Gearbox and Bell Housing

Here is the Type-9 gearbox and bell housing as bought secondhand from ebay.

Before separating the the two the clutch release fork was removed.  To do so required that the clutch release bearing be removed.  The bearing was destroyed during the process.  No problem as a new one is provided in the new Pinto clutch kit.  Once the gearbox and bell housing were separated they cleaned with lots of rags and lots of white spirit.

I attempted to remove the reverse stop from the gearbox, but in the end I gave up as it did not seem to want to move and I did not want to damage the gearbox housing.  I tried my Rally Design remote and it functions fine with the original reverse stop still in place in the gearbox.  There is a replacement reverse stop in the gear lever end of the remote.

Bell housing cleaned and degreased, ready for painting with Hammerite.

The oil seals on the input and output shafts were replaced.  The sleeve for the clutch release bearing has to be removed to change the input shaft oil seal.  Upon refitting a new cork gasket is fitted.

Here is the gearbox, repainted, with new oil seals.  The only oil seal that I could not change was the one on the speedo drive shaft.  I removed the side access plate, but when I looked inside you can removed the speedo drive shaft, but it looks like you can't get to the oil seal on the other side without completely dismantling the gearbox.  Something I don't plan on doing!  Fingers crossed this tiny oil seal doesn't let me down once the gearbox is in the car.

A new gasket was fitted between gearbox and bell housing prior to mating the two.  If this is not done the gearbox will empty its oil via the hole that the gear selector rod exits through.

Gearbox and bell housing bolted back together, torqued up as per the Hayne's manual.  The clutch release fork will be reinstalled, along with the new clutch release bearing, at a later stage.

New gearbox mount was trial fitted prior to putting the whole assembly aside, to wait for the engine to be tidied up.

Rear Wheel Bearing Removal

With the hub nut removed it is fairly easy to use a puller to remove the drive flange. After this the driveshaft can be removed from the hub carrier. Then the bearing all seals can be pulled out with a pair of mole grips, being careful not to damage the inner surfaces of the rear hub carrier. Once the oil seals are out the tapered roller bearings just drop out.

The harder part is removing the outer bearing races from inside the hub carrier. These bearings are back-to-back and therefore it is not possible to push them out with a press. Neither is it easy to pull them out with a puller - there is not enough surface to get a grip on. Perhaps a blind bearing puller might work, but these are very expensive.

In the end I fashioned a simple soft metal drift from a scrap brass ball valve arm - sourced from a friendly plumber. This improvised drift, teamed up with a normal claw hammer, was used to drive the outer faces from within the hub carrier. After each hit the hub carrier was rotated 90 degrees. This helped ensure the race came out straight and did not get jammed at an angle. The second race was even easier as there was more of its rear surface visible to use the drift on.

Final Drive

Here is the final drive (differential) as it was removed from the donor Sierra rear beam. Quite sorry looking, with some oil on the case where the original oil seals had started to fail.


First job was to remove the nut on the prop shaft flange. Then the flange itself could be removed with a three legged bearing puller. The three oil seals were removed by pulling very hard with adjustable grips, being careful not to damage the inner surface of the final drive unit.

After spraying with water soluble degreaser the final drive unit was steam cleaned using a domestic steam cleaner and a small wire brush drill attachment. The result was very good, with all oil and dirt removed. During the cleaning the openings were covered to prevent debris, degreaser or water getting into the internals. A couple of coats of Hammerite special metals primer were added. This ensured the silver top coat would have good adhesion.


The final drive unit was then given two coats of smooth silver Hammerite. The prop shaft flange as well as the nuts on the rear of the unit were painted in black Hammerite. Then the new oils seals were installed, using a suitable drift and hammer. Camberley Auto Factors no longer stock oil seals or other parts for the Sierra, but eBay came to my rescue (yet again).

Here is the final drive mounted in the chassis using the new bolts and nyloc nuts provided by Tiger.

The rear hub nut challenge

It seems that people do various amount of renewal of the Sierra rear drive shafts. Some do none, some do a full rebuild, including sandblasting and new bearings and gaters. The gaters on mine definitely need replacing. On top of this I've opted to dismantle the hub carrier and replace the bearings and oil seals. This was not essential, but I would have not have been completely happy if I had ignored them. There was a lot of dirt where the drive shaft enters the hub carrier and I would never have been able to fully clean it. Also, while the bearings did not appear to have any play in them, but they were far from running completely smoothly.

How to get them apart? We'll I tried a 41mm 1/2 inch impact socket with a breaker bar, with the drive shaft mounted in a WorkMate. No joy. Tried the same, but with an air powered impact wrench. Still no joy. Yes, I did remember that one has a reversed thread and copious amounts of WD-40 had already been applied! This is all quite straight forward on the original Sierra as you can apply the car's handbrake and the drive shaft is not going anywhere. Much more difficult off the car.

My next solution was to try holding the drive shaft with a long metal bar with a hole drilled near to one end for one of the wheel studs and using a breaker bar to pull against it. Instant success. With the hub carrier and driveshaft separated it was then a very easy job to remove the bearings and oils seals. The bearings and oil seals were kept for reference and the remainder of the parts cleaned of grease and dirt, ready for rebuilding later.