Hi Guys on the weekend i pulled the front bar off my car so it would clear the ramps to get into the spray booth and found this nice little hole in the gearbox. the mechanic in the performance shop next door to the panel beaters said that the person who installed the hd clutch didnt tighten up the pressure plate bolts properly and one of them shot out of the side of the box. is it fixable or will i need a new gearbox eventually?
http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m451/ih8hsv/13032010334.jpg

If the box still works properly and holds oil, I'd get someone to weld a plate over the hole. Otherwise, it needs to come out to see how bad the damage is.

The "mechanic" is selling you a truckload of rose fertilizer, there is no way a pressure plate bolt could come off and do that!

he was telling me that one of the sss pulsars he had in his shop had done the same thing but i dont know whether he is blowing smoke up my ass.
the car shifts fine and i believe its still holding its oil, i will have to get my mechanic to have a look at it to find out the problem and then if its fine ill find a place that will weld a plate onto it

Tis an aluminum casing so needs to be an alu welder.

might have to hit up trotty and see if he does aluminium welding

If it is in a non critical spot and the box is holding oil & shifting fine, a flattened milo tin and some araldite will do! lol
If it is the bell housing of the gearbox - can't quite see from the pic - all you really need to do is keep dirt and water from entering the hole.

My theory regarding the cause of the hole - you drove over a landmine! (just as plausible)

i believe it is the bell housing & i dont know how long its had the hole for might have to tag along with someone else on saturday :( and get it fixed

It has to be the bell housing, or you would have no oil left.

MadMax, yes this can happen quite easily. I have a customer who picked up something through the inspection hold, end result was similar. We know was not a pressure plate bolt as they were all there

OP, if was a pressure plate bolt, your clutch in theory would be feeling very weird. Is this the case

You have 2 choices, for now you can simply cover the hole with some RTV sealant provided of course the bolt issue has been fixed or if the box is coming out simply get it welded. Is the bell housing area so is a fairly easy fix for someone who can alloy weld

If you think that was caused by someone working on your car I'd be taking it straight back mate!

MadMax, yes this can happen quite easily. I have a customer who picked up something through the inspection hold, end result was similar. We know was not a pressure plate bolt as they were all there

OP, if was a pressure plate bolt, your clutch in theory would be feeling very weird. Is this the case

You have 2 choices, for now you can simply cover the hole with some RTV sealant provided of course the bolt issue has been fixed or if the box is coming out simply get it welded. Is the bell housing area so is a fairly easy fix for someone who can alloy weld

The clutch doesnt feel different and is operating as normal except for a mild grinding sound when i let the clutch out when taking off in first or reverse. looks like it will have to be booked into my mechanic to check to see whether anything has in fact fallen out.

Could this have happened if the box was dropped on the ground when it got taken off?

This has come at the wrong time too as rego is due in afew weeks :(

If you think that was caused by someone working on your car I'd be taking it straight back mate!

funny thing is i got the work done through a old work colleague and im gonna give him a call and tell him what for :facejump:

has never happened to me, but then I use loctite and a torque wrench on these. paranoia set in after a bolt holding the torque converter to the drive plate in a Sigma came loose and took out the starter motor. lol, not

Looks like the metal is bent inwards this would indicate that what ever made the hole came from the road rather than inside the bell housing. I have a similar hole in my CAT from a piece of angle iron I ran over.

You would think you would feel a bit of metal smashing up into your bell housing, would have been an almighty thud.

A bolt on a disk spinning at 3,000RPM would have a fair bit of force behind it.

im gonna get it booked in at my mechanic on friday to check and see whether or not its damaged inside. fingers crossed that it wont be expensive