My sad epic is here: Sob story

I was able to open two of the plugs on the bottom of the OD with serious difficulty, but the third plug (over the filter) defied all efforts of my McMaster-Carr Heavy Duty pin spanner (with custom breaker bar attachment and dead blow hammer.) It was a hammer and drift, and many frustrated strokes, which finally freed the bugger. Of course, the plug was utterly destroyed in the process, but I grabbed a spare from my useless P-type (which unscrewed so easily!)

Bottom line, there were several missing O-rings, worn O-rings, and quite a bit of crud in some of the tiny orifices within the OD. The filter, by virtue of a missing gasket and the aforementioned over-torqued plug, was crushed into a nearly unrecognizable shape, separated from the metal end plates. I don't think it was doing much filtering.

After rebuilding the unit, I took it out for a test drive. I was disappointed to find that the OD still didn't respond, until I got out on the highway - then the OD began popping in and out, seemingly not responding to the shifter button. What happened next was unexpected; I suddenly found I could not shift into 1'st, 3'rd or Reverse! That's when I remembered - I dropped one of the top two 11mm nuts when reattaching the OD to the tranny, and I couldn't get it out of that little gully on top of the OD. I grabbed a spare and figured the little guy couldn't hurt anything up there. HO-HO! The little snot was sitting in that gully where the shift rod moves in and out of the gearbox! It was jamming me out of all the forward selection gears! Totally dejected, I headed back home, but I noticed that OD now seemed to be working!?!

Today, I re-lowered the tranny, removed the offending nut, and went back out for a test drive - success!!!! The OD must have needed to break-in a bit, seeing as how I replaced all the O-rings, the pistons, and the sliding clutch. After some testing at low speed, high speed, full boost and barely above idle, I am satisfied that this thing is fixed at last. Thanks Duane and everyone else who helped keep me straight while delving into this little British nightmare!