I should know this but obviously don’t, can someone remind me if replacing the second gear synchro is an engine out job?

I can’t remember if it is on the bits you can get to with the nose cone off.

Thanks!

Drop the tranny only, keep the engine in and support its back end.
Easy.
Get Dr. Evil's video and you are all set
Good luck.

Thanks for the response, hope you are well.

Sounds like it need to be fully opened up then?

Yes, gearbox out of the car, time to open it and go through it .
If you have a core, you can use parts from it. 4-5 gears dogteeth and slider don't get as much wear as 1-2. The 1st gear slider is different and expensive, but you might want to replace it while you are in there...
Get the video from Dr. Evil, and watch it first with a beer, then get down to business. You will need a few specialty tools. They are around.
Fun project, good luck!

I guess you could leave the trans case bolted to the engine, drop the tail down and unbolt the rear half and pull out the gears/intermittent plate. But you'll miss out on a chance to swap out some seals. Not to mention what a pita it would be during reassembly and keeping everything clean. Better to pull it out.

Thank you for all of the helpful responses, I will just plan to treat this as a four gearbox rebuild.

Thanks again for the help.

I just went thru this , did some documentation of it, i do have lots of pictures.
If you dont have all the tools, some you can buy at Pelican, others are specialty made that make the job easier. the one nut on the one gear stack is like 80 ft# torque so you need good leverage to get that off. But i really just used the Video and went step by step, and had some of the factory maintainence manual diagrams and instructions. Some of it is in Haynes too.
Like they all said leave motor in, you can leave the heat exchangers on too, just take muffler off, disconnect the CV's, and wiring cables , speedo cable, clutch cable etc.
basically took a day but now its fresh in my head i think i could do it pretty quickly. I was swapping out the 4& 5 gears , reused my dog teeth and syncro bands , that was all replaced about 8 years ago and was all like new still.
Its a fun project, and i was going to have someone local do it but for $1500 just to swap out gears i was glad i did it myself.

Have fun!!

you dont have to take the differential out or do those seals if its all good, i did mine aobut 5k miles ago 8 years, but seals were all good, i just did the new front seal and then
the intermediate plate and tail cone seals. THe case to intermediate plate seal needs to be measured and replaced with same. Thats all explained in the video.

some guys here may loan or rent out their tools. thats how i got the tools for the job.

Phil

I've done it with the trans in the chassis and also with the trans out of the car
both in the last 6 months...

pain in the butt to leave the tranny installed.
you can't get all of the seals.
its hard to reinstall the gear stack without damaging the front input seal due to the weight and leverage of the stack at install

I'll never just pull the stack again if I have time to do the job correctly and pull the whole trans... plus you can handle CV maintenance and other items while your in there.

brant