Transmission advice

[Bruce_MO]

I just got my '30 A running after many years of restoration. After a few minutes of idling, I heard a loud bang and shut it off. After restarting and hearing lots of noise that went away when I pushed the clutch in, I concluded that something went thru the transmission. I took off the shifter and saw some metal pieces, and a couple burrs on the main drive gear and two teeth on the cluster gear. All the other teeth look fine; thankfully no broken or severely chipped teeth. I'm mad at myself for not catching what must have fallen into the box before S/U, but I did inspect and blow out things before I closed it up initially...I just missed something somewhere.

I dressed down the burrs, flushed everything several times and filled and reassembled everything. It's now a bit noisy with the burred teeth still making a bit of a knock.

Do you think the teeth will wear in a bit and the noise will improve? My thoughts are to drive it for a couple months and see if things improve. Additionally, I could try dressing the noisy teeth a bit more...it was extremely difficult to touch up the cluster gear teeth thru the top of the transmission but I think I could more directly get at them thru the drain plug hole to lightly knoock off any high spots.

My last resort is to pull everything apart this coming winter when I've got nothing better to do.

Any opinions? Thanks

[Blessyouboys]

Originally Posted by Bruce_MO

Do you think the teeth will wear in a bit and the noise will improve?

No.

Any opinions? Thanks

Don't wait for winter. Pull it now and rebuild it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

What caused the initial problem? Was one of the shifter forks maybe not engaged in the gear slot, so the gear clashed when it should have been in neutral?

When I first bought my 28 it made a terrible grinding noise whenever the clutch was let out. It was the bearing between the input and output shafts. It had a couple of bad rollers, but the tranny made a noise like someone had left a bunch of bolts inside the tranny.

[T.W.Dustin]

Do you think you were able to get all of the "shrapnel" out of the transmission? I might be nervous that it could happen again. Might be best to pull it and repair it.

[d.j. moordigian]

Bruce...My knees pop and knock a lot and it's not getting any better, fix the gear box and don't look back! And NO I'm not going to fix the knees, the car is more important. Dudley

[Jim Parker Toronto]

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Small job really, take it apart and do it right, you could be back on the road in no time. Get some help from your other club members. I'd pull the rear end out, I find thats the easiest way. Less chance to scratch the top side.

[Chris in WNC]

if you are absoultely certain there are no stray pieces if metal floating around inside the gearbox, why not drive it around locally for a month or three to see if it gets better/gets worse/stays the same.

worst case scenario: it gets worse, then you fix it.

best case: it gets quieter & you're done.

other possibility: it stays the same, then you decide if you can live with it or not.

sometimes being completely proactive is a good idea, other times less can be more.

"your results may vary"

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by Chris in Jax

if you are absoultely certain there are no stray pieces if metal floating around inside the gearbox, why not drive it around locally for a month or three to see if it gets better/gets worse/stays the same.

worst case scenario: it gets worse, then you fix it.

best case: it gets quieter & you're done.

other possibility: it stays the same, then you decide if you can live with it or not.

sometimes being completely proactive is a good idea, other times less can be more.

"your results may vary"

agree here as long as you got all the pieces out and as long as it was foreign material i would remove the drain plug with the shift cover off and clean it out with some atf and brake clean. this will drain easier than thick oil. the noise probably wont go away but you should be good until your ready to take it apart. refill it with 600 and turn up your radio...

[Tom Wesenberg]

I always install a small powerful magnet in the pocket of the fill and drain plugs.

[ursus]

Careful with those magnets! There must be a way to secure them so they won't wander away from the drain plug. One fellow posted on here a few years back that his magnet strayed just far enough to get pulled into the meshing cluster and input gear teeth. He had built the trans using NOS Ford gears and was not too pleased about the mishap.

[Chris in WNC]

would it be practical to get a strong magnet and place it on the OUTSIDE of the transmission?

[Tim]

You should pul it out now and fix it. What'll happen is you'll find that special spot where the teeth are trying to climb over each other and it'll destroy the whole thing leaving you stranded and bummed. I know this because I have done the very same thing you are trying to do. They are a simple gearbox and can be rebuilt for a reasonable amount with simple tools. You can also find a good used box to swap out.

Better yet call Clings and get a V8 trans adapter and a V8 trans is you have the ability. That one change alone makes a huge difference in driving an A.

Good Luck,
Tim