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Last year I put an eBay M41 into my PV. When swapping the top plate I had looked in on the gears and they all looked nice, but when driven I found that #1 and #3 syncros were totally inoperative, while #2 and #4 worked perfectly. No gear noise or other problems, however, and the OD worked fine. I just drove it as is for a while. The plan was to pull it, disassemble it and the original M40 (which had no problems) and use parts from the M40 to fix the M41.
All went well taking apart both transmissions (using Phil Singher's article on VClassics - http://www.vclassics.com/archive/tranreb.htm). The #3 syncro was broken in 3 pieces. The #1 was bronken all the way through in one spot. And the #2 was cracked halfway through in two spots, but they were all in perfect shape from the M40. So I reassembled the mainshaft. I used the M40's gears because they looked a little bit better, and the dogs were a little less beaten up for not having had #1 and #3 shifted without a syncro for a year (double clutching of course, but still). It all went together perfectly. I planned to use the M40 countershaft as well, but I noticed that the shafts were not the same size, so that wasn't possible. Not a big problem, as the M41's was in perfectly adequate shape.
Then came the last step, where you flip the transmission over and allow the countershaft to slide down into position and install its spindle. It went in the rear fine, but at the front it just wouldn't settle down far enough. I fought with this for quite a while, taking the mainshaft back out, checking the countershaft, etc, etc. Finally it dawned on me that perhaps there were more differences between the innards of the M41 vs. the M40 than the countershaft spindle size. I took the mainshaft all apart again and reassembled it again using the M41's gears. This time it went together as it should. Apparently there is some exceedingly subtle difference in diameter or tooth pitch between my early ('63) M40 and the M41 (unsure of year, it had a remote/short shifter, J type OD and small flange originally) that made the countershaft and mainshaft want to sit just a tiny bit farther apart.
So in the end the only parts from the M40 I could use were the syncro cones. Luckily enough for me they were the only parts I really needed.
Next up, putting it back in the car and seeing how well it works. Although it will take a while to shake the double-clutching habit on that 2-3 shift.
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