Gearbox front cover interchangibility

[nutcase]

Evening all :)

Just popped the front cover off a 1993 box to see what's what and was a tad suprised to see it is a 1985 vintage - it has the additional bearing in it

I don't think the box has been used with that front cover, I'm guessing the 85 box is now in the 1993 car with the front (and dipstick) plates swapped to make it fit.

Can I take the bearing out, replace it with the spider lock washer thingy as used on other boxes and put it straight back on? Or do I need to find the correct front cover?

Ta :)

[Luke]

You should be able to just remove the bearing and put the little oil feeder plastic thing right in place. Likewise most covers past 85 are fully machined to accept the bearing. Such a strange anomaly that bearing - it was there and then it was gone. I have seen it randomly on gearboxes (that looked original to the car) from '85-'88, bust mostly on 85 turbo.

[nutcase]

Oh ok, the bearing doesn't appear on any parts listing from 1986 so just assumed it was the one year only.

Cheers for the positive answer :)