"Honey, have you seen my transmission?"

Stymied, stonewalled, and snookered.   Or perhaps I just had to throw my monkey wrench at the pigeon hole.  Nevertheless, it all added up to nothing.  Zilch, zip and zeroed out...again.  The front axle has been never-ending.  Twice, now, I have neglected to notice some key parts that needed to be replaced, so I halted my moving forward at a snail's pace progress to procure these necessary parts.  This time, I knew about the two outer axle shaft oil seals...but flat out forgot to order them.  And, of course, I cannot assemble ANYTHING until I get them in place.  Replacements are in transit now.  The other miserable part is that these seals were eventually upgraded to bushings (to stop oil/grease migration AND offer support to the axle shafts), but I cannot find a source that has these bushings in stock.  Oddly enough, this is happening with several smaller jeep parts.  Time to start buying all of the pork barrels. 

I began the weekend thinking I could feasibly get that front axle assembled.  When I realized THAT wasn't going to happen, I wanted to justify the shipping for my online order to my "jeep parts guy", so I inventoried my disassembled (correct) T84 transmission.  I've decided that the transmission will be the next part of this puzzle after the axles have been installed.  This jeep was originally purchased with a very usable T90 postwar transmission.  I found, along my merry way, a good AND correct T84 model so I can bring it closer to its WWII configuration.  Luckily, it arrived to my doorstep disassembled and mostly clean.  The downside is that it was disassembled and there are lots of small, intricate pieces...that may or not be there...and IF they are there, they may or may not be within specified usable tolerances.  So, before I bought those two damned axles oil seals (for a whopping $3.00 a piece), I would inventory the transmission and order whatever replacement parts are necessary.

Step One:  Locate the box with transmission parts.

It was under my nose.  Lower, right corner of this picture. 
See the white box below the frame and to the right of the engine block holding all of my rags?  Yep, there it is!

He said, "HONEY, HAVE YOU SEEN MY TRANSMISSION???"

She said, "REALLY BO, REALLY...YOU LOST A TRANSMISSION!?!?"

Ahhh, there she is!  Thought I had lost it for approximately six minutes while I rummaged through the garage of goodies.   I did find lots of little treasures along the way.

After finding it, I removed the bags of parts one at a time and with my trusty old Technical Manual SNL G-503 exploded parts view (FIGURE 07-1 TRANSMISSION ASSEMBLY), I began sorting my way through this oily mess.  Most everything was there and a few parts were outside of the range of acceptable specs.  Two major gears were unusable, but fortunately I already had a replacement for one of them.

Tagged and bagged.  I now know what the hell I'm looking at. 
Its been a few years since I was elbow deep in one of these.

Arrows indicate three chipped teeth on the cluster countershaft gear and one chipped tooth on second gear.  I had a replacement second gear in my own stock; had to order the cluster gear, though.

This transmission was made by Ford.  The housing looks to have been made by Frank Foundry and casted on 11-22-1944.  The date code stamped onto the housing appears to read that this transmission was assembled on 12-14-1944.

14=14th day of Month, 44=1944  The "M" will reference the month.  However, there isn't a 13th month (at least according to my fingers and toes) so I am guessing it is December and a letter was omitted somewhere along the way.  This at least goes with the November casting marks.  If my theory is wrong, please feel free to respond.

Bend your head sideways and notice the triangle by the circle.  The triangle indicates the housing was made by Frank Foundry (a 1944 supplier).  Also, prominently displayed, is the Ford GPW marks.  The rectangle below the circle has the casting date of 11-22.  NOTE:  the nail punch (lower right) is sitting in a cavity that holds a spring and steel ball.  The ball is being stubborn so I am soaking it in penetrating oil...it can blow at any time!
 Maybe the punch will stop me from losing the ball

So, lets recap...The jeep has a Willys tub, frame and lots of small Willys parts.  Both axles and tranmission are Ford.  I have a Ford transfer case sitting in the shed that I will most likely mate up with this transmission.  Now, I'm leaning towards dropping my '42 Ford engine in this jeep.  And in conclusion, with all of these massive Ford parts, this jeep might be parked just beyond Stacy's horizon!  (you might have to wait for jeep #2!)