Hello,everyone. My Bro-in-law has an EF we converted to a 5 Spd, and the conversion was a success for about 18 months, till new years eve. He was on the motorway travelling at about 110kph, when the car gave an all mighty bang, set off the airbag, and locked the rear wheels, and threw the car into an uncontrollable spin. We got the car towed home, jacked it up, and discovered: the tailshaft resembled a well spent twist-tie, the exhaust was mutilated, the front yolke on the tailshaft was shattered, the gearxox housing was cracked with two of the mounting holes shattered off, the bell housing was cracked, and shattered in two places, with the place where the clutchfork pivot mounts missing, and the pinion gear on the diff slightly bent enough to wobble creating a major vibration.

Has anyone herd of these gearboxes "self distructing" like this before?

There were no warning signs(rattles, thumps, vibration, etc) before this occurred.

When this occurred he was shifting from 4th to 5th..

i've seen pretty bad damage from manual gearboxes before, did the flywheel brake? ..

Also, Was the spigot bush still in the crank?

No the only damage was as I mentioned. The spigot bush, and the flywheel and clutch are still ok. The floorpan is pretty beat up, though...
You've seen damage before? Was the damage you've seen similar to what I described? What would cause what I described?

Hi,
That sounds like the interlocking has failled allowing two gears to be selected at once. How many kays had the gearbox done?
Allan

The box had about 160, 000 klms, came out of a wagon...

slightly off topic, anyone see that happen at bathurst i think it was in qualifying? guy did it around a corner... didnt tihnk it was possible, but there ay go

yeah thats random and off topic Gaz, thanks

I've only ever seen one or the other go, the bellhousing I've seen do that was rumoured to have hairline stress fractures in the metal, and the other had driveshaft issues already..

Damn - I hope you guys bought a lotto ticket!! That could have been so much worse.

When I killed the T5 I used to have in the XR8, it was making noises when I shifted really hard. If I baby'd it - it was OK.

When I snapped the tailshaft there was a lot of damage. It took out the fuel lines, brake lines, beat up the floor pan, and filled the gearbox with metal shavings (although - no damage to the bell housing)
If this had happened when I was driving, and not strapped down to a dyno, I very much doubt I would be here today.

jesus xr8chic that would have made a hell of a bang. Spose you've thrown on tailshaft loops now?

yeah it sounds very much like it selected 4th and 5th at the same time.