How to check/ determine if a 4 speed is good

[retselgerg]

about a year ago i put my new crate motor in, when i did i also installed a saginaw 4 speed with very few orginal miles on it, it was super tight and seemed very dependable, after a mishap with a cheapo shifter i took it out and put the ole granny tranny back in it. after i took it out i removed the side case to see that a small corner of the reverse gear is broke off. would that affect shifting? the tranny had at one time got locked between gears and i had to remove the side plate to free it up? would that affect anything now? the tranny seems to still be fairly tight, what should i check first to determine if i can still use it?
-G.Lester

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Those are stout trans. A chip on reverse won't hurt. It might make a little noise. Shift the gears to make shure a detent spring is not broken. You should feel it kind of stop when it goes into each gear. If you have the side cover off make shure the snap rings on the cluster gear are not broken. These can break sometimes & let the gear slide back makeing a lot of noise in 3rd gear. The drive brg. sometimes gets pitted & can cause noise in the lower gears. You can remove the front brg. retainer & spray a litle brake clean on the brg. & check it with a light looking for pits or scoreing on the races & balls. If you find some it can be replaced without tearing down the trans. if you are careful.

[chevychase]

Originally Posted by Wrenchbender Ret

Those are stout trans. A chip on reverse won't hurt. It might make a little noise. Shift the gears to make shure a detent spring is not broken. You should feel it kind of stop when it goes into each gear. If you have the side cover off make shure the snap rings on the cluster gear are not broken. These can break sometimes & let the gear slide back makeing a lot of noise in 3rd gear. The drive brg. sometimes gets pitted & can cause noise in the lower gears. You can remove the front brg. retainer & spray a litle brake clean on the brg. & check it with a light looking for pits or scoreing on the races & balls. If you find some it can be replaced without tearing down the trans. if you are careful.

Talk about an informative answer!