Sad Story On a Gear Vendors OD

I have a bit of experience with these, albeit earlier units in British cars. The Gear Vendors overdrive is a actually a P-type Laycock which they purchase from GKN and adapt to various US transmissions. They have an internal roller clutch (sprag) which does not take kindly to being operated in reverse (same thing that sent a lot of the old Borg-Warner R10 and R12 units to the scrap bin). They're virtually indestructible unless you try to run it backwards, which results in sudden failure of the sprag rollers which shatter and send bits of hardened steel everywhere. The good news is that they are typically repairable, although the entire unit must be disassembled, which is actually not too difficult. Parts for the earlier A, D and J types found in Austin-Healeys, Triumphs, Jaguars, MG's and Volvos are readily available in this country. GV obviously imports their own parts, and most likely has a contract with a rebuild shop in the UK, so they prefer to exchange units. GKN themselves offer a reconditioning service, and I suspect that's where GV sends them. So, unless you know of a yard full of late manual shift Volvo 740's (used P-type OEM), your best bet may be to bite the bullet and have trade it for a recon unit.