156 TS manual issue at the track...

[martym00se72]

Hey folks,
Was punting my '99 156 TS manual around Mallala on the weekend for the Peter Hall memorial 6 Hr regularity. Bundle of fun except for my first ever real stop me dead issue (not great when on the track!) – my gearbox was making it progressively more and more difficult to select gears 2 to 3 and 3 to 2 were particularly difficult to the point where I could get nothing, and then only 1st and 3rd  after a few seconds of being stationary at the end of the northern hair pin. Limped to a flag point and waited it out (10 mins) to the end of the day, at which point I was able to select all gears and drive home.

I can only presume it was heat related as it was fine when starting and got progressively worse and then got better as it cooled down, so I need to change the oil (I had checked and topped up before the event). Don't know what is in there already but have had a slight leak for a while so have made a habit of topping it up. So a few questions –
-   Having never drained the gearbox on this car before, is the drain plug the same size etc as the fill plug (12mm hex allen key) but located in what looks like a pig of a position to get at (facing what I suspect is a chassis rail from memory with about 30 mm space.
-   What is the best oil to use for track use to prevent this kind of thing from happening? Day to day driving is fine.
-   Any idea of what has happened internally as to why this would have occurred?
Cheers
Marty

[warsch]

This looks like you have quite worn syncros in your gearbox, and also the oil which is old and degrades when heated up.

I do thrash my 156 around race tracks and it never misses a beat, and so fas it has been to 45+ race meets. However, I did put in Penrite Pro Gear full synt oil in the gearbox at the very beginning. So far (3+ years) so good. Though it's due for a replacement.

Another thing that helped me with worn syncros on my other car was Nulon G70 additive. This worked wonders, I was surprised.

As far as I recall the drain plug is 10 mm allen key (don't quote me on that, please double check), but I had to buy L-shaped one and cut it short to clear the subframe.

[bazzbazz]

It's 12mm.

[martym00se72]

Thanks Bazz, that is what my eyeballs told me last time I was under it - looked the same size as the filler plug.

Bazz/Warsch, do you know how much oil goes into it?

Thanks both for your feedback - very helpful!

[bazzbazz]

Around 2L