This tale started when I was browsing a "for sale" internet site in Germany - "1994 SVX, 58k miles, one owner, service book,"gearbox problem" $3600" A phone call confirmed that the car could be driven in first and second gear only - "OK" I said to the guy" Sold ( what does a SVX look like???) . I will collect the car next week" I have done this several times now buying in Germany. Last year I bought a BMW R65 bike on the net, paid the guy by bank transfer and collected it 3 months later after going to Berlin to buy a Ford minivan especially to bring the bike home in ( that is another story!) The thing is all my deals so far in Germany have been genuine people selling exactly what they say ( OK, so perhaps not the Chevy!) - you have to have a certain degree of trust don't you?
We live in SW France just north of Toulouse so getting to Stuttgart from here is interesting - I have to stop off in Paris which is very inconvenient ...ha,ha. The car looked great and a quick check over i.e does the CD player work OK and I am off. 580 miles in second gear!
All went well until I stopped to pay a toll on the autoroute while the lady was waiting for the machine to do its thing she looked down at the front wheel of the car and was horrified at the increase in smoke coming from under the front wing. She said I was on fire!. "No," I said,"I can't be - my lovely car. Oh, hell I've cooked the gearbox!!" I couldn't really understand this as I had only been doing 50-60mph max. The problem was that oil was leaking from the engine dropping onto the muffler. I stopped at a Renault garage ( being now in France) and they took off the underbody covers so that the oil would drop onto the road. They looked for the oil leak but couldn't find it. They would not take any payment for the work and sent me on my way.
I decided to take the scenic route back to get off the autoroute and take it easy.
Back to the tranny. I have taken out the main unit in three sections trying to keep each one together. There is a washer with roller bearings which falls out ( not the rollers thank goodness)That gave me a bit of a shock!The thing is that I am obsessed with making a mental note of what is happening at each stage of the operation.
I have now decided that I should wait for the parts to arrive before any more dismantling - I am going to have a well earned drink - by the way red wine is the same price as gas here i.e $5 a gallon - any prizes for guessing which would get my last few dollars!
Ron