I was very interested to see this as after 60 years of messing about with BSA gearboxes of various types this is the first time I have seen a major disaster with an M series box. I have seen several very worn gearboxes with bad bearings particularly the sleeve gear bearing and others with a lot of metal bits floating around in them But never any thing like this and I have always said that the M series box despite being slow with its gearchange was a wonderful thing (and the clutch too ) to have put up with what they were subjected to during the war. Very interesting. Regards to all from Dave Barry.