By L. Lewis….
My machine shop guy, on setting the correct pinion-to-crown-wheel spacing removed the front layshaft bearing (which is a double-row bearing) and it broke apart when it was removed. This led to the outer ball-bearings to roll around on his workbench. One ball didn’t roll at all since it split in half! I’ve never seen this before. The other balls were all corroded and pitted, obviously from having water in the gearbox casing. Just how does water get inside a Traction gearbox? In any event the results are not pretty, but they are interesting.
He told me that it was likely caused by a “shock load” which I suppose might have come from shifting from first to second where second gear had worn out Celeron washers and its distorted front thrust washer allowed the gear to move a lot longitudinally. But I’m only guessing here.
The differential side bearings have corrosion as well as a lot of wear. For the diff bearings, they are available new locally and I had a good layshaft bearing that will be used. More and more when I find things out about this car it’s a wonder that it even ran. A close examination of the front of the gearbox reveals some tiny hairline cracks that are too small to photograph. Replacement casings don’t exist on this side of the pond so I’m going to use this one. No choice, really.
The crown-wheel teeth show pitting and a lot of wear and I understand that it will likely be noisy but what else can I do? A new pinion and crown-wheel set costs over 1,000 euros! It will be interesting to see just how this car is going to work once I get it back on the road. I assume it will work well with proper gear oil in the box instead of that brown watery muck.