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To be fair, my wife was gone from May until Thanksgiving. I had a lot of time on my hands. Got a lot of projects done.
When she left, the Dune Buggy engine was still in pieces, her truck Stella had no heat or AC and the Camaro was a mess with no interior and hadn't run in 8 years. I also had time to replace the floor pans on a 66 Mustang. It was a very lonely 6 months though. I would rather have my wife at home and stretch out the projects.
AND, all my stuff is bolt on ish. I didn't have to remake everything. The Dune Buggy engine did have a lot of custom but the other stuff was just bolts and nuts.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

Every time this goes in or out I kind of marvel at the size


I got a better look at the trans and it looks fine. As do the bearings up at the clutch shaft. I'm now wondering if the failure was caused more by a bearing walking out of its place and rubbing than the oil level issue.....either way it will get redesigned

At least you can take it out the top!
Fiero powertrains have to drop out the bottom.

Downside to the V12 308: EVERYTHING is an engine-out service.

And so it begins. Another chapter in the saga of the V12 308.
Is it possible the drop gear just didn't have oil when it was started? I have had to repair a 308 that had a clutch replacement and the shop didn't put oil on the gears before startup and killed a bearing. I know it shares but I have always put in a half Qt or so at the top of the drop gears when filling a 308 box.

Glad to see it making progress.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

YES!
I completely forgot about topping up the trans oil. I think I've gotten away with it before because as Will said everything is an engine out service and by the time I'm done swing it around while dropping it back in it's gotten the oil it needs....but this time the oil level was just too low guess. Expensive lesson

As I start thinking again about the new lower gear setup my latest though on bearings is to just use the same or similar bearings ferrari used on the clutch shaft since its a known good solution, just installed on either side of the shaft instead of clamped together to make it a bit stronger and save space on the trans side. I was thinking tapered rollers which is still an option I guess. Either way the struggle is handling the thrust loads with a split case which means getting the assemble lengths just right to keep the bearings happy by perfect machining or I'm leaning toward including a shim of some kind to allow adjustment. The other worry is the preload will change with heat...I just don't know how much to worry about that.

Edit ...maybe better to put a double row thrust bearing on 1 side and a standard single row flowing on the other side and stop worrying about preload setup issues, if I can find room.

'Every time this goes in or out I kind of marvel at the size' said the actress to the Bishop..

It turns out the replacement drop gear set I got a screaming deal on iis a 2V set and not exactly the same as a QV drop gear set. The idler and trans gear (which I run on the clutch) match and are fine. The clutch gear though had a larger OD spline, 36.5mm v 35mm. This matters because the QV 35mm fits through a very common 35mm bearing with an OD of 72mm, which is the size bearing I setup the trans drop gear case to accept so using a 35x72 bearing is basically a drop in. to do that will mean not fully engaging the splines on this new gear....but I think that will be ok so I'm kind of settling in on that being the plan as the other option is buy an $800-$1000 QV clutch gear. I may call a salvage yard or 2 and see it I can swap them (+a small fee) my 2V gear for a QV/328 as that would be better, if not I proceed I think.

I'll share this because I found it amusing in a scary way. I made a spread sheet that takes the estimated torque curve from the simulation and calculates wheel torque in each gear. The idea is to calculate that best shift point in each rpm because as rpm climbs above the torque peak the torque drops and shifting to a higher gear the get back closer to the peak puts more torque to the wheels. The very general rule is you shift at hp peak and land back at the torque peak. But I ran the simulation out to 11k and the lines still don't cross so the correct shift point is redline....and increasing recline makes the car faster, which only encourages bad behavior

To be fair, everything we do to our cars promotes bad behavior, it is the nature of the beast. My little 125 hp dune buggy wants to be shifted at 6200, that makes for interesting driving in my area most interesting. Once you have it running, then we can worry about how mush fun you can have using it.
I was 16 when my mother asked why I wanted my car faster when the speed limit was 55. I said "Because i want to get to 55 much faster." Hasn't changed 43 years later.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver