I looked and found no locking key to hold the spacer to 4th gear in my 77 FX tranny. Do all ratchet tops 4 speeds require this little key to synchronize the spacer rotation with the sprocket shaft?

also, my C/S endplay is about .030...wondering how difficult it is to pull the C/S and replace the thrust washer

 

the small key is not needed the high torque on the nut against the seal spacer wont let the two move unless the nut backs off and comes loose

in the days before the small seal was inside the 4 th gear end - the bushing came all the way to the end - that key has a play - its a left over from the 1930s / 1940s dont worry about it - the new spacers we see today no longer have the cut out for it --

you can on that trans if it is in deed a 1977 do it this way // turn the trans on end un do the kicker assembly on the M/S and unscrew the M/S bearing retainer for the C/S it has a cut out - than slide the shaft 1/3 the way out, the washer will be on top of the C/S tricky to get it out bent pick even 2 of them kind of thing its the size of a silver dollar the washer -

the inside will be all ground up next to the shaft measure the out side for a size / that is was and even then it might not have been right

shop note - as you start to remove check the end play yours .030 confirm that - than as you slide the washer 1/2 way out check it again ( your looking for the thick un worn part of the washer to be in the center of the gear ) check end play again - if it comes back to say .015 then you need a bigger washer maybe by .005 adding that to the washers out side thickness hope you get that - we in the shop must have 100 washers and a surface grinder so custom fitting an old trans is a thing we do - you will have to go to an indy that has an assortment and hope he is a real guy and helps you out with a correct washer or a few on the bed of the truck as you check it kind of thing at his shop --

if we were doing this my guess the case stay bushings are worn out and you can only shim from one side, so the entire transes adjustments may be way off to do it this way - if you get to that spot and find everything is coming up out of adjustment // it needs to be stripped to the screws to fix - just so you know whats up --johnjzjz

 

I'll try pulling the C/S out enough to pick out the washer but I think the rollers might fall out of the gear cluster. I agree that if the endplay is that severe, the tranny needs to be gone through. I'd like to ride this bike around the block a few times though and have not problem pulling the whole thing apart again.

I also custom grind thrust washers and bushings. Once I understand the 4 speed set up, I can set it up to take advantage of the design strengths and limit the design flaws.