jorj7

What are those wire things on the wheels? I think my 72 Suzuki Hustler had those, but I
haven't ridden a bike with those since... I'm glad they at least have disk brakes.

Bill Ball

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

George: Thanks for the donor trans.

Here's what I found in the pan after draining the fluid. Note I've never found anything in the pan before. This looks and feels like sandy grit. Not a whole lot of it. The larger piece was suspended in the fluid and broke up easily between my fingers. In most pics, like the first one, the reflection of the flash from the camera makes the bits look brassy. In others, like the second, many/most of them are dark. I'm going to go with them not being brass as I don't think the color is right and the shape is like gritty dirt/sand. I don't like finding anything in the fluid. Could be friction disc debris. I ended up mopping tehm up witha paper towel. Again, they didn't look brassy or metallic on the towel. Any other thoughts?

Still haven't decided what I'm going to do. I have at least 6 choices, 2 or 3 of which I prefer over the others.

Speedtoys

the flyin' scotsman

not sure if theres a relation but many moons ago I raced a couple of RS 250s with dry clutches that went through plates every 2nd race leaving behind bits similar to the pics

Now your issue Bill is where did all those pieces get to in the tranny?

Total strip and rebuild while cruisin with the donor.....wish I was closer to lend a hand.

Bill Ball

The donor is not cruise-worthy. It has a bad diff and cracked diff housing.

So I gather both of you think I can't ignore the grit I found and I need to tear this all the way down.

I know I have a great option with Greg's offer and I should just go with that. It's not practical for Greg to come up, as outrageously appealing as that might be. I could go down there, but that won't be for 4-5 weeks due to things that require me to be home. I was hoping to do something a little quicker, such as swapping the parts from George's tranny or swapping my pinion and diff onto his tranny. The latter could still be done. George's tranny does not leak, is low mileage and worked well when it was removed less than a year ago. There is a highly regarded shop that will dyno test it for $150. But the option to take the trannies down and work on it with Greg's input is clearly the best.

danglerb

I would not leave things half way with the transmission guy, either he steps up and makes it right, or everybody needs to know who he is so others don't make the same mistake. Given the screwup I would also want all the steps documented, what went wrong, what was done to fix it, and a full tear down and inspection. If he isn't open to that level of transparency, I wouldn't use him.

Accept one of the offers of temporary all weather transportation so you can take your time.

the flyin' scotsman

I do not believe you can ignore any and you've already had it out twice.....imagine having issues again

A rebuild of your trans w/Greg overseeing and use one of the cars offered.

Is Kiborts car streetworthy? its our engine!

Speedtoys

I'd fly him up myself if I was in town.

Nicole

Who has Leroy these days?

GregBBRD

That's very strange stuff in the pan.

Looks like someone added a package of Mercedes Break-in Sand?

Bill:

Could I send up a differential housing that you could transfer the pieces from the spare transmission into?

Seems like you could install that transmission into the car and use it, until it would be practical to bring your "original transmisssion" down. We could then go through it, figure out want happened, and rebuild it. You could then install it, when you get the time.

You end up having to install and transmission and then swap it. Little bit more work, on your end, but it gets you up and running, without stessing about time.

I could also send up a complete differential, complete with housing, shims, and with pinion that you could swap into the used transmission.....if the one that is there is too damaged to use. I could measure the distance from the case to the pinion. Subtract out the shims and you would know exactly where the pinion sat, in relationship to the "Mercedes" portion of the transmission. Set up that distance exactly the same on the "core" you have and you would have a complete transmission with the exact same pinion location as the transmission I removed it from. Pretty easy to do. One measurement and shim as required.

When you get your original one in and working, you could send me back the complete differential and I could put it back onto the "core" I removed it from. Really easy and cheap.

Speedtoys

Greg:

Dumb question time...so be gentle.

Can you pull the Diffy without pulling the transmission?


Im outta town, cant go just look.

Bill Ball

Greg:

That's another overwhelmingly nice offer. I think I will do this. I'm just going to go on hold until I can get free and bring the trannies down your way. That's what my wife thinks I should do. The car can stay on the lift for another month or so and I'll putt around on the motorbikes, which I love to do anyway, and I have offers of loaner cars if needed.

I appreciate you coming up with all kinds of ways to assist me.

Bill Ball

The gas tank is in the way to get the diff out of the housing, at least on S4s, but there should be enough room to pull the entire diff housing and diff as a unit, if you can get to all the bolts.

Bill Ball

Yeah, but look at the work conditions in my garage (see avatar). And I'll bet Greg wouldn't quite appreciate my Harbor Freight tools. I would probably only show him my Snap-On torque wrenches, although he might wonder why we are using torque wrenches to remove all the bolts.

Bill Ball

You are so right.