Hilux Gearbox - Any Variants ( Mk1 , Mk2 ) ?

[Live Steam Mad]

Hi, I just got my first "proper" 3-speed gearbox, this one is from a Hilux / Blazer. I was expecting it to be just like the SRB gearbox case type metal but the metal used is very different .

It's a mid (lighter in places, darker in others) grey colour with a strange matt surface which also has a slight sheen to it (slightly reflective), it seems to be much harder metal than the SRB gearboxes, which I find very surprising. The metal is also VERY DENSE and very heavy.

It has a slight texture to the surface. It actually looks and smells like a 1:1 vehicle gearbox. The rubber boot motor cover that came with it is in (just) good condition. Motor is an original RS-540S with thick PVC wiring (not thinner wiring like the 540S motor has on the SRB's), actually it is about the same as the Transistorised Speed Controller and 4000mAh battery pack has on it as regards wire thickness.

I was wondering very much now as to whether (just like SRB's with their several variants of gearcases including MK1 and MK2) there were any variants on the Hilux and Blazer gearboxes, or are they all identical ?

I was concerned when I bought it to get one that was a bit darker and matt in the Ebay pictures as that was my best hope of making sure that the gearbox hadn't ever been polished (which I hate). It *seems* not to have been polished? I hope so...or I'm going to be gutted

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[hedge]

Alistair G.

not sure about the Mk1 and 2 but it looks just like mine, each segment is a different colour, you have something a bit - loosest term - custom going on on your gear change threaded post. Take a look at the manual on the main site under reference tamiya models page 12 shows the mechanism clearly, you need a spring and an extra lever in there plus not sure about those gripper nuts lol.

Cheers

Paul

[twisty]

It looks stock to me,as far as i am aware there is no MK1/2 versions of this gearbox,

other than it is obviously different to the Bruiser/Mountaineer gearbox(some gearbox parts are interchangeable).

It does look a little shiney under the grubbyness,so someone might of tryed to polish it in the past and given up(not unusual).

As i see it ,you have 2 options,

1: strip it completely,beadblast the cases and rebuild to stock or ballraced/shimmed.

or

2.Just give it a good scrub with gunk (or similar) install it and use,the shine will dull over time either way with oxidisation of the alloy.

[Live Steam Mad]

OK it's not going well so far The motor wouldn't turn at all when I applied 3V to it so I investigated and found that the motor was fine but the gearbox was locked solid This was the beginning of a whole can of worms

1. The pinion on the motor was quite heavily worn, the teeth were not fat anymore and instead were 1/2 way towards being pointed.

2. The Spur gear was stepped on the smaller diameter section and I got very confused as to how the heck the gearbox worked, because of this, but eventually I realised that the spur was absolutely %$^*. I worked that out by opening the first section of the gearbox and when I wiggled the spur around it all jammed up solid, and I could see that it was the teeth, they were very close to being totally worn away.

3. Before I figured out #2 above, I saw that there was quite a small amount of movement only needed to lock up the Spur gear against the 4 small " pips " that were acting as a guide for the location positioning of motor section A of the gearbox, and I thought that this was locking the gearbox up solid so I filed the pips off!! Made no difference . Then I discovered point #2 above...

4. I removed the Spur and a gear reduction section and then found that turning just the main centre input shaft itself caused the gearbox to lock solid at certain points, but seemingly only when in 4WD mode . Did I mention it wasn't going well yet ?!

5. Then I found out that a possible cause for this #4 above is that if the die casting of the final section of the gearbox (where the axle of the transfer case emerges for the front wheel drive part of the 4WD system) has "excessive" height of large " pips " inside the gearbox casing at that point (i.e. just behind the final gear for the front wheel drive part's output shaft), this can cause (if there is some small amount of slop due to wear of the scintered Phosphor Bronze bearings) this "final gear" as I call it to jam solid as the teeth hit either or both of the pips. So I filed them off as well!!

After doing the above, the gearbox was a lot smoother and no lock ups or roughness. Now I know why the gearbox gears are so worn (the very end one towards the rear of the gearbox on the main centre shaft in particular is like an angry, sharp mess of pointed teeth with "frayed" edges on it towards one end of the gear), it's because the gearbox has never been taken apart since it was factory assembled originally, and the lumpyness and roughness and lockups of the gears due to the above has worn the gearbox very badly . It was rather obvious that it had never been opened, from the crack noise of the bolts releasing to the sealant being very old, to the gears and bearings being covered in dirty oily residue looking suspiciously like the finely powdered remenants of the teeth that had been worn away... So much for the seller saying that it was smooth. Ho hum.

