If you like puzzles, you will have fun tearing a ribcase down and putting it back together. If you lack patience, expect a cerebral hemorrhage before you are done. Part of the fun I have in owning my 59BE is to do as much of the work on it that my skills will allow. I've always thought of working on a manual transmission as being a bit past my skill level, but in the process of collecting parts for my BE project, I ended up with two non functioning ribcase transmissions, a box of NOS gears, and a rebuild kit. After reading up on it, I thought I would attempt to put together a functioning gearbox from all these parts to have as a spare. I was able to get the transmission completely apart and back together again. Was this easy? Not really. One notable task was getting three spring loaded 9/32 steel balls compressed into a fitting at the same time. Luckily I had spares, as most of the ones I started with got launched into outer space. It would have been best to work with someone who really knew their way around a ribcase, but I did not have that luxury. I have several service manuals like Haynes that cover the ribcase, but found that there are errors in the Haynes manual due to the fact that the smoothcase and ribcase are slightly different.
I can shift it through all the gears just fine, but what I don't know is how it will perform if I ever have to install it. All the parts I used looked visibly OK, but not being an expert, I am not sure I know what is OK vs not OK. What would be great if someone who really knew the insides of these gearboxes could provide some more details on what to look for or do above and beyond what you find in the service manuals.