and transmission together on a stand. Been waiting on some parts and having a hard time finding time to work on the boat, parts are in though. I already talked about the adapter brackets from LS to SBC mount pattern, I ordered SBC engine mounts from SKIDIM, they bolted right up. Only thing I changed was I drilled out the tapped holes in the adapters and put 3/8" bolts in instead, there is just enough space for the head of the bolt. I ran into a problem with the bottom hole as it is blocked by the design of the mount so I have to find some 10 x 1.5 threaded rod to put into the block before the mount itself goes on. I was trying to come up with a way to attach a drain line to the oil pan to make oil changes easier. I couldn't find an adapter to go from the GM oil pan plug thread to 8an, its and oddball thread, so I took the pan off and drilled and tapped the drain hole with 3/8"npt and threaded in a 3/8"npt to 8an 90* adapter. I added about a couple of feet of hose with a female end installed, I'll be plugging that, then can easily add an extension for draining. All the threads on these LS motors are metric, so its a bit of a hassle to fit your typical 1/8"npt guage senders to the head and block for oil pressure and engine temp. I got two adapters off of eBay for cheap in a LS conversion set that convert the metric threads in both the head and block to 1/8"npt. The oil pressure pickup is on the back top portion of the block and the coolant temp sensor is on the cylinder head, the one for the ECU is front right, so I added my gauge sender to the rear left. So one of the issues is adapting the LS motor to the Velvet Drive. I haven't been able to find any info abou this so I'm flying blind on this part. I know that the old SBC bell housing will bolt up to the LS block so no problem there. The rear crank spacing on LS motors is 0.4" different then the SBC, however you can get conversion kits to mate LS motors to old GM trannies. The best, or what I think is the best solution was to get a Sachs 1050 flywheel, these flywheels bolt to LS motors however the way they are designed they take up the extra 0.4" spacing difference to in effect move the mating surface to the same position as found in the old SBC. The flywheel looks normal from the front, just really thick, but the back has a recess cast into it so its not that heavy. Once I had the flywheel I measured the mounting bolt pattern where the damper plate would be mounted too. From my Velvet Drive rebuild experience I know that both the 71 and 72 series Velvet Drives use the same size splined input shafts. So I went ahead and ordered a BBC damper plate with 8 springs in it as opposed to the 5 that the SBC plates have, it bolts right up real nice. In my mind this will all work perfectly, when I mate the trans to the bell housing...I guess we'll see. One of the things that I wanted to improve on was the factory PCV system, LS intake manifolds tend to ingest oil through the PCV system which leads to its own problems. So I'm adding two catch cans, one for the clean side and one for the dirty. I'll be plumbing the system with 10an lines to keep the air velocity low and using a fixed orifice style PCV "valve". I welded 10an bungs onto both the drivers and passenger side valve covers, the lines will run from the drivers side to the dirty catch can and then from that catch can to the back of the intake manifold where I am tapping a 3/8"npt port. I will add a 10an adapter to this port. I will tap the inside of this 3/8"npt adapter and thread in a plug with a hole in it, and bingo...fixed orifice PCV. The clean side with go from the air filter to the catch can and then from the catch can to the passenger side valve cover. Under normal conditions clean air will be sucked through this part of the system into the crankcase. However under heavy load, the blow by may, or will most likely, exceed the flow capacity of the dirty side, in this case there will be blow by flowing out what would normally be the intake or clean side, hence the two catch cans. There will potentially be also be a slight vacuum on the intake side as the air filter will cause a slight restriction under high air flow which will help suck out the extra blow by. The cans will be mounted side by side on the front of the cylinder head. I've got the transmission mounted up now, and I rebuilt all the mounts, the engine and trans are now sitting on a cradle on a dolly. Everything worked out just like I hoped with the flywheel and damper plate, the spline engagement on the input shaft to the VD is bang on. I gave everything a coat of paint before and after bolting it on to try to slow down any rusting of parts. The Bellhousing bolted right on, there is one bolt hole that doesn't line up but there are still 5 bolts holding it on. I checked to make sure the bellhousing was centred with in spec using a magnet base dial indicator mounted on the crank, it came out to a total of 0.010" total , but half that, and it's 0.005" which is fine. Next I started tackling the raw water pump, I was hoping to be able to re-use the one that I had from the Ford, it's a Sherwood G-21 a pretty common pump from what I can tell. I took it apart and ordered a complete rebuild kit with new bearings etc etc, after I realized it would fit. I took the mount off the Ford and just started looking for a place to mount it, as it turns out there is a mounting pad for where what I think was the A/C compressor on the side of the engine, and using the top hole of the pump bracket allows the pump