Inside the gearcase was quite shiny, and looked very much like the original factory finish. This is like the finish that I see on the Hilux and Blazer gearboxes in the e.g. 1982 and 1984 Tamiya catalogues and 1983 RC Guide Book. The outside looks to never have been polished or fiddled with at all since new, and just left to oxidise horridly. Using White Spirit on it makes some difference but not what I was hoping for.

So now I am in the market for a NIP Spur gear for this g.box. Did anyone ever make them in alloy?

What a day... Shafted again on Ebay... Anyway, fortunately I just also bought another of these gearboxes for 1/2 the money and it has a new Spur gear in it allegedly (the guy changed it apparantly as the original made it sound rough). Just hoping that one is not also completely shagged out like this one

Chin up Eh?!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[TenzoR]

http://www.thisrocks.freeserve.co.uk/

Check this out if you are interested in taking apart the gear box to rebuild it with bearings. I've used for my Hilux to take it apart. I ended up using the bushing due to lack of fund and the fact I am not going to be driving this truck any time soon. Still a working progress

[hedge]

So now I am in the market for a NIP Spur gear for this g.box. Did anyone ever make them in alloy?

Nightmare but hey what a car

They do make them in alloy, keep your eyes on ebay. One was around recently but went to silly money for me, also the normal ones apear quite often which are OK to use and buy.

BTW on mine the pinion is rather pointed as well and I believe it to be due to the size and number of teeth rather than excessive wear, maybe someone with a new build or NIB could let us kow if indeed they originally do have FAT rounded teeth?

Paul

[WillyChang]

you have something a bit - loosest term - custom going on on your gear change threaded post. Take a look at the manual on the main site under reference tamiya models page 12 shows the mechanism clearly, you need a spring and an extra lever in there plus not sure about those gripper nuts lol.

nup, manual tells ya to do that for manual gear selection when you don't have 3rd servo/channel

flange nuts hold the selector lever in place; the threaded rod should be in the kit?

[robysoldtamiya]

Hi,

welcome to the vintage 3spd world

There were not differences in casting gearbox halves, but there have been differences in gears material.

Some of early Hiluxes had some aluminium gears inside, that were changed to brass in all other version up to Mountaineer.

Those Hiluxes had also different wheels hub caps: they came without the locking washer inside, and worn out pretty soon.

I run my Hilux stock from the day I found it on 1996 and I never broke anything on it.

On my Bruiser I had rebuilt almost everything since I run it total locked 4wd in all gears and have a locked spur.

I even went to rebuild the double gears inside and all gears in the counter shaft using 32p pinions

[retroman]

Somewhere in the vintage section is a thread with a few similar questions I had with the 3 speed box. I too had the same concern over the pinion looking very sharp on the ends of the teeth, and someone advised me that they do look this way a little, due to the pinion being so small. My gearbox also had a slightly "bruised" spur gear, looked like the motor might have worked loose at some point. Anyhow, I cleaned all the gearbox out, added a few shims here and there to take out some of the play, put it all back together, and it all works perfectly, and it's nice and quiet too I don't think i'll ever stop it leaking oil though I think what oil to use is a matter of personal preferance really, I've been using 30W silicone shock oil in mine, which works well.

As for the question on the colour of the alloy, yours looks the same as the one in my Blazing Blazer. I have to admit, I have never noticed any of the gearboxes I have seen looking noticeably different.

Also in my old thread, someone provided me with a link to a really excellent on line manual, on how to rebuild, and or modify the vintage 3 speed transmission. It's a very good read, and proved invaluable when I rebuilt mine.

I too was "watching" the alloy spur gear that appeared on ebay recently. It went for horrendous money! The standard ones do turn up from time to time. Would be nice if someone would make a repro one.

