Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Jonathan Reed, 02-Aug-2006, 02:55pm
My d type od box came from Canleys and has proved very good if not cheap (once the correct prop shaft was supplied!).
A conversation with Rarebits Bill at Stafford revealed he thought TLD of Kingston Sportscars was the dogs where gearboxes are concerned.
There are cheaper options I'm sure.
A conversation with Rarebits Bill at Stafford revealed he thought TLD of Kingston Sportscars was the dogs where gearboxes are concerned.
There are cheaper options I'm sure.
Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Jon Morton, 02-Aug-2006, 03:38pm
being tight I reconed my own gearbox. No problems so far and Ive done quite a few thousand miles with it (quick get me some wood to touch).
Jon
Jon
Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Chris Taylor, 02-Aug-2006, 08:54pm
The gearboxes were always rather whiny in the intermediate gears, at least by modern standards, except perhaps the last Mk3 GT6 and Spit 1500 which
used a different profile of gear wheel. 4th should always be nice and quiet as the drive is direct and not through any gears, although they are all in
mesh and turning.
IF there are no sort of grinding noises, the car does not jump out of gear, and the synchromesh is good on all gears, why mess with it?
A rough indication of overall bearing wear can be had by listening to the gearbox spinning in neutral, perhaps with the gearbox tunnel off. The gearbox will stop turning when the clutch is depressed, and spin again when released. You will get quite a lot of "whirring" noise, but should not sound "loose" or "grinding".
If you refurbish your own gearbox, or have it done, you are unlikley to see much reduction in whining as it is rare to replace the actual gearwheels. (Quite expensive too). Most recon boxes will have original gearwheels, replacing only bearings and seals, synchro rings (and springs hopefully!), the mainshaft on an o/d box if worn, and any badly worn bushes or thrust washers. You will then have a box with a sweeter change, and with sound bearings, one which will run for many more miles, but NOT one that is likely to be much quieter in the intermediate gears.
Worth checking you have no gaps around the gearbox tunnel, and that all the sound insulation is in place, but the only cure is to learn to like the noise or turn the radio up!
IF there are no sort of grinding noises, the car does not jump out of gear, and the synchromesh is good on all gears, why mess with it?
A rough indication of overall bearing wear can be had by listening to the gearbox spinning in neutral, perhaps with the gearbox tunnel off. The gearbox will stop turning when the clutch is depressed, and spin again when released. You will get quite a lot of "whirring" noise, but should not sound "loose" or "grinding".
If you refurbish your own gearbox, or have it done, you are unlikley to see much reduction in whining as it is rare to replace the actual gearwheels. (Quite expensive too). Most recon boxes will have original gearwheels, replacing only bearings and seals, synchro rings (and springs hopefully!), the mainshaft on an o/d box if worn, and any badly worn bushes or thrust washers. You will then have a box with a sweeter change, and with sound bearings, one which will run for many more miles, but NOT one that is likely to be much quieter in the intermediate gears.
Worth checking you have no gaps around the gearbox tunnel, and that all the sound insulation is in place, but the only cure is to learn to like the noise or turn the radio up!
Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Colin Wake, 02-Aug-2006, 10:10pm
Just fit a louder exhaust!
My recon spitfire gearbox screams in 1st to 3rd, but once the tunnel was back in, I can hardly hear it.
Don Cooks GT6 gearbox was similar, it did 3000 miles in 7 days last month.
Save your money, get it rebuilt when it goes bang.
Cheers
Colin
My recon spitfire gearbox screams in 1st to 3rd, but once the tunnel was back in, I can hardly hear it.
Don Cooks GT6 gearbox was similar, it did 3000 miles in 7 days last month.
Save your money, get it rebuilt when it goes bang.
Cheers
Colin
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Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Ian Mulford, 03-Aug-2006, 10:25am
I can hear my gearbox over the top of my exhaust... so I turn the radio up
Not so bad with the top down though as then the exhaust wins the battle of noise
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Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Van Hamlin, 03-Aug-2006, 10:28am
After it's gone bang it will probably cost more money to fix!
I rebuilt mine myself, but I would not like to do it without a press and a tool for supporting the input shaft bearing when I press the input shaft out through it. The oven and the freezer also came in handy as the mainshaft bearing was very tight in the case.
Van
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Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Colin Wake, 03-Aug-2006, 11:28am
Apart from the bearings getting noisy, the only thing that really fails is the mainshaft in OD boxes, and that takes out the input shaft and the synchro ring on 4th initially. and then slowly eats the box away.
Only other main fault is teh 3rd gear circlip, and if caught quickly, that is easily fixed.
A second hand non-OD box is &163;20 to &194;&163;30. A new mainshaft is about &194;&163;100.
A good many recon boxes are noisy because they have gearsets from different boxes mixed together, and you have differently worn surfaces mating.
Cheers
Colin
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Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Jason Green, 03-Aug-2006, 12:01pm
With the advice and encouragement of TLD at Kingston Sportscars, I rebuilt the gearbox on my Vitesse myself; works perfectly now!
The bottom line was if you buy a new or refurbed box you still don't know what you've got. The box in my Vitesse had been assembled minus one synchro ring.
And everything Tony said proved to be true including the part about it only costing 10-20% of the replacement option.
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Refurbished Gearbox
Posted By : Adam Hieke, 03-Aug-2006, 01:25pm
thanks for the response everyone!
By the sounds of it i might go for the Live with it till it goes bang philosophy!!
By what some of you have said about being able to hear the gearbox over the sound of the exhaust etc, my gearbox isnt anywhere near as bad as that. I think (as someone already mentioned) its easy to fall into the trap of thinking of it in terms of a modern gearbox, which undoubtebly i do having only ever driver modern cars apart from my GT6.
The gear changes are pretty smooth, although they do get a little notchy as the gearbox heats up. I wondered about refurbishing / doing a bit of maintenace on the gear linkage etc. refurb kits for tht arent too expensive.
the only other noise that happen is an occassional almost liquidy slupping sound i get when the car idles. Someone suggested to me that this is probably the thrust washers? Any comments?
Cheers everyone!
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