to line up nicely with the 4 groove A/C pulley. I could hardly believe it. All I had to do was get a piece of 1/4 plate and drill three holes in it, two for the 10x1.5 bolts that go into the block and another for a 3/8" bolt that just pinches the mount to the plate. I painted it all up and bolted it on, seems pretty sturdy. I'll be able to use the 4 groove pulley on the damper and ordered a power steering pulley I'll put on the pump shaft. Just some pics of the bracket. The last thing I need to do to the intake before bolting it back on was to tap a 3/8" npt hole in the back of it where an existing vacuum hose barb was, I then got a 3/8" npt to 10an adaptor and drilled out the centre of it from the backside about halfway through the fitting. I then tapped this hole with a 1/4" npt tap and plugged the hole with a 1/4" npt brass plug. In this plug I drilled a 0.1065" hole, this hole is what will control the flow of the crank case ventilation, basically a controlled vacuum leak. Last night I had some time to get some more work done. I got the intake manifold bolted on for the final time and the steam vent plumbing run. The LS motors have the provision for steam vents in the cylinder heads, one at the front and one at the rear. From my understanding in the early years GM used all four from the factory, this changed to the two front ones in later years. There is much controversy over these steam vents over on the LS forums, the reason they are there is to.....surprise, vent the steam that could accumulate in the high portion of the coolant paths in the heads. After doing all my research I decided to use all four and route them into the low pressure side of the water pump, the road race guys seem to like to do it this way. When I was dealing with the heads prior to install I drilled and tapped each existing hole in the cylinder heads 1/8"npt and adapted it to 4an. To build the system I got a nitrous distribution block 4 to 1 and mocked that up on the top of the intake. Then ran lines from all four corners to the block. I had previously tapped and installed an adapter in the water pump too. So, when running the lower pressure on the suction side of the water pump will draw coolant from the cylinder head passages into the water pump, this will help eliminate any hot spots in the cylinder heads, and if any steam pockets develop this should pull them out. There are a few places that sell kits for this but I didn't really like any of them for the price. I know the plumbing is floating around right now but I will clean it up once I get the cover plate for the intake made. So I got my new marine alternator in, it's a 7si serries. I decided to take it apart to see how they do the ignition suppression. The only place that sparks are created is between the brushes and the rotor. In the 7si the brushes and rings are contained in a housing, the housing has a orange rubber seal on it, that's it, nothing else. So I took the cover off the back of my cs130-d and the plastic housing around the brushes and rings is pretty much identical. So, I'm gonna take that little orange ignition suppressor and install it on my cs130-d and bingo...I'll save the 7si for another project. Pics to follow. The manifolds are from a PCM, ZR 409, SKIDIM had them at the best price, not the best flowing, but real nice headers/manifolds are out of my price range for now. I know I will be taking a hit in the power department with these, but its all I can afford for now so it'll have to do, maybe upgrade in a few years to some nice Hi-tek one's. I'll have to modify one of the risers for an O2 sensor, but not a big deal. More stuff to follow.

I'm hoping this thread will cover off two or maybe three things; 1: How to rebuild a Velvet Drive 71c 2: One way to increase the torque capacity of a Velvet Drive 71c 3: Maybe help those who are having issues with their Velvet Drive diagnose the issue. Before I get started, a bit of background. I'm in the process of building a new engine for my old Skier, the torque output of this new engine will be far higher then the original Ford 351 that was in the boat. I'm sure some of you are thinking why doesn't he just buy a 72C and slap it in there? I have a few reasons why I don't want to do that. Size and weight, the 72c is approximately 1" longer and 10 lbs heavier then a 71c the weight isn't a huge deal but its something, the extra length just makes the packaging a bit of a tight fit between the coupler and the packing nut. Secondly the cost of a new 72c tranny either re-built or new is pretty expensive, and I wouldn't really know what I'm getting if it was used. There are some other small differences between the 71c and 72c but the main one is that the 72c has a forward clutch pack with more plates in it. There isn't a whole lot of good information online about these trannies as far as modifying them. There are a few companies down in Florida such as BAM marine that sell really stout Velvet Drives that the Off Shore boats use they sell modified Velvet Drives but they don't really sell the parts to do it yourself, only the final product. The typical modification that they do (my simplified interpretation) is increasing the number of clutch plates in the forward clutch and replacing the paper or bronze friction plates with graphite which increases the torque capacity. There's obviously way more to a tranny that can handle 1500 ft lbs, but you get my drift. I found a place called Stern Drive Connection located in Ontario, Canada, which is good for me, that sells some