R154 grief

[beaujewel]

OK, so part way through an engine conversion (1j into e36) and Ive hit a snag with my tranny.
The R154 wouldnt shift gears, from what ive read it was one of a few things, main culprit being the thrust washer disintegrating.
Pulled the rear of the box off (note to self, drain oil first stoopid) and out popped a loose ball bearing!! Ive looked high and low and cant find where it came from. Toyodiy wasnt much help, can anyone give me a pointer?

[Sciflyer]

if its a single ball and theres no other material in the oil (ie, so its not a shattered thrust/ball bearing) then it could be a lockout ball from the sandwich plate that the selector forks go into

Not sure how this could come out but it means that there is porbably a spring floating about and also that you'll need to disassemble the box....

[big_zop]

Have a look through this (click me - 3.5MB pdf) as its the A70 TSRM for the manual transmission (W58 and R154. Chances are its either a detent ball as Sciflyer said or the one for the reverse pin which you are supposed to remove first befre taking off the rear housing.

[beaujewel]

Thanks guys. Had a fiddle last night and fixed the issue with the locked shifter.
Seems the selector lever had jumped out of place and couldnt re-engage with the forks. Shifts fine now, temporarily put it back together just to check and seems to be fine without the errant ball bearing.
Ill pull it apart again and look for its home tonight.
Cheers.