When I rebuilt my three speed with about 120,000 miles on it, I was worried about the thrust washers. So I measured them and I measured the end play when assembled. The original ones were perfectly fine, so I reused them.
Good thing too, since they were kind of hard to find back then. Probably plenty around if you knew where to look for them, but I didn’t.
Regarding plastic, I feel a little odd about it too, putting them in a transmission. But the bronze thrust washers used in a factory original Dana axles, were transitioned to plastic all the way back in the 70s. At least by the late 70s, the aftermarket such as Moog and TRW were using plastic in their spindle kits.
So while it’s seemingly not as high stress environment as a transmission might be (or not?), they’ve been putting putting plastic in place of bronze for a long time.
Sounds like you found a nice score in the NOS ones. For those reading this in the future, I wonder if they’re the same as any jeep parts. Which seemed to be remanufactured more often than our Old Ford parts do. Even when they’re the same parts!
Speaking of which… The thrust washers in the Jeep transfer cases are the same ones as the Dana 20 and Broncos. I wonder if they’re all the same part as the transmission ones as well?
I feel like they are different, just from looking at your pictures. But it’s been at least 35 years since I have held them in my hand.
Be interesting to check though!