Good luck with your project

[Live Steam Mad]

Hi, thought I would add some pictures with captions in red text to explain what I mean for those that are interested in these nearly 30 year old gearboxes ;-

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

More pic's of the old heavily worn Hilux 'box ;-

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

http://www.thisrocks.freeserve.co.uk/

Check this out if you are interested in taking apart the gear box to rebuild it with bearings. I've used for my Hilux to take it apart. I ended up using the bushing due to lack of fund and the fact I am not going to be driving this truck any time soon. Still a working progress

Yep seen that one, thanks. Actually I used Koping Hu's well known and loved guide to dis-assembly and re-assembly, found (amongt other places) here ;-

http://www.tamiyafr.lp-concept.info/3speed...peed_manual.pdf

...of course you probably know about that one already LOL.

Yeah mine is going to retain the bronze bushes for originality and also because it doesn't really spin fast enough to justify the fitment of ball races. If it gets really sloppy then I'll change over various bits from the other gearbox that I just bought (pic's later when it comes LOL) and make a decent one out of them. No need to replace anything unless it's really too worn to work properly or is actually broken or makes the gearbox very noisy...

Hope you get the time and funds to finish yours. I have plenty of the former, and nearly none of the latter. This was an odd one out since it was my Xmas present really! Otherwise I couldn't have bought it!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[robysoldtamiya]

Your pinion is in extremely good conditions, don't worry about that.

Those teeth are particular because it is a 10 teeth built over a bigger radius than a normal 10t 0,5 module pinion.

Infact you can sobstitute this pinion with an 11T 0,5 module if you can find it.

The spur gear is gone, the smaller gear I mean. But if you are handly you can use 18T 32p gears to rebuild it.

On the output shaft, what cause this problem is the single gear that is screwed on the cap. It runs with plastic bushing and often the nut get loose and the gear turns bad

causing all 3 gears to worn out fast. You can still change these gears with 18T 32p gears.

Other than that I see gears in nice conditions inside this tranny.

Roby

[Live Steam Mad]

Nightmare but hey what a car

Hi Paul! Absolutely! It's an awesome effort of model engineering that has never been equalled, either before or since. The plastic gearbox in the 1:14 lorries (trucks) is really cheesy and too tall (it's the wrong shape) to be satisfying!

They do make them in alloy, keep your eyes on ebay. One was around recently but went to silly money for me, also the normal ones apear quite often which are OK to use and buy.

Yep, one just went for 8 quid on the bay ;-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HiLux-Blazing-Blazer...p3286.m63.l1177

I can see by looking at mine in comparison, mine is well and truly worn to heck and only fit for the bin

I can only imagine how fast these wear with the big torque 750 motor on the Bruiser and Mounty whilst rock crawling , nevermind with a 540S and the Hilux! Hence I would much rather this be in at least a decent alloy.

BTW on mine the pinion is rather pointed as well and I believe it to be due to the size and number of teeth rather than excessive wear, maybe someone with a new build or NIB could let us kow if indeed they originally do have FAT rounded teeth?

Wow yes good point that would be very interesting to hear from someone with a new build / NIB as you say.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

nup, manual tells ya to do that for manual gear selection when you don't have 3rd servo/channel

flange nuts hold the selector lever in place; the threaded rod should be in the kit?

The 3mm x 31mm threaded black rod seems to be correct and original (part b6, so does the 3mm nut on it part e3), according to the manual page 7 ;-

http://www.tamiyabase.com/manuals/manual_58028.htm

http://www.tamiyabase.com/manuals/images/1200/58028_007.jpg

However I'm missing one of the Shift Arms, spring q8, one of the a2 grub screws out of the shift arm, the "rubber tube cut to 5mm", both collars part q9, both grub screws out of these collars, the shift rod q10, and the shift rod plastic ball end part q5

I can shift the gearbox manually and it's smooth in all 3 gears now after I corrected the faults (the pips sticking out and locking the gearbox solid on the 4WD output "final" gear shown pictorially above).

It's quite simple in how the gearbox actually works. The input from the motor has 1 gear reduction (pinion/spur as normal) then with the shift lever in the middle position there is an additional reduction in the 1st proper section of the gearbox and then output is straight to the back wheels (the whole main centre shaft turns at the same speed basically). Pull the lever towards the rear and this (via a drive dog) causes another gear reduction to be brought in, plus another drive dog engages the gear drive to make it 4WD. Pull the shift lever to the opposite end (forwards as far as it will go) disengages the first gear reduction in the 1st section proper of the gearbox (moves the drive dog off it) so makes it straight through drive 1:1 to the rear wheels (with only the spur / pinion gear reduction remaining) and of course there is always a final gear reduction on the rear axle (which of course has a differential on 1:1 cars, there's no diff. in the Hilux which would drag one of the rear wheels around whilst cornering and would also drag one of the front wheels around when cornering whilst the front hubs are locked so the turning circle is going to be appalling, and only half way better when the front freewheeling hubs are unlocked).

