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A while back, I built up a spare transaxle with new synchros and sleeves. I then gave the gearbox to a guy for some work on the diff. After the diff was done, I had him store the transaxle for me. I had given him 3 liters of gear oil to fill it.
Then, a few months ago, I was ready to install the transaxle in my current driver. When I checked the level of the gear oil, I was surprised to find that their was none. The guy who did the diff and storage said that it must have leaked out, but I know that he never put the gear oil in it in the first place.
My guess is that he used my synthetic gear oil for something else and resolved to buy cheaper oil for my box. Then kept putting it off because he didnt want to spend the money and eventually forgot about it all together. That is Mexico for you...

The result is that things got rusty. I would like to salvage this box for parts, but I dont know if this is advised. I would really like to use the slider rings, since they were brand new. The one that I have removed seems to have some rust in the groove which the selector fork rides in. I am wondering if I should use this part or not? Will other work, like shot peening be required to clean it up?

Is this just a bad idea?

without opening it up and haveing a good look its hard to say...i mean how clean was everything when it went together..was anything lubed during assy?

its probably safe to add oil run it a bit then change the oil and keep running it...unless your on the coat or water definatly got inside of it

There will be no running this box. I soaked every part in gasoline before assembly, so it was oil free at the time. Why I felt it necesarry to clean everything is another sad story. I assembled the gearset while the diff was out. I didnt want to add oil since the diff had to be installed. In hindsight, it would have been smart to brush oil onto each part during assembly. I figured that it was fairly pointless, since I live in the desert and there is no moisture in the air.
The oil was to be added shortly after anyway...
there is some scaley rust on the surface of things and the gearset doesnt turn. I am disassembling it and I hope to salvage the slider rings as they were brand new. I am just afraid that I might damage my selector forks. On the other hand, the rings might get cleaned by the selector forks after bit of use.
Those rings go for $80 each, so it is a shame to give up on them. Then again, it isnt worth damaging another gearbox.
I will try to take some photos if I can find my camera.

it is probably just superficial rust..gears are nitrided so they should be pretty resistant to deep surface rusting, bearings on the other hand??

I would put some lube in, give it a few turns to see if it frees up

If it does not turn, problem may be more than rust (was the diff put in correctly)

yeah most trans internals are hard to get to actualy and truely "rust" a lil surface rust is nothing.......ive seen american car trans full of water drained and filled with oil ...and no ill effects.....

im sure your BB's are dry and that is all the problem is