Your first broken gearbox... any stories?

[lowfastbus]

After using my car for 3 years with the stock gearbox, there came an end to the fun this summer.
I used my car as a weekend street car and took it to the strip once or twice a year.
The stock 67 gearbox with shorter axles had about 12 to 15 runs on the strip.

This year when racing at the European Bug In I heard a loud snap when shifting to 2nd at +/- 7500 rpm.
I was able to finish my run (?) but when slowing down and cruising to the place where we had to wait to return,
a started hearing and feeling loud snaps...
Found it strange that I was able to do a 13.9 run and only notice afterwards that the gearbox had failed.

I opened it up a few weeks ago and saw that the spider gears had lost quite some teeth.
Replaced the gearbox now with a later but still stock one, hope to have some fun with it before it breaks again 

Let hear some off your stories!!

[The Ideaman]

That is how I wound up with my 67.  Bryan shelled second gear after beating on it for a few years, and then said he had enough.  I was first in line.

[ALIEN]

I had also a stock gearbox with short axels... that one had around 10 pases down the strip..
until the 3 tour on SCC last year... ca 5500 rpm on the start... grean light... drop off on clutch pedal..... SNAP...
the car didnt even move... and Jonny Fox pushed me off...

Alien

[JS]

Not bad having a stock box lasting 10 passes with slicks, though. 
Nice pic by the way Alien.

[tikimadness]

It was on the first evening after i build in my 2.0 typ4.I drove it straight from the garage to my work to begin in the nightshift.
I turned on to the carpark and was waiting for someone to park his car.While i got frustrated by the time it took him to park i got inpatient and put the car in reverse to backup only to be to wild on the throttle blowing up the reverse gear.

I fixed it later that week but in all i used 7 gearboxes in 6 years

michael

[Bryan67]

That is how I wound up with my 67.  Bryan shelled second gear after beating on it for a few years, and then said he had enough.  I was first in line.

Actually, Luke and I already made plans for him to buy it but a couple of weeks before it was to go down I was "Driving angry" when I blew a shift and ripped all the teeth off second gear on the mainshaft. Oops. So Luke ended up with a fresh tranny at no extra charge!

[alfie the monster]

Bug Jam a few years ago, big crowd so I 'played to the bank' (showed off with a big burnout) and launched like a banshee. Actually no I didn't, it bogged so I backed off the gas before stomping on the pedal really hard. Cue a funny noise, maybe like first gear falling exploding and a lack of forward motion 

I had the most boring recovery driver on the way home (3 hours!), telling me how great series one land rovers are as 'you like old cars'... 

[Bewitched666]

Broke my first gearbox way back in the late 80's when i began streetracing.This guy told me that you needed to install a beef-a-diff in the gearbox.Little did i know that the beef-a-diff was some weaker idea of the superdiff.

I installed it and put my 1679cc engine in the car and went for a ride,it ran ok but didnt burnout nothing then.At night i went to the local freeway where we used to streetrace and i burnedout only to hear everything snap and break in the back and saw oil comming from under the gearbox.After shifting into first to get off the street the car wouldnt move,then i knew something was wrong.

After pulling the gearbox from under the car and opened up the box there was almost no beef-a-diff to be found

[Felix/DFL]

Broke my orig. typ-3 gearbox 2005 at DasDragDay and the timing was so bad...
Went through inspection, payed my fee, waited in the line then into the burn-out zone rev UP let the Cluth go and Baammmm...

That`s how it looked after NO pass 2005 at Bit



A Friend from Hamburg trailered me home about 500km and his girlfriend drove his racer on the road.Such a cool favour that I call spirit !

Now I have a superdiff in an orig. bug-box but the 1st and second gears won`t shift without noise...
But it survived 2 passes at Bit this year, sadly a rocker came lose and hacked a springretainer so I took the safe way cause I was there without trailer and it worked till home...

[lowfastbus]

Broke my orig. typ-3 gearbox 2005 at DasDragDay and the timing was so bad...
Went through inspection, payed my fee, waited in the line then into the burn-out zone rev UP let the Cluth go and Baammmm...

That`s how it looked after NO pass 2005 at Bit



A Friend from Hamburg trailered me home about 500km and his girlfriend drove his racer on the road.Such a cool favour that I call spirit !

Now I have a superdiff in an orig. bug-box but the 1st and second gears won`t shift without noise...
But it survived 2 passes at Bit this year, sadly a rocker came lose and hacked a springretainer so I took the safe way cause I was there without trailer and it worked till home...

Exactly how my gearbox looked when I opened it up...

[stealth67vw]

First broken gearbox? It probably be easier to remember the first time I played tug-o-war with ole Cyclops  I used to have a pile of broken stock gearboxes on the side of my of house and a shed full of good ones.