parts. I spoke with them over the phone for a while they, were really helpful, and were willing to help me out with parts. So, Velvet Drives can have either paper or bronze friction plates from the factory, I don't know for sure, but I assume as the torque ratings don't change both the bronze and paper plates provide the same amount of capacity from the factory. One advantage to the bronze plates vs paper or graphite for that matter, in single engine boats, is that if the tranny starts slipping and it has bronze plates, the heat will cause the plates to warp and while the forward clutch will effectively be locked, at least you will have forward drive and wont get stranded. The graphite plates have the highest co-efficient of friction of any of the plates, but like the paper plates, if they slip and get burnt or worn out you will loose forward drive. Given all this I wanted to continue using bronze plates if I could. More to follow. So before I decided to do this thread I had already taken the tranny to bits and cleaned it all up, so to kinda back up to the start I just mocked it up so I could take pics of the disassembly process, don't pay a ton of attention to all the bolts and snap rings missing in the pics, I'll do my best to explain it along the way. The only slightly unusual tool I needed along the way was an 1-1/2" socket, my sets only whet up to 36mm and 1-1/4", everything else is just basic tools. I should also say I couldn't be bothered to look up exactly what Velvet Drive calls each part, so I'm just kinda making my own educated names up as I go. I found it easy to just stand the tranny up on the drive flange, it seemed pretty stable this way. Drain all the fluid first by removing the return line from the cooler that feeds into the "pan" of the trans. The transmission is capable of accepting input in either direction, it all depends on how the pump is installed, so make sure you mark the pump so that it goes back in the right way, I just used a chisel and make two marks. Once you remove the four bolts that hold the pump on mark the gears, it's always best to put the gears back in the same spot as they lap themselves over time. Once you get the pump off the reverse clutch cylinder/front plate is next to come off, its held on by four 12pt bolts, the studs that hold the trans to the bell housing help too. Once you pop the reverse clutch cylinder / front plate off flip it upside down and using air pressure applied to the cylinder pop the piston out, you shouldn't need a ton of pressure, just apply it gently and put your free hand on top to provide some resistance. You can now see the reverse clutch frictions and steels, there are several springs which keep the clutch disengaged and three pins that stop the steels from spinning. You can see in the pic some of the springs, there are 12 of them and one of the three locator pins that sit in grooves machined in the case. You can see the 12 springs and three pins in place here, there are corresponding dimples and notches in the middle and top steel plates. The two friction plates engage on the forward clutch drum. You can see the dimples and notches in the top steel and the notches in the middle steel. There is this pesky little thrust washer, or maybe bushing that needs to go on the top of the forward clutch drum, I forgot it when I was initially mocking it up for the pics. Once all that reverse stuff is removed just pull the forward clutch assembly out of the tranny, easy peasy lemon squeezy. So once that forward clutch assembly is out you can see the sun gears attached to the carrier and a bushing sitting there. Thats all we can do from the front of the tranny, gotta flip it over now and start from the other end. The drive flange nut is a 1-1/2" nut, and its freaking tight, so your gonna need an impact to get it off. Then its just a question of taking off the six bolts that hold the rear bearing retainer in place and popping that off. I then just used my favourite Snap-On plastic dead blow hammer and knocked the out-put shaft out of the bearing. The rear bearing then just popped out of the case. The drive assembly is now out of the case. Now we just need to finish taking out all the parts still in the case, which isn't really much. That piece of nylon in there is a shield of some sorts that keeps the fluid in the bottom of the case separate from the gears, I'm assuming they don't want it getting all frothed up by the spiny bits. It just pops out. The tube that runs across the bottom of the trans is the pick-up / return tube. The tube at the front of the pic that has the screen on it goes to the inlet side of the pump. There is a tube inside of that tube that gets threaded in from the rear of the case that is the return from the cooler. These tubes are important, especially if your running heavy ballast and the boat is running nose up, with out them the pump can get starved of oil, the pressure will drop, and your clutches will slip. Not all Velvet Drives come with these tubes. To get those tubes out just unscrew the big nut on the back of the case, I think they are using a 45* fitting on this cooler set-up, I'm gonna be changing all the plumbing to standard AN stuff with -8 line. Once the tubes are out thats almost it for the case, just the valve left. The first thing to come off to take the valve out is the selector lever, super simple, just one nut, then the lever pops off, it is indexed by a "D" shaped cut out. Once you take the nut off, the selector lever should just wiggle off, be careful