I read this post http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/spider-1966-up/264873-leaking-fluid-under-engine-87-spider.html and recognized it as the exact leak that I had under my car.
Fearful of my ability to reassemble, I dove into the repair. Yeah, I am the guy who punctured my new oil filter and often ends up with extra parts. My car is an 87 without the bolts under the radio so I was able to get everything apart fairly painlessly only to find my boot was not torn and everything seemed right . . . other than the brown stains flowing down from the boot and a bunch of crud. I ran back inside and pulled up the board to confirm what I saw in the picture and make sure I hit everything while it was a part. I pulled up the inner boot cleaned out the drains even though they really didn't seem to need it and removed the vent assemblies.
Many of you will laugh and call me a neophyte when I tell you I had a holy **** moment when I started to take the assembly off and felt it connected to the shift. I was scared about what would be involved in putting it back. I carefully held on to the washer inside, cleaned the vent, took one of at a time to keep track of shims and was ecstatic to find reassembly a breeze. I put the inner boot on snugly and then debated for probably too long about whether I should use the leather boot I bought a while back or leave the vinyl. I decided I was not entirely happy with the quality of the leather and left it as is - one more nod to originality.
Now the weird thing. I really didn't think I did anything, but I immediately noticed a difference. Cold shifting into second was MUCH smoother and the rattle I used to get around 3k RPM and again at 4500 from the gearbox was completely gone. In fact, all of the gearbox noise that I took to be normal was gone. 80 or so miles since and still the same.
I am very happy, I only wish I knew what I did. Maybe loose a loos vent assembly was moving around?
Fearful of my ability to reassemble, I dove into the repair. Yeah, I am the guy who punctured my new oil filter and often ends up with extra parts. My car is an 87 without the bolts under the radio so I was able to get everything apart fairly painlessly only to find my boot was not torn and everything seemed right . . . other than the brown stains flowing down from the boot and a bunch of crud. I ran back inside and pulled up the board to confirm what I saw in the picture and make sure I hit everything while it was a part. I pulled up the inner boot cleaned out the drains even though they really didn't seem to need it and removed the vent assemblies.
Many of you will laugh and call me a neophyte when I tell you I had a holy **** moment when I started to take the assembly off and felt it connected to the shift. I was scared about what would be involved in putting it back. I carefully held on to the washer inside, cleaned the vent, took one of at a time to keep track of shims and was ecstatic to find reassembly a breeze. I put the inner boot on snugly and then debated for probably too long about whether I should use the leather boot I bought a while back or leave the vinyl. I decided I was not entirely happy with the quality of the leather and left it as is - one more nod to originality.
Now the weird thing. I really didn't think I did anything, but I immediately noticed a difference. Cold shifting into second was MUCH smoother and the rattle I used to get around 3k RPM and again at 4500 from the gearbox was completely gone. In fact, all of the gearbox noise that I took to be normal was gone. 80 or so miles since and still the same.
I am very happy, I only wish I knew what I did. Maybe loose a loos vent assembly was moving around?
