Well, with Christmas and New year left behind it seems to be the right time for some horrors. And I do have some!
As one may remember, with the BMW R35 we also received a couple of spare engines and gearbox with hand operated gear switch. Our client’s wish was that I sort out these engines and the gearbox and find out what parts from them could be used in the project. Be it righteous restoration, this assortment of parts with not matching numbers and not correct parts design could be a right pain in the ass. The fact that our BMW R35 is a Restomod Project simplifies matters significantly. Sure as a day, I started with gearbox, since gearbox with hand operated gear switch lever is the cornerstone of the BMW project.
The gearbox in question was attached to the engine and both, engine and transmission steel parts looked heavily corroded.
However, I had a hope beyond all hopes to salvage some parts for the project or at least to use gearbox housing. So I started the gearbox dismantling by removing the gear switch lever cover. The view I beheld under that cover wasn’t neither promising, nor pleasant: there was gear with broken teeth, total absence of traces of oil and yellowish depositions on the inside of the gearbox housing.
Then I had to remove the pulley. I made a special socket for its nut. Even being damaged by one of previous owners of engine, the nut came off relatively easily.
Universal puller in its turn solved the issue of the pulley.
What I found under the kickstarter cover wasn’t a pretty sight either. To describe it in two words: I was glad I found no dead mice there.
My next move was to separate the gearbox from the engine. It wasn’t that easy since the clutch release lever stuck dead along with the gearbox shaft and other clutch components. With the help of some patience and a lot of penetrating oil I managed to make the clutch release lever move and managed to pull the gearbox from the engine.
And again, the view wasn’t the best.
Following step was removing the gearbox components. Well, on one hand, by that time I had no illusions about what I was about to see there. On another, my personal attitude to the subject of how it is possible to destroy things utterly didn’t matter since it had already happened. If there was a third hand, it was like that: someone had to do the job and sort out poor things. So I dismantled the gearbox completely without further damaging the components and began a vain search for survivors on the field of destruction…
Mind, next photos contain scenes of total and utter mechanisms’ destruction that may cause if not mental disorder then state of sadness.
I have no words to comment on photos like these.
But I do have a name for what I found inside of the gearbox case. I called it iron rich soil. Or should I say rust rich soil?
“Good news”: I found missing teeth!
I think that will do for illustration with the name “Decades years of neglect and absence of proper maintenance”. Most of the parts turned out to be beyond salvation. Therefore, I have no slightest intentions to use them in the project. However, a few parts still could be used and I’ll do my best to them, so let me ensure you: when you see them next time, you will not recognize them.
by 