164 input shaft (whiny grindy transmissions, not crunchy)

["Mark Battley" <m.battley@domain.elided>]

>According to my shop manual, and the friendly Italian mechanic who replaced 
>my input shaft bearing, it is necessary to pretty well strip the gearbox 
>because the case has to be removed to get at the bearings and gears which 
>are pressed off the shafts.

....cut.....

>Another Kiwi claimed to have done it while the box was still in the car?!!? 
>To get the mainshaft out you have to remove the transmission case and the 
>shafts then are supposed to lift out. Quite a bit of stuff has to come off 
>before the shaft can be removed.

It wasn't me who made the above claim, but a friend had the (presumably
same) bearing replaced in his Croma by a local Fiat workshop, and he was
told that they do it with the box still in the car, and attached to the
engine. The cost was low enough (equivalent of about $US200, parts and
labour) to believe it. Presumably they strip enough off the end of the box
to get to the offending bearing and no more??

Mark Battley
Auckland, New Zealand.

1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce

------------------------------