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September 29th, 2008

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Q & A: Testing The Gearbox

Tuesday December 23rd, 2008
Q & A, MGA, MGB, MGC, MG T-Type, Midget
am at the rolling chassis stage with a 52 TD that I bought ( more or less by accident) as a companion to a not too bad 78 MGB. I got the B up and running although not to perfection in the engine bay but did rather better on the body and trim.

The TD was a collection of parts, rather than a full car in parts. As I learned about TD's it became obvious that at least two cars were the source of the parts. For example the diff has BSF fasteners, which is not correct for my chassis (number 16555) and so forth.

I started at the diff and converted it to 4.555, using a modified Carl Cederstram approach and succeeded in getting the rear suspension fully assembled on the chassis. The drive shaft is now refurbished, bringing me to the gearbox, in the train of things.

It is an 8 inch unit, and appears to be in good shape while missing a couple of minor items in the shift lever assembly, all of which I have obtained from Moss.

iWith the top cover open the gears all appear in excellent shape, and it shiftds into all gears statically. Is there any way to truly test the unit to see if it is ok, before reinstalling it?

I hear people say that if it is worn it will pop out of gear. I don't know enough about gearboxes to know whether this makes any sense, but it seems to me that short of installing it and trying under road conditions it may not be easy to diagnose if it has any weaknesses. Finding a weakness then would mean quite a bit of backtracking, which I have already had a fill of.

All these boxes must have some wear; how much is acceptable, and where and how do you assess it?

Thinking ahead, to perhaps the enevitable, I see that a rebuild of a Gearbox with shift mechanism is estimated at 14 hrs by you. What is your hourly rate?
There is no way to test the box short of putting it in the car. You can, it sounds crazy I know, build up the chassis and take it for a drive. Just around the subdivision or block. This will let you know that your box works at slow speeds and sa... read more