Hi,

My 244 has done about 80 thousand miles. Now getting what I think is a gearbox whine. I don't think it's a bearing as I've checked. Also it's now starting to make a noise on overrun even when clutch dipped.

Can't see one left than £100 on ebay of joy and thinking it may be safer to remove and re-condition myself :/

Any suggestions anyone?

Ulp :idea:

I'm not sure how you can check for worn bearings without removing the box and moving the first motion shaft around, even then layshaft bearings cannot be checked that way. Whine in either drive or overrun is usually caused by the gears being slightly out of mesh, and this is caused by wear in the bearings as a rule. Strip the gearbox carefully trying to keep together the gear clusters, and replace any bearings showing even the slightest play of roughness. Get the right bearing grades, 0,00, or 000.

80,000 miles doesn't seem much for a gearbox to start whining, but these Fiat boxes were not well made nor well designed.

I had a box failure after 12000km. Turned out to be low oillevel, less than 0,5 liter. Probably a leaking shaft seal. Have you emptied the box on oil to check level?

I had gearbox failure in Edinburgh in 1994 with my TD10 Camper, it was repaired by Capitol Motors in Kircaldy who told me the chassis had been supplied with insufficient oil in the gearbox and that the agency who did the 500km service had failed to check the level which is on the list of tasks. They said shortage of oil in new Fiats was commonplace.

Capital Motors fitted a new gearbox under warranty which got us as far as home in Almeria when it too began to make shrieking noises, as they had failed to check the tightness of the crown wheel casing nuts and most of the oil had leaked out on the road.

I took just the gearbox to the Fiat main agency in Almeria asking for a proper repair, when it came back I refitted it and gave it a test which seemed OK, but months later when we came to use it again, it would select 2 gears at once, because the mechanic who did the repair did not know that the selector shaft for 1st/reverse can be fitted either way round, right prevents 1st and reverse being selected simultaneously, wrong permits this fatal condition.

There are several morals here:-

1. If you really must buy Fiat, check EVERY level yourself before using it.
2. Do not use main agents for repairs or service - they know nothing and care even less.
3. Do all your own repairs, major and minor.