though as there is a spring loaded ball behind it that engages detents in the selector lever for forward, neutral and reverse. The neutral safety switch threads through the back of the the valve retainer plate and interacts with a disc with detents in it that sits on the back of the valve and rotates with it as the selector lever is moved. With the cover removed you can see the disc with the dimples, and then the tooth on the disc that engages the selector valve. The selector valve just pops out of its bore with a light tap. Inside the valve is the pressure regulator, as best I can figure the oil goes from the pump to the selector valve, then through the valve to whichever hydraulic circuit is selected, the oil that is not needed to apply the clutch is diverted by the pressure regulator through the fluid cooler and then back into the bottom of the case. To disassemble the valve I just used my drill press to put a bit of pressure on the spring retainer plate then used a screw driver to fenangle the snap ring out and it all came apart. The inside just consists of a piston and a spring. The case is bare now, there are two pressure test plugs, remove those and your good to start cleaning everything. I'll get to the disassembly of the forward clutch in the next few days. So now that the forward clutch assembly and input shaft are out of the case we gotta take apart this part. There are two snap rings that hold the front bearing on the shaft and the shaft in the whole assembly. Remove the top one and the shaft can be pressed or knocked out of the drum, then remove the larger one and the bearing can be removed from the forward clutch cylinder. Then there is a large snap ring that holds the forward clutch cylinder in the forward clutch drum, this pops out pretty easy. If you flip the drum over you can see the bottom steal plate sitting right where the screw driver is pointing. In some trannies there will be a snap ring there, this snap ring is available in different thicknesses and is what is used to adjust the free play in the forward clutch. My tranny does not have this part. Once the snap ring on top of the forward clutch cylinder is out you can the push the cylinder out of the drum using a press or a little bit of persuasion. Once it pops out you will see the forward clutch piston and the piston return spring, the conical piece of metal. There are three holes on the inside of the forward clutch cylinder, this is where the fluid comes in to apply the clutch, just use two fingers to cover two of the holes and use compressed air just like you did for the reverse clutch to pop the piston out of the cylinder. Now if you look into the top of the drum down at the clutch pack you will see another snap ring, it is there to hold the cylinder in place, between this ring and the top one that you already removed. They are slightly different sizes, the bigger one goes on top, the thicknesses are different so It'd be hard to screw up where they went. Just pull all the guts out of the drum, you'll have two thick steel plates, one for the top, one for the bottom, the one with the kinda ridge on it goes on the top, while the one with the recessed portion goes on the bottom. The recess allows clearance for the planet carrier. Thats it the whole trans is now blown apart, clean everything really well, check the bearings, look for unusual wear on any surfaces. The clutch surfaces should be shinny with no signs of bluing or heat checking, the friction plates should look like mine do. It should be fairly obvious if you have any damage to any of the clutch packs. Next I'll be getting into the modifications to add one more friction plate, and installing a larger forward clutch piston for more clamping force. I've finally got it all back together, it went back together no problem. The seal kit is fairly simple, it comes with gaskets for v-drive and gear reduction transmissions too so there will be some extra bits if your just doing a direct drive. So first thing that needs to go in is the oil pickup/return tube, pretty simple, just slide the assembly in, making sure it is engaged in the hole that feeds the pump, a little teflon on the large nut should do her just fine. Then the plastic windage tray goes in next, just make sure its seated on the cast in nubs in the case. Next I replaced the four cast iron rings on the output shaft, be careful when sliding the rings over the output shaft, they are cast iron and brittle, don't expand them any more then you have to. Then place the rear out put shaft bearing in the back of the case with the groove in the outer race facing up. Once the rings are on and the bearing is in, use ATF and lube up the output shaft where the rings are, then slide it into the case being careful to be sure that the rings don't get snagged on the case and damaged. Then just put the rear bearing retainer on with a new gasket, the torque on the bolts is 50 ft-lbs. It's easier to pop the new seal in before you put the bearing retainer on. Once its in, you can put the output flange on with some grease on the splines. Torque the 1-1/2" nut to 200 ft lbs. Because of the machining that I had to do I started on the assembly of the shift valve. It is a pretty simple device, the fluid comes in the from the pump where the screw driver is, then gets routed to the clutch pack requested, with the remaining fluid being diverted through the cooler and then back to the sump. You can see the pressure regulator valve piston in the slot. Just lube up the piston, slide it in with the open