[T3] The road trip blues

[Daniel Nohejl]

> There are different versions of the donuts; it might be possible to cut just one 
> side of the metal mesh ones. I would smear either kind with muffler putty to 
> help seal.

All I have access to are the metal mesh ones, so I’ll at try cutting one side and will see what happens. To my ear, the “repair" we did is already starting to fail. 


> The gearboxes have a "center" position, so when you install a "new" one you 
> should set the steering wheel up so the spokes are horizontal when the box 
> is centered. Then the tie rods should be adjusted so the spokes are 
> horizontal when driving straight on a flat road. If you don't do this, you may 
> end up with the gearbox off-center, which will give more play than 
> necessary, wear faster, and may turn much farther in one direction than in 
> the other. A little bit of off-center is common, as is a bit of rubbing on one 
> side, but it's also possible to be WAY off-center, like having 1.5 turns in one 
> direction and 2.5 turns in the other.

As of now, we’re only slightly off center and it’s not really an issue but for when the tire rubs on rare occasions when parking. I don’t have a good flat surface anywhere near me on which I could mess with the tie rods and then re-check or reset toe. If it comes to that, I’ll need an alignment shop, but the one I went to last year did a good alignment for us. 
> 
> Note that late gearboxes have a ring marker on the input shaft that indicates 
> the center position. On those boxes, the steering wheel should be, IIRC, 
> horizontal when the gap in the ring faces straight up. Look at the gearbox I 
> sent you to see that ring.

The box (which I did buy from Tim Shreve) has two marks scribed on the shaft. One is a straight line and the other is a long Y. They’re several mm apart from each other so I’ll probably have to ask Tim which is the correct mark to align with. There’s no ring marker on this one.