> The Triumph tranny went south at 20,000 miles. I
> was told that the mainshaft had the thrust washers
> incorrectly spaced between the gearsets!..I say it was
> just a weak link in the drive train. Marina Madness..
> Howard
> PS..I changed my oil(Duckyms 20-50) every 3000
> miles..don't know what the inside of the block looked like..:-)
Our first Marina was a 73 that had a trashed tranny. Supposedly it had been
rebuilt, so we went after the rebuilder, who had done it as a moonlighting
job. My dad redid the trans and was really proud of his new (used) car. I
took the car out on a Friday night, and taught myself how to shift a manual
cruising 16th street in downtown Denver (stoplight to stoplight).
Everything went well, and I got really good at speed shifting.
Unfortunately I tried to put the car into reverse without using the clutch
on the way home. Bang, and reverse didn't work any more. It turns out the
reverse gear shaft had snapped where it threaded into the case. This was a
common problem, and there was an upgraded shaft available.
Guess who learnt' how to remove and rebuild his first transmission that
weekend! Needless to say, I got very good at dropping and rebuilding
gearboxes after driving Marinas' for a number of years. My dad ended up
going to automatics, as they were pretty bulletproof, and he didn't mind the
car having the acceleration of a torpid slug.
Interesting bit about Duckhams oil as distributed in the US. It had the
original UK formulation, and was the only oil to pass the Rolls Royce
longevity test. Based on what I had learnt about additives, I believed that
Duckhams was the only oil that would work well with the chilled iron lifters
and cam. I distributed it for some time in the Denver region, but could
never get any substantiation for my theories. It made a good marketing
spiel tho'.
Kelvin.
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