Transaxle & engine bay

I've been told that as long as the transaxle is out anyway, it's good insurance to replace the rubber seals on the input shaft and driveshafts. New seals are in place, old ones in the foreground.

The side seals pry out easily; the input shaft seal (not shown) required a special seal puller. New ones tap in easily using a piece of wood as a drift.

Since this transaxle will be used for open-track days, I've decided to 'neuter' the freewheel. This metal sleeve from my spare transaxle does the trick.

The eccentric hole in the plug fits over this shaft, which is connected to the freewheel lockout fork. Bolting the plug in place permanently holds the fork in the locked position.

Now to see how much damage was done when the freewheel hub broke. Originally, it fit inside this cup. The teeth around the edge of the cup engage the teeth on the locking sleeve -- fortunately, they don't seem to be damaged.

This shows the rear section of the transaxle, standing on end. Ring and pinion and differential gears are at the top. Small brass pins and steel rollers fell out of the freewheel hub when it broke. But I can't see any damage to the teeth of the ring and pinion gears.

This shows the gearbox section in its normal horizontal position, with the top cover off. Again, I couldn't see any sign of damage to the gear teeth from the pieces that came out of the freewheel.

This is the top cover that fits over the gearbox in the previous picture. It seemed fine, so all I did was clean it up like this.

With the gears inspected and cleaned up, the top is ready to go back on the box.

Once the gearbox was reassembled, I found the input shaft wouldn't turn smoothly. The problem turned out to be this: a bent shaft on the freewheel lockout fork. This is the part that holds the locking sleeve in the cup shown above. The bent shaft means the fork part is pressed too far back, and drags against the cup as it rotates.