MTFCA Forum

What are other peoples experiences with finding an auxiliary transmission that has been left out in the elements for a few decades, or nearly a century. Anyone ever find one with oil inside or is rusty water the likely discovery? I have seen some pretty ugly on the outside Ford rear axles that were fine inside.

Some of the best original rear end internal parts I ever had came out of some of the worst looking rusty messes of a rear end I ever saw!

On the other side of the question. Some years ago, I ran into a Jumbo Giant transmission at a swap meet for sale really cheap. So, figuring just a few parts would be worth the price, I grabbed it. It had obviously been out in the weather for a few decades, but didn't look bad outside. After I got it home, I opened it up to find a beautiful set of upper gears! The lower cluster gear however had sat in water for decades and was way beyond salvage.
About a year later, I found another Jumbo Giant for cheap. The upper gears had been badly abused by bad shifting, but the lower cluster gear wasn't bad. Between the two I think I can make one good one.

The big problem with the top shifter transmissions is that left out in the weather, rain catches onto the shift lever, and runs down to the shift tower and ball. Some amount of water finds its way through and gets trapped inside. Some amount does evaporate, however, the gear oil if there is any, floats on the exposed surface of the water and slows down evaporation, a lot. The water finds its level between rainfall averages and high heat and limited evaporation coupled with maybe some leakage out shafts, bearings, and shrinking cover gaskets. Whatever that level is, the water holds oxygen and enhances oxidation of the iron and steel areas causing extreme rust damage.