Any "Road Ranger" experts on older transmissions here?

[1693TA]

I have an older RTO-12513 trans which has a bad auxiliary section and is noisy as they all were. It is only noisy in the low range and very quiet in the high range. The splitter section and operation is quiet also. I had rebuilt this transmission myself in 1993, installed it into a truck I had and ran it just a few miles before the auxiliary section starting getting loud. I pulled it back out and installed a fresh RTO-14613 into the truck and set this transmission on a storage cart where it still resides after pulling the auxiliary section apart for a look. It needs a gearing change is the long and short.

I've heard these transmissions were "upgraded" to use the RTO-14613 auxiliary sections which with the drive gear changed is a slip fit. However looking at both service and parts manuals, they, (both transmissions) appear to use the same back case. The RTO-14613 transmissions were available with both tapered, and straight roller bearings and parts are readily available for everything no matter which way one was going. It appears the RTO-12513 only used the straight roller bearings.

All that said, is there anyone here whom has actually built an RTO-14613 from an original RTO-12513? As mentioned all parts are available and they appear to use the same rear case so with the RTO-14613 gearset installed, it should go right together and make for a serviceable transmission. My 1980 R model Mack could use a clutch job so am tempted to try this as it's RTO-12513 transmission does have the characteristic "whine" these transmissions were well known for.

Thanks,

 

[JPV]

Hopefully Truck Shop sees this, I have no idea but your theory sure sounds good!

 

[1693TA]

Thanks for your response. I did spend a few moments on the phone talking with a gent at Eaton/Fuller yesterday after originally posting this thread and it is a go. There is an additional shim pack, (since discontinued) which may or may not have been needed to counteract for thrust wear in the original end housing when doing this conversion. Other than that it sounded like a very straight forward build and he was very much "in tune" with what I wanted to accomplish.

Eaton/Fuller no longer services these transmissions and formerly sold the conversion kits, rebuilt assemblies, and new assemblies to convert these to what I'm wanting to do. Nice folks too. Nothing wrong with my main gearbox and I'd put a couple new gears and sliding clutches into it when originally apart. Everything in it still looks very nice, but I never touched the auxiliary originally which became a problem later when in service.

Thanks,

 

[1693TA]

All needed parts ordered.