Moved on to the gearbox this morning. Stripped off all the fixtures and fittings ready for blasting and then plating. My goal with this refurb was just to reseal. I didn't want to break into the box all and assumed the front and rear seals would be easily accessed. Discovered that this is not the case. The front one isn't too bad but have had to split off the bell housing and the front plate to get at it. No drama as I have a complete seal kit.
The rear however is proving to be a real PIA. The slotted nut doesn't want to come off. I dont have the proper tool so was hoping it wouldn't be wound on too tight and might come off with a few 'light tap'. Again not to be. I have dropped all the bolts that hold the ali plate behind it to the gearbox casing so I am no committed to getting it off and resealing. If anyone has any easy methods to get this nut off I would love to here.
I am wondering now that the box is open if its worth doing anything else. Syncro's or bearings. Dont know how hard they would be but my back is already so raw with self inflicted wounds I figure a couple more gashes wont even be noticed. Again any advice would be well received. I can just imagine Rodger rolling his eye back. He told me not to touch the box a couple of weeks back. I should have listened. Blame it on my obsessive compulsive disorder. To make matters worse the front seal looked brand new. I think someone has replaced it recently. But this doesn't necessarily mean that anything else has been touched. Better safe than sorry and replace everything?
This is when its good to have all the last owners receipts.
Also the top ali plate that hold the changing rods, is this hard to pull off. I have the gasket for this and would like to clean it up and seal again. I did some research in here and it looks like JA was going to do a gearbox tour back in 05 but it seems it never happened.
Decided that the failures of the day shouldn't halt progress and took all the bits down to the blaster and then onto the platers. Just have to keep everything moving.
Have decided that the chrome moldings on the soft top hatch look terrible against all the fresh paint so have sent mails to about 5 chrome shops around NZ checking on who has the sharpest price. Will get all the caps done at the same time.