Gearbox Shrapnel ?? and box decision
Turbo Mini Forums

Evening Guys...

Right to cut a long story short I changed the crank in my NA 1293 block... on inspection of the box some gears where pitted and some were slightly chipped so I was not to impressed about putting it back on in the engine...

In this time a friend of mine donated me a box so I can start on my turbo build... looking at the box it appeared to be in fantastic condition gears where almost new and all clearences where within limits....

My mate mentioned that he had a valve drop on him but promised the box was okay... now on cleaning the box out tonight and getting ready to prep it to put it back on my engine I found what seems to be broken up piston rings ??? and some questionable metal to...

All in all there is no play in the box on the shafts diff or anything looking untowards...

Here:





Can any one identify these and confirm they are what I think they are the bigger pieces look like box casing but I dont know about these...

Now the questions .... in the ideal world I wouldnt put any of the boxes on and I would send my own box off for a full SC re-build but I dont have the money just yet....

So do I:

Use my mates box knowing that I retrieve bad shrapnel from there..

Use my existing box untill I build the turbo lump

or face the fact that the mini is going to be off the road for a while and scrap both boxes and bide my time and move forward with the SC gear box and turbo project...

ATM I am leaning towards SORN'ing the car and doing a proper job on it.... put I really wanted the car on the road for the Riv Run and show season.... but I think doing a proper job is more sensible.

Your thoughts on what the mystery metal scrap is...

Cheers
Dan

It looks like bits of piston ring, bits of oil control ring, and part of the lower piston skirt which has broken up.

If I were in your position I would take the gearbox your friend has given you, strip it and clean it out thoroughly, then rebuild it with new bearings where/if required, and then use it. All in all less than a days work to do that to the gearbox and will give you some piece of mind. You could also upgrade the gearbox at the same time, e.g. comp diff pin and central oil pick up pipe.
If you want I can do this for you, PM for more details.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 31st Jan, 2006.

let tom build it for you with a minispares drop gears + clubman gearset and new bearings & a minispares 4 pin diff.

then fit it & forget it.

Thanks for the feedback guys...

I am tempted to strip and do the box myself I have all the tools etc etc myself... its just a case of time

I am going to have a word with my mate tonight to see if he can see any damage on the piston just to confirm the large bits of metal are/where part of the piston.

Cheers

Dan

It IS piston and broken oil control ring...

Jf.