Which reminds me, has anyone on here or elsewhere ever managed to create a Hilux geared differential?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

OK I just complained to the seller about my motor and gearbox being locked solid when I received it and we'll see if I get any conpensation. I hope to get at least the price of a new Spur gear (8 quid) back from the guy.

Hi Roby, it's really great to see you back here on the TC forums. I appreciate the insights of your expertise on the Hilux gearbox, it's much appreciated. I'll reply more later as I will have some questions (have to digest the info. first!).

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Just having a quick look and in Koping Hu's manual he mentions about not knowing how to remove the Silicone Sealant. I find that White Spirit is a partial solvent for it, at least on SRB gearboxes, and you just rub hard until it shifts the sealant. Finger nails are also useful!

I notice that I cannot disassemble the centre section of my gearbox since the main centre shaft has 2 gears on the front facing side and 1 gear on the rear facing side that are locked onto the shaft, so it seems. Any ideas how to get these gears off the shaft?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Also another question please, the Tamiya Bruiser manual says not to use grease, and Hilux manual says to use Tamiya Spray Oil. Can anyone tell me why Tamiya Ceramic grease shouldn't be used?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[robysoldtamiya]

Because grease can hold forks in place when you release the shift rod, springs could not have so much force to push the forks.

With oil everything is smooth.

[Live Steam Mad]

Because grease can hold forks in place when you release the shift rod, springs could not have so much force to push the forks.

With oil everything is smooth.

Yes, looking at the design of the gearbox, it would seem that the Tamiya Ceramic grease could hold the drive dogs (synchro-mesh rings, or sychro-mesh dogs) in one place because of it's viscosity and stop the springs releasing them (they are indeed quite weak springs really).

I have been checking out as to what lubricants Koping Hu used, he uses a spray lubricant made by the brand called "Slick 50", model seems to be "One Lube" containing PTFE, and this works by putting a PTFE film over everything but there are 2 problems with this, 1) it's not available outside USA as far as I am aware and 2) the film can be removed quite easily with mechanical wear.

The best idea seems to be to use what "performance" cyclists use. I found some very useful information here ;-

http://www.epilepsyforum.org.uk/viewtopic....81&start=15

...the thing to look at is here ;-

"The problem with GT85 and WD40 is that they are volatile lubricants. They have been designed specifically to get into small nooks and crannies to loosen things, and then evaporate along with the solvents they are mixed with. They can also be used to quickly repel water which is why I use it on certain places on my bike after washing or when it's been in the rain (chain, derailleurs, cable shrouds, brake and gear levers, and inside the headset tube). However once all the water has been repelled, I always go back and use a proper lubricant on these areas (Finish Line All Seasons). GT85 contains Teflon or PTFE as it is known, which is a protective material that helps stop things rusting (I cover all my tools in my workshop with GT85 over the winter).

The problem with these products is that once all the solvents have evaporated, what's left doesn't offer a great deal in the way of lubrication! With GT85 or WD40 on your chain, you can guarantee that it won't get rusty, but I'd be willing to bet that if you used your bike for 3 hours a day solid, your chain wouldn't last for much longer than about 2 months. It is also a misconception that the phenomenon known as 'chain stretch' is down to the weight of the rider, or attempting to climb hills in too high-a gear. WRONG!

Chain stretch is actually caused by poor lubrication and care of the chain, which in turn leads to premature and rapid wear and tear. If metal-on-metal is allowed without a suitable lubricant (GT85 and WD40 are NOT suitable as they only leave behind a thin residue), or the lubricated chain isn't cleaned and re-lubricated on a regular basis to remove the dirt and crud, the pin inside the chain rollers rubs against the roller itself. Over a period of time the hole through the centre of the roller gets bigger, and the chain pin gets thinner. Once it gets to a point, the pin will be so thin that when weight is applied, the pin either bends or breaks and the chain snaps. Unfortunately GT85 and WD40 are poor lubricants when it comes to the harsh environment inside a chain joint and they don't offer a fraction of the lubrication provided by a viscous lubricant like synthetic oil.

