I love rebuilding gear stacks. They are cleaner, cheaper, and faster to do. This one arrived this afternoon for a disassemble, inspect, repair and gearing change. On the surface all of the parts looked to be in great shape.....after parting it I found a busted main bearing and two broken thrust blocks.


Note the sectioned ball retainer. No-go.
Click to view attachment

Note the intact block on the right and the two broken ones.
Click to view attachment

UGH !!!

WOW! No wonder my 1911 was faster than his LS1 on our New Years run!!!

Glad your fixing it up for him!

Ya, the blocks being broke would make shifting suck. The new gearing ought to wake the car up

With the new gears and bearing should the pinion depth be reset?

Compensation for any thickness differences between the replacement gear and the original one need to be compensated for. However, there is almost always only negligible differences and this needs no compensation. If compensation is needed, you can either add to the gasket the difference you calculate, or mess with pinion shims. No need to get crazy with fully resetting.

The thrust blocks are only broke on one side. Cant you just turn them over?

Gotcha, i'm trying to learn all I can.

The main bearing in my sideshift was also busted when you rebuilt it.

The Evil rebuilt trans still shifts like brand new.

We need a facepalm smiley for these people

No, Woodrow. Now take your meds.

Man keep learning, We can use a good tranny guy on our side.(so ca.)

Cool! People have always said that I'm "special" ( I try to take that as a compliment) and it looks like it extends to my transaxle as well! Can't wait to get it back.

Might the broken blocks have hindered the 2-3 shift? It was odd...it would make the shift just fine at low to medium revs, but refuse to engage at higher revs.

--Doug

Nope. One of the blocks was in 1st and I forget which the other was in. Probably 2, 3, 4, or 5.

But if the other broken block was in 2nd or 3rd gear, couldn't it mess up the 2-3 shift? I should note that even though I was able to pull the gearstack, my understanding of the inner workings is a little fuzzy. Maybe too much consumed when watching your video.

Yes, this could account for poor shifting.

That is assuming that the pinion depth was correct to begin with right? Shouldn't that be confirmed?

No. No need to confirm, unless you have the expensive tools to do so, the time, the know how, and a reason.

And the finished product before packing and shipping

Thing of beauty, Mike!
Can't wait to plug it back in and go for a drive.

Did those HBs look pretty good to you?

You will be happy mittelmotor! Now maybe you'll be able to keep up with my 1911!

Race ya for pinks!

All gears looked fine, otherwise I would not have used them