[Cornpanzer]

My first one was was when I lined up to race my buddy Matt Homer.  I was doing my burnout, looked up and Matt already had both bulbs lit.  SIGH....
I bumped into the first beam and as I went to go into the second, my line-lock slipped.  Afraid that I would roll through, I took my foot off the gas and stabbed the brake.  Of course by then the tree was coming down so I just floored it and dumped the clutch.  It only got to about 5000 rpm before the clutch grabbed.  No preload with a wheelie bog resulted in my first broken ring gear.

Best grenade was at a V8 test and tune at the NHRA track in Columbus.  It was my first time there and I wanted a good pass in front of a huge crowd.  Like a jackass, I aired down my tires an extra pound, not even considering that they had run a National Event there the week before.  To make matters worse, the car three cars ahead of me was a Top Fuel car making licensing passes.
Needless to say, the track was sticky! 

I got in the water and did a big second gear burnout with the motor hitting the limiter.  Because I was running a little....ok a lot of prop in the car, it was shooting foot long flames out of the stinger.  Lined up and brought it out at 6500 RPM and did one of the biggest wheelies ever.  Right at the top of the wheelie, the ring gear let loose.  My nephew was on the start line.  The guy running the tree looks at him and says "that didnt sound good......HELL of a burnout though!!!'

The worst part of that deal was that it was the only time I had ever flat towed to a track.  The car would drive, but it sounded like a bag of hammers under the package tray.  It wouldnt tow though.  The wheels would turn half a rev and then lock up.  You should have seen the looks I was getting when I drove out to the edge of the pits and started doing 6000RPM launches trying to knock the rest of the teeth off so that I could get it home.    After a half dozon attempts a crowd started forming and I broke down and called the wrecker.   

[nicolas]

so what your all saying is get a a super diff 

[stealth67vw]

so what your all saying is get a a super diff 

Or a Spendeola

[black_bullitt]

Big bang, years ago, monday afternoon last run of the day. 7 grand in the water trap, off the clutch, smokey rolling burn out, well prepped track = boom shanker diff in several pieces. towed back to pits by 'DJ' ben in his samba which kinda cool. Scratched the race No's out of the window, phoned the AA!! no I haven't been racing, honest.

[nicolas]

so what your all saying is get a a super diff 

Or a Spendeola

what's that? me notte know.

[richie]

so what your all saying is get a a super diff 

Or a Spendeola

what's that? me notte know.

Its slang for mendeola,supposed to be unbreakable but you still keep "Spen"  ding

cheers richie,uk

[Sarge]

Not my first, but certainly my most "memorable."  Fleming and Aronson had just opened the doors to their new shop on Howell.  I'd stopped by after another tough day of selling insurance  to have a look-see.  Greg had just gotten a new set of Hurst slicks mounted up...said I didn't have a hair on my a$$ if I didn't strap 'em on the back of my '63 and lay on it in the parking lot.  The rest, as they say, was history!  OUCH!!!

[louisb]

ROFL!

--louis

[Jim Ratto]

Broke my first gearbox way back in the late 80's when i began streetracing.This guy told me that you needed to install a beef-a-diff in the gearbox.Little did i know that the beef-a-diff was some weaker idea of the superdiff.

I installed it and put my 1679cc engine in the car and went for a ride,it ran ok but didnt burnout nothing then.At night i went to the local freeway where we used to streetrace and i burnedout only to hear everything snap and break in the back and saw oil comming from under the gearbox.After shifting into first to get off the street the car wouldnt move,then i knew something was wrong.

After pulling the gearbox from under the car and opened up the box there was almost no beef-a-diff to be found

sorta the same thing. I blew my nosecone to smithereens street racing with a 1641

spilt trans case across bottom at Sears Pt brakcet racing 1992 with 2276 on radials

sheared all teeth off ring gear and twisted pinion into a mess at Sac 5/2000 on slicks with 2276

[58vw]

two weeks ago.....driving the 5 freeway 6:30 in the morning to meet my friend Mr. Jeff Denahm in Costa Mesa doing about 65mph when kaboom!!! rear wheels lock up and send me into a right hand turn towards a 12' block wall!!! cant get it out of gear..clutch in nothing......counter steering and just riding it out...angel on my shoulder...finally comes around about 15' feet from the wall and stops....(damn 3 liter) ..brand new tranny....8 passes on it only....never did get my donuts that morning..oh well...irs here i come

[besserwisser]

My experience have tought me that you can get about 15-20 runs on a standard gearbox if you leave the burnouts alone.It´s the burnout that eats the spidergears. Slicks on a standard  is a dead wringer. a little wheelspinn and first gear will make it through one more run. If you preload the gearbox when you start it will last a lot longer,old gearboxes have quite a bit of play at ring and pinion. Lowfastbus,I told you at EBI that you only had a few more runs on that gearbox.Sometimes you hate to be right.