The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Pieces of metal in my tranny (pic)

My '51 3 speed kept popping out of third, felt like it wasn't engaging third gear all the way and didn't feel like the detent was clicking into place. I took off the side panel and found small pieces of metal jamming the shift linkage. There was a big piece behind the linkage too. (synchro?)

I looked in the tranny and there were more.
I don't know much about tranny internals so I'm not sure what this is. I've been driving it like this for who knows how long since nothing ever happened to make me think there was a problem. It never started popping out of gear until last week, that's also when it felt like it wasnt clicking into third.
Since I only drive it a couple times a week and I've been driving it like this, How big of a concern is it to drive it like this until I can rebuild the tranny.

Any help would be great.
Cheers

Picture of the metal pieces

Oh man - that is serious junk in there!! Looks like a syncronizer ring has self destructed. Better take that tranny out and overhaul that bad boy.
You don't want that junk floatin' around in the other gears.

What color are the pieces of metal? The synchros are bronze. If you can pull all the pieces out, it may be safe for a temporary, but you risk further damage any leftover pieces get caught up in the gears of the tranny. The gear faces are hardened and while the bronze is soft, you risk shattering teeth if they get caught up in the uptake, if not doing worse damage.

Jeff

Oops, didn't see the pic attached. That's a synchro ring alright.

Jeff

Thanks Guys

Don't drive it at all! It's probably repairable now. Once it trashes a couple of gears or breaks the case, it's nothing but junk.
Jerry