Question of the day: What fell out of my tranny?

[jdubois]

I took the interior out of my Spit today in order to put a new carpet set in, and so I took the opportunity to bleed the clutch and change the oil in the gearbox. Well, when I drained the old oil out of the gearbox, this is what came with it:

Yeah, I know, bad news. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif The larger chunks are obviously bits of gear, and you can see some of a washer to the far right. But what exactly are those needles? Are those part of a layshaft bearing? And if one of the layshaft bearings has disintegrated, why the heck don't I notice anything really wrong with the gearbox when driving?

 

[Bugeye58]

EEEEWWWWW!!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/pukeface.gif
That is not a pleasant sight.
The needles <u>have</u> to be the remnants of the layshaft bearings. That's the only place they're used in the box.
I hope you've got a spare tranny!
Jeff

 

[jdubois]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

I hope you've got a spare tranny!

Nope. Guess I'll leave the new interior out for now, since it looks like I'm going to be dropping the tranny. Still confused as to why the gearbox felt ok with this much of the internals sitting on the bottom.

 

[Bugeye58]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

I can't figure that one out either. It should have sounded like dropping ball bearings into a blender!
If you get hung for a tranny and can't find one locally, I've got a non overdrive Spit box here that was in good shape the last I knew.
Jeff

 

[jdubois]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Thanks for the offer! I think I'll probably send this one down to Quantum Mechanics for a rebuild. Dang, that's four toy cars all out of commission now. Hopefully I'll get the F-car back from the shop this week, so I won't have to actually drive my daily driver /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[Bugeye58]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

And it's coming up on fall color tour season, too. Hard to see all that beauty with a roof over your head! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Jeff

 

[jdubois]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Hmm, interesting... Looking at the exploded view of the gearbox in the WSM, there aren't any needle bearings on the end of the layshaft on early Spit gearboxes, just rotating thrust washers. The only needle bearing I can see is at the front end of the mainshaft. Not that this changes my situation really, unless the mainshaft is chewed up. Figures, that looks like the most expensive part to replace /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

 

[jdubois]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Oops, where'd your last message go, Jeff? You could be right, the needle bearing may be on the input shaft and not the main shaft. It was hard to tell from the diagram. It's definitely thrust washers on the layshaft though. A note says, though, that the Vitesse had the needle bearings. I don't have the WSM for the later cars with me, but the VB catalog seems to indicate that '71 and later cars got the needle bearings.

 

[Bugeye58]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Are you sure it's still got the early gearbox in it? No synchro on 1st?
Jeff

 

[jdubois]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Yes. Definitely no syncro on first. Also have full service records for the car, and there's no indication that anything was ever done to the gearbox.

 

[Bugeye58]

Re: Question of the day: What fell out of my trann

Puzzling indeed. There seem to be too may needles for a 3 sychro box. Well, I suppose you'll find out the rest of the story soon enough.
Good luck!
Jeff