wxq99

Drained oil and found this big piece, all others are small. Is it still safe to run that box? Gearbox oil change every 800-1000kms and this is the first big piece came off.

Oddjob

Model/year of car?

Any unusual noise or rough shifting prior to finding this? Lot's of other metal fines on the magnet, more than typical?

Without being able to identify what component that piece is from, I'd say no don't run it without opening it up.

And with that said, I'm not sure I can think of any internal rotating component losing a 6-8mm chunk that would still be safe to run.

coryf

I would not run it. It;s hard to tell but looks like it could be a piece of the pinion shaft. If a chunk of metal gets stuck between a gear set it will do some serious damage and would drive the rebuild cost way up versus going in for a "standard" rebuild.

38D

As other have already said, rebuild it now or pay way more later.

wxq99

Thank you Jim, Cory. After careful comparison, I believe that piece is from pinion...Pulling gearbox out and put spare on this weekend.

coryf

If you need someone to rebuild it, please let us know.
autometrics@me.com

wxq99

Here we go the pinion shaft, RIP. The box is about 4000kms since last rebuild; it was opened up for inspection about 1000kms ago and nothing was wrong. When things go wrong, they go quickly...

carbondan

There's your problem, looks like Private Pyle left a spent 5.56 casing in the gearbox!
All jokes aside, please keep us posted on what you find out during the teardown and rebuild, that looks quite ugly.
What fluid were you running? Not that it was likely to contribute to that failure, but still a worthwhile datapoint.