Date:         Fri, 20 Jun 2003 22:49:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Subject:      AT internals, plastic vs metal thrust washers?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I'm still working on putting my AT back together.  I ran into a couple
parts in the area of the planetary gear sets that are called thrust
washers.  There are 2 of these guys, that are a nylon or plastic looking
material with 3 lugs that engage into the planet gear holders.  The have 3
places on them that are sort of thinner, which looks like it is to promote
oil flowing into the bearing surface.  So I was cleaning parts up to
reassemble, and broke one of these thrust washers.  I took apart my known
bad spare tranny to see how they looked in there.  One looked OK, and the
other was about 80% gone!  What was left looked somewhat melted.  Yikes, I
thought, I better just get 2 new ones for my tranny.  I then went to order
a replacement for the part # on the part (010 323 291 B) and they say they
only have it without the "B."  That the "B" is a revision, usually applied
when the part manufacturer changes.  I got the parts today from the dealer,
and they are metal instead of plastic.  I have measured them all over and
they seem to have the same dimensions.  So I wonder if I have the right
part here?  Maybe the newest version is metal?  Anybody replaced these
thrust washers lately?

Thanks,
Edward