Have questions transmission rebuld and swap Options

[electroman]

I guess I should start out with a small introduction and a description of my project. hi my name is Josh and I have a 1967 Volkswagen beetle that I am turning into a slightly modernized sleeper. I have upgraded the whole suspension brakes ect. about a year ago I finished building a 1911cc 914 motor that's going to power this thing. I still have lots of work to do on the motor, cooling system fuel injection stuff ect; but its coming along. this first stage of construction the motor will just be built with motorcycle throttle bodies crank fired ignition and a staged fuel injection system. next step will be to rip off the motorcycle bits and strap on a supercharger to give this thing the kick in the butt it needs.

anyway on to the transmission. originally I was just going to use a late model beetle transmission and build it up to get it to handle the power this engine will make. but plans changed as I figured out I could build up a 5 speed 914 transmission for way less than the Volkswagen transmission, and it would already have better gearing than the beetle trans. so I started reading and collecting information. fast forward to two weeks ago. I found a good deal at a local junkyard for a 1973 side shift 914 transmission, I was told that it had been in their stock since about 1995. so its been sitting awhile, but I got a good deal and got him to throw a starter in so woo. ok so I got it home cleaned it up some and tore it down to see what I needed to replace to get it in good running condition. with my untrained eyes it doesn't look all that bad, definitely some wear but not all that bad. and this is where I am now.

I would like some second opinions on some of these parts for weather they are reusable or not, also just general questions as they come up about rebuilding and maybe upgrading this transmission. I plan on spending some time tomorrow cleaning up all the internal parts so Ill get some pictures of all the questionable ones and get them up here tomorrow.

here are a few pictures from the tear down.

this is first gear, obviously I have some parts to replace here.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i1363.photobucket.com-17558-1403911999.1.jpg)

intermediate plate
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i1363.photobucket.com-17558-1403911999.2.jpg)

gear stacks
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i1363.photobucket.com-17558-1403911999.3.jpg)

anyway like I said ill get some up close pictures of the parts I'm questioning. until then though I have a few questions. first off with the brake bands anchor block and thrust block. I know there is a difference between the early and late setup, with the anchor block being bigger ect. Is there an advantage with the late setup over the early? I do have two sets of late brake bands and parts I got out of half a transmission i picked up for $25.

next question is about all of the bearings. what am I looking for to judge wear. are bearings only toast if they have and worn groves in the rollers/balls or races, or if there are any obvious chunks or gouges in any of the parts? all the main bearings in my transmission look great with no obvious wear, but I want to make sure as I would hate to get it all back together and have weird noises or something. same thing with the cage bearings in the free gears. all I have see as far as an initial check was to press on the inside of the bearing and see if the rollers fall out. is there a more extensive check of something I can measure? anyway those are the only questions I have so far, I'm sure I'll have plenty more down the road. thanks in advance.