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On 25 Jun 2003 at 21:44, Keith Park wrote: > That fine toothed 71 tranny has been pulling my boat for years... I now know > what to be careful of when Im towing But when the tranny finally goes WHAT does > it do?? any warning?? Will I just lose 4th gear? Uhhh... For the few that I've seen, it's been pretty dramatic. IRS cars only: The tooth that breaks fails as it is leading into mesh, turning sideways as the mating gear closes down on it. The force spreads the mainshaft and countershaft apart, snapping the mainshaft just behind the front bearing housing. Parts from the fractured mainshaft get thrown out and down and get injected into the front countershaft bearing. Because the car is still moving, the road wheels are still driving the countershaft, so the chunks of mainshaft now caught in the front countershaft bearing cause that bearing to suddenly bind and explode. The disintegrating countershaft bearing fractures the whole front bearing housing causing it to separate from the nose cone and the front of the transmission drops to the ground. If you're moving slowly you can probably stop the car before much more damage is done, but at highway speeds, the bottom of the transmission wears away quickly until the end of the countershaft is exposed. At this point, if you hit a pothole or crack in the road, the steel countershaft may catch in the road and the engine and transmission rotate as a unit, jacking the rear of the car about 4' in the air. At some point, if you're lucky, the CV joints will pop apart, leaving the engine and transmission somewhere behind you on the road. At least you should end up with 4 wheels and tires still attached to the car. (late) April fool! ;-) -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org