[alfa] Is this transmission toast?

[Kevin Trent <trentkc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This past Sunday I drove my '73 spider to a bike race 190 miles away.  I 
got a late start and had to drive fast (got there in 2.5 hours) and with 
two bikes on the trunk and the top town, it was pretty noisy on the 
interstate at 80. This drive was early, at 7am and the temperatures were 
cool and the car ran fine.  But in the heat of late afternoon on the return 
trip the car began to make an unholy sound from the transmission - the 
sound of a screeching bearing going bad.  I nursed the car back home, with 
the trans having the bearing screech come and go as I drove the on the 
interstate and adjusting speed to eliminate or minimize the transmission 
sound.  At times smoke would emit from the shift boot, and if the screech 
got real bad (it came and went with varying degrees of severity), I could 
feel the car slow as if I had pulled on the emergency brake.

But I made the 190 miles home.  The trans felt hot, but nothing I could 
really point to as abnormal and it didn't stink of hot burned oil.  Tonight 
I drained the trans oil and only got about a half quart to come out.  I did 
not see any obvious amount of metal in the oil. The magnetic drain plug did 
not have an unusual amount of metal on it, but  I stuck my finger into the 
drain and wiped it around (it felt "gritty"), and when I wiped off there 
was obviously metal flakes from this bottom sludge.  Unfortunately, I was 
unable to drain the trans when it was hot, so I'm not sure if metal residue 
just settled in the bottom of the trans rather than draining out with the oil.

SO it appears that I drove the car too far and too long and too hard with 
too little transmission oil, and a bearing has gone bad.  What to do?

My initial thought is to refill the transmission with 30 or 40 (or?) weight 
oil and do a little test driving to ascertain (a) if the proper amount of 
oil will eliminate the bearing noise and (b) if this thin oil will wash out 
the metal residue from the transmission.  If the noise is eliminated, I'll 
drain the thin oil and replace with proper gear lube and just drive it.

Or is this just wishful thinking, and the transmission has been ruined, and 
I might as well just replace or rebuild it?

Opinions or experiences with such situations?

thanks, //kct, Powell, TN
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