[Healeys] Gearbox and Overdrive finally separated

Mark and Kathy mgtrcars at galaxyinternet.net
Fri May 23 20:13:39 MDT 2008


Sorry to burst your bubble but learning from those that have seen what you 
are seeing is money in your pocket.     You will spend thousands to get the 
box back in working order.    I suggest  buying a rebuilt one with warrantee 
from a rep. rebuilder or do the
Smitty thing.

I purchased 5 used boxes and managed to squeeze out  one good rebuilt one. 
To
much abuse over the years just  wipes them out.

Mark


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Wignall" <ourxke at hotmail.com>
To: <healeys at autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 8:30 PM
Subject: [Healeys] Gearbox and Overdrive finally separated


> 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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