anyhow, thanks to crap weather and a general feeling of fatigue and malaise on getting home from work/college (bleurrgh) i haven't had chance to do anything much with the pair of boxes lying around my house, save clear some of the inch-thick coating of road grime and degraded waxoyl from the new one.
which is good because it gave my brain time to hit me with this realisation about my plan to open the case on the 4-speed and investigate the differential (after draining the oil of course)
are there any parts in there that are held in place by the casing? or any that will block it coming apart?
i'm thinking for the first part, the shafts themselves, any "loose" bits of the diff etc
for the second, the right-hand shaft hub, release bearing parts, the outer spline of the input shaft
especially anything that's going to fall out or will fly across the room/into my eye
under spring tension! (spreading ultra-smellerific gearbox oil as it goes)