Trans problems (long)

[s.castledine@ntlworld.com (Stuart Castledine)]

This got a bit long, so I've stuck the question here at the top. If you want
the background, read further...

I've got a used trans from a yard and the oil seal on the clutch pushrod has
come out of the input shaft. Is this as simple a fix as just replacing the
seal? The H*yn*s manual (I know, but we don't have Bentleys over here) talks
about pressing a bushing out of the input shaft, but I'm assuming that's
only if there's excessive side to side slop in the pushrod, which there
isn't. Thanks in advance for any help...

Now the reason I'm doing this... some of you might remember I posted last
year about a whirring/knocking noise from my transmission. The noise went
away when I changed the trans oil (to semi synthetic), but came back again a
few thousand miles later, albeit intermittently. I took it to a couple of
garages, who could find nothing wrong, so I carried on driving it.

Anyway, going to work last week, there came a series of bangs from the trans
and the noise got louder (still only there on deceleration though). This
occurred almost 20,000 miles since it first got noisy. Having got the car up
on stands and gone over it, I think the problem is in the diff somewhere.
There's no play in the CV joints or wheel bearings, but there does seem to
be a lot of backlash in the drive flanges. Also, it used to be that rotating
one wheel would cause the other to rotate the same way, but now I can feel
it binding slightly over part of the rotation and the other wheel remains
stationary. It doesn't sound too healthy either :)

Stuart
'88 GTX