[Healeys] Gearbox and Overdrive finally separated

Ken Wignall ourxke at hotmail.com
Fri May 23 18:30:20 MDT 2008


We finally separated the overdrive from the gearbox on the BT7 side shift. We
tried all suggestions offered up by the list. Thanks to all that replied. We
were unsuccessful after many attempts and had no choice but to start in from
the back of the overdrive rather than use force. We had the box standing
straight up and the rear casing came off with ease. All over the planet
carrier and assembly was a large pile of shrapnel. The  unidirectional clutch
assembly had explodedclutch roller cage and rollers were fragmented to bits.
The planet carrier assembly had seized onto the gearbox mainshaft and tried to
turn on it. We used a puller, heat, air chisel and a pry bar, trying to remove
the carrier and after about 3 hours of cautious prying finally freed the
carrier so we could separate the front section of the overdrive from the
gearbox. This is near the top of the list on tough Healey jobs. The mainshaft
has spline damage and the rear section of the overdrive is finished. I am
going to start looking for a used gearbox and overdrive, or just a mainshaft
and salvage the rest of the box. The car is in the reassembly stage of
restoration, a 42,000 mi., dry storage rescue from a barn in Tennessee,
tri-carb. I did the brakes, hydraulics, fuel system and engine last summer and
drove it around sparingly last fall, putting about 100 mi on the odometer
before going at the rest of the car this past winter and to present. Hoped the
overdrive not functioning was an electric or minor glitch, but never seen one
that had blown up like that. Maybe the reason the previous owner took it off
the road in the early 70's, which is a good trade off for a high mile, panel
replacement restoration. Wanted- an overdrive, or at the least the rear half
of one; side shift gearbox, or a good used mainshaft from one. I think I will
post a separate email for all those on the list not reading this far!
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