Best idea is to disassemble it, as some of the bearings cannot be inspected without this. What you can see of the gears, should show smooth meshing faces without uneven or rough surfaces.
The key bits in my experience are the dog that goes on the back of the gearbox mainshaft and the bit that meshes with it, the input shaft on the overdrive. These tend to wear and eventually fail, and the input shaft is expensive to replace. As a general rule, you should plan on, at a minimum, replacing all bearings and seals. A few of these are availble from general bearing supplyu houses, but most are not. All parts are available from Rovers Down South in New Orleans, and in view of the current $US rate, this might be the best source for all parts, even those you can get locally. They will also do an exchange service, which you might want to look at for the same reason.
The drive dog is the only likely point of failure provided you keep oil up to it, but unless the bearings and gears are in first class condition, expect it to be very noisy - most of them are!
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
Bookmarks