[alfa] RE: Spider Transmission Rebuild, was bay area spider people

["Jeff Greenfield" <alfaguy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Russ -



Thanks.



If you're doing it for yourself and are on a budget you can successfully
make an effective repair by simply moving stuff around unless its been done
before or things are in really bad shape. I've done this on my own cars.



When I'm doing it in a customers car, the amount of time (which = money) to
take it all apart is so much of the job, that I don't feel it is worth
screwing around. If it doesn't work well, or last too long, then my name is
mud and I have an unhappy customer. At least if I use new parts, I can be
fairly confident that it will work well and there won't be any problems for
a little while.



I did have one customer, whose transmission I probably rebuilt at least
three times in ten years, and I know another shop did it at least once in
that time too, but a) he didn't get it and shouldn't have been driving an
Alfa and b) everybody under the sun drove the car so it was not entirely his
fault. He ran a boarding school for troubled teenagers, this was his own
car, and the kids would ummm borrow, yeah that's the term, the car on a
regular basis, until he decided it was easier to just let them drive the
car.



One thing I forgot too mention in the disassembly . (hey it was late when I
wrote that) is when you remove the shift rails, you need to collect the
interlock pins. Pull them out with a small magnet, otherwise they will fall
out. Use some small tweezers to put them back in. It's a little tricky to
get it all back together as the rails have to be positioned just so, but it
is doable.



Jeff



Jeff







-----Original Message-----
From: AlfaNeely@domain.elided [mailto:AlfaNeely@domain.elided]
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 10:41 AM
To: alfaguy@domain.elided; robrock@domain.elided; alfa-digest@domain.elided
Subject: Spider Transmission Rebuild, was bay area spider people



In a message dated 3/17/2004 12:56:18 AM Central Standard Time,
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 23:34:18 -0500
From: "Jeff Greenfield" <alfaguy@domain.elided>
Subject: RE: [alfa] bay area spider people

When I do a gearbox, I replace all 5 synchros, and the sleeves. If you are
sure that the gearbox has not been opened before, you can turn the 5-R
sleeve around as only one side is used.

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



    Nice description, Jeff.  I have had good luck rebuilding transmissions
with no new parts other than the front and rear seals.  I move the fifth
gear synchronizer and slider to second and the second gear to fifth.  I also
move the dog ring from fifth to second.  The dog ring is what really engages
and is what you hear when the gears grind on engagement.  Getting one of the
dog rings off requires a hammer and punch as it is exactly the same size as
the gear.  The other one will press off.

    If the transmission is really bad or has been rebuilt before, I replace
second, third and fourth gear synchronizers and the 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 sliders.
The slider is the part that engages the dog ring.

    If the only obvious fault in the transmission is a bad second gear, the
above method will work.  First gear synchronizer should be the first to go.
Or it would be if first gear had a usable synchro.  I treat first gear in an
Alfa as not synchronized.





Ciao,
Russ Neely
Oklahoma City
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