Now you can very carefully tap or press these out, then you should be able to split the plates
In the top housing is still the side to slide selector shaft along with its attached arm. This can be removed by rotating it and knocking out the spring pin, once that is removed it can all slide apart and you should be left with everything like this
So in the top housing there are 3 bearings and 2 seals. There is a seal and beneath it a bearing to support the main shaft, then a seal and two bearings to support the side to side selector shaft. The main shaft seal and bearing are easy to get out, the side selector shaft front seal and bearing are also on the easier side to get out. However the rear bearing is a blind bearing and is rather small so a lot of puller tools were unable to get to it. The way I was able to get this out was by breaking the inner cage and then using a cheap harbor fright slide hammer along with some heat to get it to finally come out.
All the bearings and seals in here were from INA
You can find replacements for everything except the linear bearings that hold the plates together.
I looked for similar linear bearings with the dimensions but unfortunately my results turned up nothing.
I reached out to INA to try and inquire about a replacement but they deflected me to “The OEM”. If i had kept prying maybe I could have found more info and maybe a replacement but my bearings where fine. The bearings that had play in my M66 were main just the two smaller bearings on the side to side selector shaft.
So bearings & seals needed:
Main Shaft:
1X INA G20-26-4
1X INA HK2016 (bearing pressed in top housing)
1X INA BK2016 (bottom bearing pressed in trans casing)
2X F-237561 (Unavailable linear bearing)
Side Selector Shaft:
1X INA G12-18-3
2X INA HK1212
I ended up ordering the bearings and seals of McMaster-Carr, the bearings I received were INA. However with the seal, the INA ones are mostly just soft rubber seals but I made the mistake and ordered a hardened plastic “Grease” style which made them a pain to press in so I also recommend going with OEM INA seals and ordering them from else where. McMaster also does not have the cup bearing BK2016 so I had to source that from I believe it was amazon.
McMaster-Carr part #
1X 5905K77
2X 5905K74
As for the pin I was looking to replace, i was unable to get it out and spent a decent amount of time on it. There is a through hole into where the linear bearing sits so it could be pressed out either way but god damn that sucker did not want to budge. It has only happened to a few cases that I am aware of so I will cross that bridge if I get there, or it I happen to stumble upon an M66 at a junkyard I can take that shift mechanism and work on that. I gave the top housing a nice coat of engine block paint and threw the new bearings and seals in carefully. I unfortunately didn’t get any photos of me throwing it back together but it is the same as disassembly but in reverse.
I did manage to clear up a decent amount of play in the side selector shaft with those new bearings so I am happy.
The springs that are inside the assembly are what appear to set the “return to center”. So my theory if you wanted to increase the effort you could install additional/stronger springs. There are two detents on the M66, one mounted on the trans casing side which rides on the “lower gear selector” and acts like a detent cam and gives you that “notch” going froward or back into gear. The top detent pushes down which also contributes you putting in a little extra effort to get into the 5th/6th/reverse gates.
Now this is a P1 M66, I don’t think there would be any difference for a P2 mechanism apart from the top selector arm but I can not 100% say. So maybe all these bearings should work with other variants but cannot confirm.
Also this document from when Volvo released the R model helped me out a lot..
I’m probably missing a few steps but they’ll come to me and I can come back and edit
The actual gear stacks I have started to take apart slowly but that project is on hold for a little bit until I get my subframe project underway and I get some garage space back to work with