Reply to "New Guy Fundamental Question"

I have a great ZF story.

A good friend who purchased his car in 72 and (still has it today) lost a transaxle after 12 thousand miles. He received a new one from Ford and was able to keep the broken box. I restored the car many years later and he gave the old box to me as part of the payment. It sat in my shop until the late 90s when it was needed for a project.

So I opened it up and found the problem---second was severely broken but everything else was in great shape. Now in the tear down I came to second on the main input shaft, started to remove it and UH-OH! Where's the bearing? Now keep in mind the transaxle was driven 12 thousand miles----yes 12,000 without a bearing in second before it let go.

Frankly I was so impressed, I called ZF which was still in Florida and complemented them on a fantastic design.

Off topic---how about this for German engineering. This copy was built up from the prints and remains of the real bat wing bomber we captured after the war was over in 1945. They say the radar signature was so small even by today standards, we never would have seen in coming---and with a top speed of around 600 MPH, we never would have caught it.

I stumbled onto the model pictured below last year in San Diego at the air museum which was very nice. Drove up the they had a SR-71 racked outside and from then on it was discovery after discovery---plus several very good simulators inside---well worth seeing. I love San Diego.