Are all m46s so noisy?? At idle with the clutch pedal out, (clutch engaged), I can hear noise comign from underneath the car. When the clutch is disengaged and the layshaft stops spinning, the noise stops. I can also hear the noise, which seems like the same noise just louder, in every gear. It does get quieter when the OD is engaged. It makes noise no matter what, as long as the car is moving, clutch in or out, in gear or not, like when you're slowing down. When there was snow here a while back I used the e-brake to grab the rear tires and when they stopped, car was still moving, the noise stopped as well. So there's the symptoms.

I know that the m46 trannies have needle bearings on the mainshaft where the gears (1-4,R) are. They also have tapered roller bearings? on the front and rear of the layshaft, and front of the mainshaft. Now when I had the m46 apart, the bellhousing off, the hole in the front of the tranny where the front bearing for the layshaft is, the hole the bearing rode in was bigger than the bearing, clearly visible. Are they just naturally loud because of the needle bearings??

Now, the trannies are really loud when there is no sound deadening material by the shifter hole. If the conclusion is that all m46s are just loud, I need to add some better sound deadening material around the shifter. The original stuff is worn out in one car, and in the other, it wasn't there only a little piece of the composite they lay underneath carpeting. In this case, what would you recommend to block out the noise, what material, how would you install it, and where do you get it??

Both my manual cars, the turbos 83 and 84.5, have these same symptoms. What's up??

Thanks Again All,

Later,
Smith

Rock, and roll on.