[alfa] 164 Speedo Gear Saga with Happy Ending

[John and Cathie Wiltshire <bassclef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I did it!  :-)  164 back on the road, and nothing in the gearbox except
gears and oil!!

Firstly, thanks to my fellow digesti that offered helpful advice.
Particular thanks to Big Dave Jarman for his always helpful and encouraging
e-mails.  A big thank you also to Ken Stevenson, who has his 164
transmission out, and was kind enough to take and e-mail some very helpful
photos of inside the diff housing.

To recap, a two weekends ago I managed to drop the drive gear back into the
diff housing while trying to change the speedo sender.  My question was
whether to leave it there or get it out - the options for getting it out
were the "fishing through tiny holes" method, or drop it in to my mechanic
to R&R the transmission.

Checking the archives on the 164 site revealed that I'm not the first dill
to drop this gear.  One Alfista in Scandinavia relates a story of dropping
the gear and it was then munched in the gearbox, ending up lodged in the
linkages.  Mine had to come out.

I have just achieved this feat on my return from holidays.  I made up a tiny
light with three ultra-bright LEDs - this could be shoved up the drain hole,
or in through the top of the transmission to illuminate the inside of the
diff housing.  Using a piece of wire and a part grabber, I managed to catch
he gear, and manipulate it up through the housing.  With equal quantities of
persistence, luck and fluke, the gear caught itself on the top of the
crownwheel, where it was a fairly easy job to bring it out the rest of the
way using a mirror and long-nosed pliers.  The whole process took about an
hour.

The speedo gear arrangement is a case of "why ever did Alfa do it like
that".  The gear runs in a dimple cast into a tab on he inside of the diff
housing.  It is held at the top by a metal sleeve.  Remove this sleeve (as I
did) without knowing the layout of the internals, and I think that you are
almost sure to drop the gear into the box.  Interestingly, there is a groove
around the top of the gear, that looks like it has been designed to take a
circlip.  I think that maybe this gear is a leftover from another Alfa
model.

Thanks again Alfisti for your responses on line and off!

Cheers,
John Wiltshire
Sydney Australia
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