Well last Friday, the car decided we should take a look at the problem... Driving to work, the clutch pedal fell to the floor. Still made it to work power shifting but we still had to get to our shop that evening 100 miles away. After power shifting to the train station and then to the gas station and dealing with some stop-and-go trafic we made it safely to the shop.
We spent the week-end taking care of the problem(s). After removing the motor, we found the TO bearing shoulder had given up.
Luckily I had a few TO bearings on hand and decided to run the later style so we also replaced the TO fork.
Since we had the motor out, we decided it would be a good idea to replace the 2nd gear synchro and see what the problem was with the hard shifting. So we took the transmission apart.
The plan was to only replace the 2nd gear synchro and maybe the 1st while we're at it. I did not see it at 1st but you can clearly see it in this picture, the 1st-2nd fork is missing a piece.
We actually noticed it when I picked up the case and the piece fell out.
We changed both 1st and 2nd synchros and shift fork (using a used spare steel one).
We ended up replacing the following parts:
- TO Bearing
- Shift fork
- Input shaft seal
- Gaskets and o-rings
- 1st and 2nd Synchros
- Final drive plug (axle had put a hole in it on one side)
All put back together
Fortunately or un-fortunately, it rained all week-end which means we did not loose any driving time but it also meant that we did not do a test drive. Since it's supposed to be nice weather again this week, we decided to drive it back to the city for another "Drive your Buggy to work week". It was still raining but very lightly, we packed it up and headed for the city this afternoon. There's nothing like a 100 mile test drive to check your repairs. So far so good.