In all honesty I would agree with the saying that "It would be better to ride without lubing your chain, instead of lubing it with a product like GT85". If you want your chain to last then do the job properly and use a proper, synthetic bike lubricant such as Finish Line or White Lightning which will withstand and repel water. In the summer when things are dusty (which is very bad for a chain), use a wax-based lubricant instead. It has the same lubricating effect but dust can't stick to it. However it washes off quickly so it's useless in the rain."

...so as you can see under very heavy loads the thin film of PTFE is more or less useless, and judging from the condition of the teeth in my own gearbox, they look as if they are subject to horrifying loads!! So I will avoid PTFE sprays and WD40.

Also useful is the information here ;-

http://www.ba-joseph.co.uk/mtb/reviews/rev...le-extreme.html

...the thing to look at is here ;-

"I like 'dry' lubes, the fact that they don't attract dirt and grit like 'wet' oils seems eminently practical in the varied Welsh soils. The fact that I don't have to change lubes depending on where I ride and what the atmospheric conditions are like, (i.e. is it raining or not), suit me down to the .... erm ... ground?

I had this synthetic lube from Fine-ADC, (clubs can get sample packs to try from their website www.fine-adc.com ) and was asked by them to try it and write a review, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Since I started using it, the weather has been hot and dry, until recently anyway. After heavy rain I decided I'd do a wet ride to test the claimed '400 road bike miles before re-application', (it does say mtb's may require more frequent attention). To test the lube I tried a new route on the Sarn Helen roman road out of Neath, I knew from riding other parts of Sarn Helen that there were likely to be deep puddles in the ruts, I was not wrong!

'Childlike glee' is how best to describe my feeling of riding through deep water, once your feet are wet you may as well enjoy it, so I managed to find more puddles. Some of them were easily over hub deep and 10m or more in length, so the chain got a good old soaking.

After 30km of riding the chain was still shifting well and sounded smooth. It looked filthy but then so did I, the chain didn't complain so I thought it best that I didn't either. On arriving home the bike went straight into the shed as part of my experiment. I had a shower with Dove soap as part of the control experiment, I didn't rust up overnight.

My habit is to re-apply chain lube after washing the bike following every ride, I didn't do this after the wet ride, to test how the lube stayed on the chain. When I checked the bike the following day, there were rust spots in several places on the chain and on the rear sprocket. However, a quick wipe over with a dirty rag and most of the rust came off, then a light application of the purple stuff seemed to erase all the rust and the chain was running as good as ever.

I have only two complaints:

1. The lube makes your chain look dirty, it dries to a waxy finish and coats the inner and outer chain plates with a dull, dark patina. Other clear lubes I use leave the chain looking like (almost) new, so I'm marking down the score because of this. However, with a name like 'Purple Extreme', you know when you buy it that the stuff is purple so I won't hold too much of a grudge against it.

2. It costs [about] 9.99. This is a more serious issue. Most other similar dry lubes I use cost about half that.

In it's favour, the 120ml bottle has a medium length fine nozzle that helps you get lube where you want with less waste than other brands. You can see where you've applied lube when it's still wet and this can help reduce waste even more.

So, the conclusion is, the lube isn't as good as it claims, but then neither are any of the others I've tried. It seems no better or worse than ProLink ProGold or White Lightning Epic, my long term favourites. I doubt that they would have fared any better and I know most chain oils would have needed a quick top up half way around."

...so I am going to get myself some "ProLink ProGold" or some "White Lightning Epic" and see what happens.

For the bushings I might use the Tamiya Ceramic Grease. For the Shifting rod bushes, maybe I need to use something with Molybdenum DiSuphide such as Rocol Molytone 1000 that I have a tube of.

I also have some Febis K68 lubricant for lathe bedways (anti-sticktion / anti stick-slip) which I may use.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Hi,

welcome to the vintage 3spd world

There were not differences in casting gearbox halves, but there have been differences in gears material.

Some of early Hiluxes had some aluminium gears inside, that were changed to brass in all other version up to Mountaineer.

Those Hiluxes had also different wheels hub caps: they came without the locking washer inside, and worn out pretty soon.

