After toiling for 5 hours(now 15 hours total), the car gave birth to a
4-speed single rail OVD transmission.
Boy, that really sucked. That was not fun at all. I worked up a major
sweat trying to get the output flange up and over, to get the ball
rolling. Clearances are so much fun when you barely have any.
The sump is still securely held up with the Spitfire's OEM jack. That's
the only jack I have that won't slowly go downward(ie standard floor
jacks), and was granular enough to hold it snug. My MINI's scissor jack
was useless. Jackstands would have been nice, but there was just no way
to do it. Behind that, I made a kind of 2x4 wood "ramp" for the
transmission to sit on once it got loose. It was challenging due to the
exhaust, but I can safely say not once did the bellhousing touch it. I
heard a knocking sound when I was moving things around, but that was
just the door knocker itself. *whew!*. It's not so much as the weight of
the gearbox(a bit more than my battery), but the lack of grasp when it's
between two footwells.
Getting the 4 bolts for the end-of-overdrive mounting plate(near the
flange) was impossible. I put a socket wrench on the underside(to hold
it down while I undid it from the top) and realized it was a different
bolt. Realizing the impossible task of getting those 4 bolts out, I
opted for the 2 bolts on the overdrive which held it to the mount. I was
initially worried undoing those 2 bolts would dismantle something in the
overdrive. Nope, okay.
Right now it's draining the fluid overnight. A slow, drippy process. I
only found a few bits of metal magnetized to the drain plug. I found
greasy/oily sludge inside the bellhousing which mystified me, and makes
me wonder if that's the source of the clutch slippage. Conclusion might
be a bad seal at the front? Either way, it is going downstairs into the
laundry room where I can put some serious time, photos and care into.
The transmission doesn't look too bad. I even read the stamp on the
overdrive, listing its serial #, etc. The bellhousing exterior looks
black, while the rest is just metal colored, but with no rust or corrosion.
Now I gotta read up on removing the clutch. I have 3 days off ahead of
me, so I might take a rest for a bit after such exhaustion.
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