How to tell a second hand gearbox is ok?

[red_fred779]

Is there any ways to tell that a second hand gearbox is going to be worth buying?

 

[Fred@BTM]

strip it down and rebuild it is the only way, unless its from a known source (such as a forum member who isn't a ripoff merchant)

 

[Stu172cup]

Short Answer in my opinion is no - unless you've driven the car its coming out of

 

[DaveDreads]

Not really, I bought my current one from a random Renault breakers,
they told me they were driving around in the car it came from for a month before they stripped it.

I just had to take them at their word, luckily 2 years later it's still going strong, it is a lottery though.

 

[Chip-mk1]

For a layperson the only option is fit it in a car and see if its ok.

And sadly even then you dont know how long it will last, I know of boxes sold that were genuinely working fine that after fitting to another car have failed straight away, just like you can buy a car that drives mint and next day it could die.