<VV> Transmission Issues

[Steven J. Serenska]

VVers:

A few months ago, I wrote to discuss what happened to my '66 Corsa
4spd.  As I noted back then, I was going up a hill at 60mph when the
transmission disengaged.  Before I took my foot off the accelerator, the
engine was turning freely at 3,000 rpm, but it was as though the car was
in neutral.  I down shifted from 4th to 3rd, but got nothing.  I coasted
over to the side of the road and tried to start out again in first
gear.  I got nothing but a grinding noise, so I turned it off and called
for a tow.  There were no signs of anything in the engine compartment,
other than a strong smell of gear oil.

People's helpful guesses as quoted from their emails were as follows:

1) It is not uncommon for the transmission to differential bolts to work
loose.  This causes all the transmission and differential fluid to leak
out.  When the fluid gets low the trans and differential will overheat
destroying the gears.

2) If your car had a bad clutch shaft seal, oil could passed to the
clutch disk and eventually caused clutch slippery, ending on disk failure.

3) The splines in the pinion shaft have finally given up the ghost.

4) The roller cage on the rear of the pinion gear shaft is broken

5) The clutch disk linings disintegrated

6) Broken clutch shaft

Well, we pulled the transaxle and, in my case, the input shaft is
broken.  It looks like, consistent with people's guesses and/or
recounting of experiences, the seal failed on a long trip I was taking,
I failed to notice anything beyond the smell of fluid, and the lack of
fluid caused things to fry.  There are bits of metal throughout both the
diff and transmission.

I have called the vendors and believe I have located a good used diff
and transmission, so I'm hoping the transaxle will just be a bolt-on
job.  Even so, this is a job I'm not going to be able to do myself.

FWIW, the car has some minor rust issues and some leaks at the push-rod
tubes, and it might be getting close to an engine rebuild.  Still, this
is a Corsa with factory air and the correct 'RR' suffix block, so I
don't just want to give up on it.  I have also been gathering rare
options over the years to install when I had more time/money.  These
include factory headrest seats, factory quick steering, factory quick
arms, etc.  The only option I was missing was a telescoping steering
column.  For a brief moment, I was wondering whether to spend the money 
to do the fix or to sell the car as-is and buy a low-miles Rampside I 
saw recently.  But now I'm back to saying to myself "see the project 
through."

Thoughts?

Steven J. Serenska
'65 Monza convertible, 110/4spd (intact)
'66 Corsa Coupe, 140/4spd (whatever the opposite of intact is)