My journey into trike building

Nice and shiny

Sorry its been so long but here is another update for you all.

Now that the weather is turning nice, I decided to get out and start work on revamping the gearbox. I got the rear end of an old (1973) beetle so, not surprisingly, the gearbox was encrusted with 40 years of road tar and general dirt.

As can be seen, this thing was filthy so a plan of action was devised so that the cleaning could be accomplished in a safe and sound manner.

Gearbox refurb

The initial cleaning step to remove all the gunk you see in the picture, was a pressure wash by the guys at my local hand car wash and an acid spray to start to loosen the worst and most stubborn of the dirt.

Gearbox refurb

As can be seen the box looks pretty clean, but there was still ingrained dirt and oil and large collections of tar in the recesses of the box. This meant that the next step was going to involve a LOT of elbow grease and patience. So I broke out the scouring pads, oven cleaner and old tooth brushes and went to work on the box.

Gearbox refurb

Soaking the gearbox in oven cleaner helped to loosen any of the stubborn tar and oil, and then I attacked the surface with the metal brushes and scrubbed really really hard. after 10 hours work i got it to this stage.

Gearbox refurb

After I had got it to this stage I took it back up to the car wash guys and they again acid washed and pressure washed the outside of the case. I brought the case back and treated the corrosion that I could find, and then painted the whole lot with smoothright.

Gearbox refurb

After the paint had dried I finished by installing the new reverse switch and packing. All that’s left to do is to change the gearbox oil when its installed

Here is some bonus pictures of what the gearbox looks like.

Gearbox refurb

Gearbox refurb

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