Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 06:09:18 GMT From: wwwnopsamus-technologies.com (Dean Malandris) Subject: Splitting gearboxes.
I just had an interesting (sic) thing happen to me an hour ago in my Turbo 16v. Driving home this morning, I heard a "chuff" sound develop from underneath the car. After a few kilometres, I had decided that it was a CV joint and that I'd have to change a shaft. Couldn't pull over as there was no room on the overpass, so I had to keep going. At the traffic lights aftwerwards, I drove away from rest (no thrashing, just a light throttle) when all of a sudden there was a heavy graunch and I pulled over immediately. Felt like the pinion in the differential was being shredded. Heavy smell of gear oil. I opened the bonnet and had a look on the left side of the engine. Nothing. However, I saw a huge pool of gear oil forming on the road underneath. No prizes for guessing that something had let go here. Over to the right side of the engine, and I was amazed to see that near the area where the half-shaft was, there was an enormous jagged crack over 10mm wide (you could poke your finger right through it) running down the side of the gearbox casing, all the way from near where it was mounted to the engine, and right underneath running along the underside of the box. The gearbox casing had cracked right open like an eggshell. Prior to this failure, there was absolutely no impairment of clutch or gearbox function, or the driveability of the car. No warning. It just let go instantly. There was no external damage to the casing from anything at all, such as speed humps etc. Anyone heard of anything like this happening? It's the first time I've seen anything like this just happen without it being caused by something hitting the gearbox. -- Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name. Thy programs run, thy syscalls done, In kernel as it is in user! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plexus Technologies Pty. Limited. Electronics Consulting, Research & Development. http://www.plexus-technologies.com Mobile: +61 (0)411 470 880 ICQ: 719010
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