Gearbox Woes

[tony perks 1]

Hi all, after last weekends bovington stages where my clutch expired, well actually the friction plate disintegrated, putting us out on the first stage ,

when removing the gearbox oil prior to taking out the box and noticing the rather silver colour of the oil, i decided to strip the box and ivestigate, only to find 3rd gear with a tooth misiing (stuck to the magnet), but no other wear or damage.

 

Now my question what could have caused the loss of the gear tooth I have never had any clunking(apart from the Tran-x) or banging or baulking of gears or any selection troubles so a bit confused really as to what happened any ideas?

 

Any way after stripping 7 boxes yesterday, to find the rquired 3rd gear and reassembly I now have to go and fit the new clutch HELIX and the lovely black painted rather than silver with black freckles box back into the car ready for the weekends Caerwent stage rally!