At 06:40 PM 12/22/2000 -0500, Kevin D Richards wrote:
>.... on shipping trannies ....
>.... I have to ship a trans for a 1600 MGA.
>If someone has done this recently, please help.
>....
Gearbox can ship via UPS (if properly packaged). I just shipped one last
month, a rather valuable rebuilt unit, and spent more than an hour
packaging it. Since I have in recent years purchased for cheap (for
internal parts only) a few with bellhousings broken in shipping, I'm
casually aware of what needs to be done to protect it during shipping. Now
I'm really wishing that I had taken some pictures, but I didn't, so you get
the wordy explanation.
I started by building a small wooden "U" cradle for the rear gearbox mount,
two pieces of 1/4" plywood sandwiched around a board spacer 2-1/4" wide.
Add a few wood screws and one 1/2" through bolt to hold the rear mount like
it would be in the car, and with the gearbox sitting about level with the
bottom edge of the bellhousing sitting on a flat surface.
Then I cut a rectangular piece of 1/4" plywood (cheap luan panneling) large
enough to cover the entire face of the bellhousing, drilled a hole in the
center to clear the input shaft, and screwed the plywood to the bellhousing
with four 5/16" bolts, two at top and two at bottom. This is to keep the
bellhousing from harm when getting bounced around (which will happen during
shipping).
Next I cut another piece of 1/4" plywood the same size as the one in front,
bored one hole to clear the large center nut of the rear flange, and
attached this piece to the rear flange with four 5/16" bolts, with the
edges of this piece aligned with the edges of the front board.
Next I cut another piece of 1/4" plywood the same width and proper length
to run the length of the package between the two end boards. This piece
gets screwed to the bottom of the small wooden cradle in the middle with a
few wood screws. Up to this point the package has wooden ends and bottom
and seems pretty flimsy.
Next is to run two pieces of wood board at least 3/4" x 1-1/2" across both
ends inside of the wood panels, and proceed to screw the assembly together
at the bottom corners with 4 or 5 screws in each surface. This makes the
package quite ridgid across the bottom and mostly up the ends, but still
open on sides and top.
Then I added two pieces of 3/4 x 1-1/2" wood strips horizontally across the
front (narrow edges against the panel), a few inches above and below the
input shaft, to fill out the space in front to a plane just ahead of the
nose of the input shaft. This is to protect the input shaft which up to
that point was extending out the front. Carpentry work now finished with
only a few pounds of wood being used.
Before closure I put the shift lever and shift extension housing in a bit
of bubble wrap and taped it to the top of the tranny tail housing.
For the outer cover I used double layer corregated cardboard to completely
enclose the entire package, stapling it to the wooden structure at every
opportunity. When closing the top, the outer corners (two long top edges)
were double layered for added stiffness of the cardboard. All of this was
securely closed with packaging tape, with all of the corners being wrapped
with a couple layers of tape diagonally around the corners of the box.
This makes for a very strong outer package with lots of empty air space
inside. It also satisfies the UPS requirement of full brown cardboard box
to make it what they call "conveyerable" (so the automatic scanners don't
get confused), and you avoid the special handling charge that would
otherwise be assessed for a hand managed parcel.
If you are going to insure it for more than the minimal amount ($100), then
you want to leave the top open for inspection at the UPS depot, as they
want to check the physical integrity of the packaging before acceptance for
insurance reasons. In my case the person behind the counter suffered a
slight laps of paranoia and inserted a few layers of bubble wrap loosely on
top of the gearbox, which probably did nothing to aid in protection, but
seemed to satisfy the agent at the time. All tapped up and ready to go it
weighed it at 80.52 pounds and cost $44.00 (plus insurance) for shipping
from Chicago to New York. Package arrived safely at destination in
excellent condition.
Otherwise, if it's just for internal parts, and you don't mind the risk of
housing breakage, and you don't need to insure it for more than $100, then
you just wrap is like a big cone in a couple layers of corregated cardboard
with the ends folded over, tape it up like a mummy, and send it along with
best wishes. In this case it may likely incur a break in the bellhousing
or in the rear "monkey ear" mount.
One more fairly simple alternative suggested by a friend with a
professional repair shop. He uses round fiber shipping drums with end lids
just large enough to hold the gearbox without the shift lever attached.
Put a few layers of bubble wrap in the bottom of the drum, place the
gearbox inside standing on end, fill the drum with styrofoam packing
peanuts or popcorn (yes the kind of popcorn you eat is okay too as long as
it's popped first), install and secure the drum lid, and send it along with
pretty good confidence that it will arive without breakage. If you
actually have one of these fiber drums it makes packaging rather simple.
One last note for a good laugh. A few years back a fellow running a
professional auto parts recycling yard securely banded a TR6 overdrive
gearbox to a long wooden shipping pallet (fork truck type of pallet) and
sent it on its way via COD truck shipment. At point of destination half of
the package arived, the front half of the gearbox and pallet only. It
appeared to have been sheared in half in some harsh manner (like a car
crusher for instance), with the rear half of the geaarbox and pallet being
MIA. The shipper demended full payment of the COD and shipping charges
before releasing the parcel, which was required before an insurance claim
could be filed. After a few months of investigation and tracking the back
half of the package finally arived (rear half of gearbox and pallet), and
the shipper again demanded payment in full of the COD and shipping charges
before releasing the parcel. The insurance clain for many hundreds of
dollars was finally settled after about 6 months, including reimbursement
for the double COD and shipping charges. Moral of the story is, if it's
worth anything be sure it's insured, regardless of how well it's packaged.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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