On Wed, 8 Aug 2012 10:02:58 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

As spares become No Longer Available, gearboxes are built up from several parts boxes. The excess axial play has been there for the last 8 years (20K miles). I was not observant enough when I dismantled my worn but functional trans and a parts box. The issue with this trans was a slow upshift from 1-2 (1 sec pause during upshift) and major difficulty on both a 3-2 & 2-1 downshift. Over the past 5 years I found NOS 1st gear and 1-2 shift hub along with a newly reproduced 2nd gear. Synchros back in the late 90s were garbage -supposidly good quality now. All the other axial tolerance checks are in spec on the low side.

I bought 0.015 thk round shim from McMasterCarr. I considered turning a thrust spacer but my inability to part off square and to tolerance means that I would end up filing & lapping the thrust washer to tolerance (but probably not a uniform cross section). I really want a surface grinder or access to one.

What..no machine shops in your area? Go in on a Tuesday morning with a
box of donuts and ask if they could grind your spacer flat.

flattening out a spacer takes maybe 3 minutes on a surface grinder.
Hell..stick it in an envelope and send it to me with 50 cents for
postage back and Ill do it.

Gunner