Vignale Gamine

Two months ago, Vinnie suffered a malfunction during the drive to the annual MOT test. The initial diagnosis was a broken gearbox, so since I've been meaning to replace the old one with a synchronized gearbox, I started looking for a new part.

Yesterday, after the new gearbox and clutch set arrived to Israel last week, I started the replacement process with a good friend. We took the old gearbox off, and then discovered that the problem wasn't in the gearbox after all...

Three screws in the flywheel broke, and caused the symptoms two months earlier - not being able to engage to any gear.

So we took the engine out as well, and took it to have the broken screws removed.

Today we installed the new synchronized gearbox (brand new one, straight from Poland), and in a few days we'll finish the job by re-installing the engine. We are a bit delayed by a missing locking plate, which fell apart together with the screws, and is being manufactured as we speak.

I'll keep you posted as of the final results of this gearbox repair / upgrade, and as always you're welcome to ask any question.

Roy.

Here are a few photos from the last two days of work:

The old gearbox is out

SHOCK! the broken flywheel screws

...So we had to take the engine out

And it is taken to extract the broken screws

The broken screws

The next day, the new gearbox is installed. Here is the old gearbox:

And here is the new gearbox with the old one's housing (the Fiat 126 housing doesn't fit the Fiat 500 starter)

Fiat auto ricambio auto originale :-)

The new gearbox after we installed it

And all that is left is re-installing the engine, hopefully a few days from now. I'll update this thread with the final result.

Thanks for watching, you're welcome to comment!

Vinnie is back in shape!

Today we re-installed the engine, and Vinnie even passed the annual MOT test with flying colors.

Here are a few pictures from the process:

The flywheel is re-installed with new screws

The new clutch

Engine re-installed

Ready for the MOT test