end facing out, the spring goes in there, then the spring retainer goes in next, I used my drill press to compress the spring and put in the snap ring. Then install the rubber o-ring on the end of the valve, lube it up and tap it into the case. The next piece to go on is the neutral safety switch actuator disc, this disk has a tang on it that engages a grove in the valve and make the disc rotate with the valve. Then there are detents in the valve that actuate the safety switch. Once the disc in in place, put the new gasket in place and put the neutral safety switch cover on, its easier to put the cover on, then screw the switch in. Then install the pressure test port plug, 8mm allen. There's a pic of the stock forward clutch pack with five frictions and 4 steels. So I measured the stock pack of 4 steels at 0.277" and 5 frictions 0.306", which gives me a came a total clutch thickness of 0.583. Adding the one extra bronze friction gives me a total of 0.375" for the frictions, however with the thinner steels, now 5 of them, measuring 0.243" saving me 0.034", it's not looking too bad. Then mock up the forward clutch. Some transmissions will have a snap ring on the bottom, you can get this ring in different thicknesses to adjust the clearance in the clutch. Mine doesn't have this ring. So once its all in, then whole clutch assembled as it would be in the final trans measure the clearance. I was told to look for 0.025", which is slightly tighter then factory, the prop might drag a bit in neutral until everything seats itself. In my case I had to remove 0.010" to get my clearance to 0.025" So to get the extra 0.010" clearance I clamped the bottom plate in a lathe using the inside surface and took material off the ridge where the screwdriver is pointing, its hardly any material so won't effect the clearance between the other moving parts. Then I started on the cylinder, the original forward piston is 4.565" in diameter, with a 2.244" hole in the middle giving me a total of 12.41 sq inches. The new piston is 4.971" in diameter, same centre hole diameter so I end up with 15.5 sq inches, which is close to 25% more surface area, or 25% more clamping force. I machined the new bore of the cylinder to 4.986 giving me 0.015" clearance and polished it with some sandpaper. I basically just machined 0.25" or so off the bore of the cylinder. Then its just a question of putting the seals in, one o-ring for the centre, and an umbrella style seal for the outer, lubing it all up and sliding the new piston into the cylinder. That dark metal ring is where the release spring rides on that disengages the clutch. The clutch goes back together just like before. Put the snap ring in, below the cylinder, then the assembled cylinder with spring, the cup of the spring should be facing the piston. Then tap it all together and put the top snap ring in place, hopefully for the last time. Check the clearance one more time to make sure you've got it set up right. Now that the forward clutch is complete we can work on the input shaft. Just like on the output shaft you gotta replace the cast iron rings, this shaft only has two. Once their on, lube it up and slide it into the forward clutch, you will have to giggle it about to get all the little teeth on the friction disks to line up with the hub on the shaft, it'll be pretty obvious once its in all the way. Then put the bearing back, my just slid into place with a few light taps of a hammer, then the two snap rings that hold the shaft and bearing in place in the forward clutch drum. And then finally lube the bronze bushing and drop it in place one the planet carrier. Now just put a bit of lube on the gear set and drop the forward clutch assembly into the case, it will bottom out with a nice thunk. Next install the 12 little springs into the holes in the case and the three pins that lock the reverse clutch plates to the case. Then you can put on the top reverse clutch plate, it will only go on one way, the notch that doesn't interact with a pin goes to the top of the transmission. Once it's seated properly it should be sitting pretty darn close to flush with the top of the case. Now we can lube up the black plastic bushing and drop in place on the top of the forward clutch cylinder. Then add the seals to the reverse clutch piston, lube it up and gently wiggle it into the reverse clutch cylinder. I then used some ATF to wet the gasket surface to hold the gasket in place and put some ATF on the needle bearing that supports the input shaft and just dropped the reverse clutch cylinder in place on the top of the case. The reverse clutch cylinder is just held in place with four 12pt bolts at this point. When the trans is bolted to the bell housing some of those bolts hold the cylinder on too. Then we can install the rubber sealing ring for the pump, along with the woodruff key and drive gear for the pump. When your putting the gears back on the input shaft and into the pump housing make sure you put them in the same way they came out, they'll have already worn themselves in this way. Then install the input shaft seal on the outside of the pump housing, and lube the pump gear and drop it into the pump housing making sure once again that it is sitting in the pump the way it originally was. Now, just flip the pump assembly over, line up the mark that you made when you disassembled the pump, for the rotation direction, and drop the pump housing on. Be careful not to damage the seal on the input shaft as your sliding it over. Four bolts and your done.