I run my Hilux stock from the day I found it on 1996 and I never broke anything on it.

On my Bruiser I had rebuilt almost everything since I run it total locked 4wd in all gears and have a locked spur.

I even went to rebuild the double gears inside and all gears in the counter shaft using 32p pinions

Yes, thanks for the welcome into my new world of Vintage 3 speeds Roby!

Yep my gearbox has the Aluminium and Brass mixed gearing, the smaller of the 2 gears on each of the countershafts (i.e. the gear reduction shaft near the front of the gearbox and the other gear reduction shaft at the rear of the gearbox) is brass, and the larger gear in both cases is Aluminium. The "final gear" for the 4WD output section is Alu., and the 3 gears coming from the back, towards the front, of the main centre shaft (the rear section of this shaft) are Alu., and the 1 gear each side of the (inseparable?) centre gearbox section's shaft are Alu. There is a Brass gear on the frontwards end of this shaft, a Brass gear attached to the gearbox rear plate, and a Brass gear as the last one (towards the front) of the second (rear most section) of the main centre shaft, and the 2 Brass gears are the smaller of the 2 gears on both the countershafts as mentioned.

Actually the 2 silver coloured gears that have steps on them look to be darker (without cleaning them up yet) as though they are maybe case hardened Steel. By far the worst gear is the Spur, as you say it's only fit for the rubbish bin.

Regarding the new gears that you fitted, I really wanted to keep the original gearing (I prefer to keep it original where possible or practical or affordable).

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[robysoldtamiya]

I understand on keeping original gears. But since I run my Bruiser often, I stripped those double gears often so aI had to find a solution.

About lube, I use common spay oil without going so much crazy on what to use.

There has beed a time I used Silicone grease: it is strange because normally it is grease, but once it get warm a little it become liquid.

If you want to disassemble central section, you have to gently push the shaft out with an hammer, but put a piece of wood/aluminium over the shaft to avoid damage.

[Live Steam Mad]

I too had the same concern over the pinion looking very sharp on the ends of the teeth, and someone advised me that they do look this way a little, due to the pinion being so small.

Somehow I cannot accept this, small gears are still able to be cut with nice fat rounded teeth when new. Most pinions that I have for other cars are small and still look fine.

Roby gives another explanation above but I'll get to that shortly and have a think about it.

I would be grateful if anyone with a NIP motor & pinion would take a decent end on close up photo of it for me!

My gearbox also had a slightly "bruised" spur gear, looked like the motor might have worked loose at some point. Anyhow, I cleaned all the gearbox out, added a few shims here and there to take out some of the play, put it all back together, and it all works perfectly, and it's nice and quiet too I don't think i'll ever stop it leaking oil though I think what oil to use is a matter of personal preferance really, I've been using 30W silicone shock oil in mine, which works well.

I am tempted to use a spray PTFE (but do it quite often so that the film is maintained). I'll see whether I can get a can from Halfords.

As for the question on the colour of the alloy, yours looks the same as the one in my Blazing Blazer. I have to admit, I have never noticed any of the gearboxes I have seen looking noticeably different.

I had a look through all the NIB Hilux's and Blazers and new builds of them, and there seemed to be quite a variation, but I think it depends on the settings on the camera when you take the picture!

I too was "watching" the alloy spur gear that appeared on ebay recently. It went for horrendous money! The standard ones do turn up from time to time. Would be nice if someone would make a repro one.

Who made the Alloy one? What brand? Or was it made by an enthusiast?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

Just noticed my Brother seems to have pulled away some of the rubber motor cover ( boot ) on the underside of it at the front (it's dry and crumbling). Idle hands Is there anyone who reproduces this part? It would be very much appreciated if someone could do this. We would pay a fair price for them and I really need one.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad]

http://www.thisrocks.freeserve.co.uk/

Check this out if you are interested in taking apart the gear box to rebuild it with bearings. I've used for my Hilux to take it apart.

My goodness I just read on that about the main centre bearing in the gearbox centre section that you can't normally get at, and now I can understand why teeth are getting stripped . This Phosphor Bronze bearing may be hard but the loads on it are very severe indeed and the shaft on mine now has almost 1/4 inch of side to side play (waggle LOL) in it

I will investigate the possibilites of removing this one and replacing it with a single ball race.

Cheers,

Alistair G.