Texas Manx Club
We ran into a couple of small details. The transmission that
came out of the car had the 3 bolt '73~'77 nose cone (right), while the
trans came with the '66~'72 2 bolt nose cone. As far as the transmission
goes, they're interchangeable. As far as the mounts...nope. So after a call
to Rickey just to make sure, we swapped the nose cones and went from there.
Ever wonder what it looks like under the nose cone? (below)
While we had the back end apart, it seemed like a good time
to replace wheel bearings. After some tense moments, the inner snap ring
didn't want to come out and neither did the old inner bearing, we succeeded
persuading the bearings to let loose. When it came out, it did so in pieces,
guess it was time to replace them!
After completing that greasy task, we were finally ready to
install the new transmission. Went in like a champ. The hardest part was
getting the trans strap back on! Bolted the engine up, made sure everything
was secure and started her up. Went through the gears and all looked
good. Put the wheels back on, let the buggy down off the jack stands and
called it a day. Many, many thanks go to David Head for all of the
help...and the shop for this install.
Saturday was lots of fun...and dirty too! It was finally time
to install my
Graffeo Gearbox, won at Buggy Blast IV in June. I had Rickey
Graffeo work some of his magic and beef up the gearbox a bit. My
instructions to him were; I want to cruise in 4th and kill the ricers at the
light without leaving transmission parts across the intersection. Rickey
said, "I can do that."Here's the specs: 4.12 R/P,
3.78 1st, 2.06 2nd, 1.26 3rd and .89 4th gear. It has a 10-tooth
super diff, steel shift forks and steel cage bearings. Rickey also added
that it has a "couple of
Graffeo Gearboxes tricks."
