Brian,
You have obviously been putting a tremendous amount of effort into this. If
I were you, I would admit defeat. That fill plug is not absolutely necessary.
You can fill the gearbox by removing the top cover. The top cover is the
part that has the shifter, the shift levers and the shift forks. Sure, not
real convenient, you would have to pull some interior bits, the center
console and then the gearbox cover every time, but that's very doable. With
the top cover off, you can see the oil level and the inside of the fill
plug. Assuming your gearbox does not leak, you would be in good shape for a
couple years. It seems a much better solution, the last thing I would want
to do is drill into a gearbox casing with the guts still in there! BTW, how
would you get the aluminium filings from drilling the case out of the gearbox?
Another thought, early TR3 gearboxes are filled from the top and have
dipsticks. I seem to remember this dipstick arrangement is a part of the
top cover. Not sure what would be involved to retrofit the early TR3
gearbox cover to your TR250... At the very least, I know one shifting lever
is different. If you went this route, I wonder if you could make a hole in
your gearbox cover for access to the dipstick? Or, is the dipstick location
in the vicinity of the center console... Anybody??? I know I've seen one of
those covers around the shop somewhere...
Or, take YOUR top cover off and drill your hole. Install a plug, and here
is your new filler location. To make sure you have the correct amount of
gearbox oil, each time you would have to drain the old oil and fill the
gearbox with the measured amount of the appropriate lube. I see a few nice
things about this route. First, all drilling is done on your bench, so no
filings will end up in the gearbox. Second, you can pick where the new
filler location will be, so you have a chance of being able to access it
without ripping out your interior each time. Finally, you would know the
top cover and shifting bits are correct, as you did not have to swap stuff
from an old TR3 dipstick equipped cover.
Good luck.
At 08:35 AM 8/26/99 -0500, Brian wrote:
>Problem is that the plug is sooooo hard right now that I can't
>drill thru it. SO, I am thinking of drilling a hole next to it (thru the
>aluminum casing) and putting a plug in there for fill/leveling.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Henry Frye - thefryes@iconn.net - Connecticut, USA
Stag MkI Getting Sorted Out
TR3B Driver
TR250 X 3 The BIG Project - Will Be Worth the Wait
Homepage http://members.iconn.net/thefryes/
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