Re: overdrive

Frank Marrone (marrone(at)wco.com)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 21:19:14 -0700 (PDT)

> First, a fairly knowledgable friend of mine
>says that these units don't need to be rebuilt as a routine. He says
>that if the clutch cone is good, then the chances are that the bearings
>and everything else will be O.K. because they are better oiled and under
>less of a load than the parts in the transmission. Is this correct, or
>are there differing opinions.

>Bill Lewis

Could be but I know of at least one that really, really needed a rebuild. A friend of mine went through the OD unit in his Series II that he is currently restoring. Not only was the cone sans any clutch material but one of the bearings in the OD spun in the case requiring a trip to the machine shop. Several hundred (OK, maybe only $600) dollars later it was back together.

This particular OD was apparently out of some other Rootes car and the clutch cone was similar but a different size than the Alpine unit. This was discovered at assembly time when the cone didn't fit. By then the core had been shipped to the rebuild place in England. Fortunately after some desperate phone calls my friend located the correct clutch cone. Don't let this happen to you!

Frank Marrone MK I Tiger B9471116 marrone(at)wco.com 1966 LTD Series I Alpine (2.3L powered by Ford) Yamaha Seca 900