Labor Day good; Spider tranny bad

["Evans, Tom" <tevans@domain.elided>]

I had an interesting and somewhat shocking bit of Alfa garage fun this Labor
Day.  I have an '86 Spider with a transmission that is missing 1st and 2nd
gears after hearing a loud bang while shifting into 2nd.  (And by the way,
thank you to the three who replied to my previous posting about this
problem).  In preparation to drop the tranny to do a rebuild, I put the car
up on blocks and started to go through the service manual proceedure.  When
I got to the point where I was to drain the gearbox oil, I was in for a real
surprise.  What came out was not oil, but rather a full quart of light brown
water.  That's right, H20.  A little bit of sludgy oil came out at the end,
but not much.  Oh, and a 1-inch long piece of gear came out as well.  You
see, the car had been flooded by water in 1996 and I have been restoring it
since.  I had no idea water could get into a transmission, or I would have
drained it the next day.  Boy, do I feel stupid.  Seeing 1996 vintage water
pour out of a gearbox does not boost the self-esteem.

-Tom
'86 Spider

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