Advice needed! G-232 trans repair/swap...

[rctid]

Okay,

I've begun tearing into my recently acquired '02 and pulled the trans (232 4-speed) to have a look since it had been leaking. Upon removal, I discovered damage to the back cover that I think happened when a guibo bolt decided to leave (happened under PO's watch, haven't driven the car yet). The bottom third of the boss and seal around the shift rail has been shaved off, hence the leaking. There's also some chips off the adjacent bosses, but nothing more than cosmetic. There are also a few dents on the shift rail, three approx 1/4in long on the bottom side of the rail.

So I currently have two complete trans, the damaged one, and another in unknown condition that came with the car. The two appear to be in similar basic condition, with the damaged one slightly better. The input shaft on the spare has a fair amount of freeplay, probably 1/16in plus or minus. The damaged box feels solid on input and output shafts.

I see my two options as:

(1) Replace the damaged trans with the unknown, or

(2) Replace the back casing on the damaged trans with the spare, which looks good. If necessary, also replace shift rail

Both have pros and cons, but I wanted to get some advice on this from someone who's rebuilt these before. The complete swap is certainly easier, but the freeplay in the shaft seems borderline accetpable. Not really sure how much labor is involved in the swap on the back case, at first glance it seems like pulling the output flange is the hardest part. Sorry about the long post, but wanted to be as complete as possible. Any advice one way or the other would be GREATLY appreciated.

Cheers!

[jrhone]

Well....I'd do option 3....get a 245 and do a 5 speed conversion.

[rctid]

...do a 5 speed conversion

ah, some day... got cheap parts? budget is a bit thin...