The bearing you are pointing at is a tapered roller bearing. When you pulled the front nosecone off was there a shim for the layshaft? It is unusual for a tapered roller to completely destroy itself when it has proper endfloat.

Edit. My bad. Thinking of the 63a dogleg.

i hate gearboxes with a passion.....stupid bearings. when my old 4 spped went the reverse snapped into 3 and ate the rest of the gears while it was at it. All i could see when i drained the oil was chunks of metal, so i handed in the gearbox for a swap for a new one. felt better i didnt have to look at it

That's first gear. In the 56 5-speed it is a ball bearing.

32223-H7200 BEARING-ball, counter shaft


56-series 5-speed gearset

yes it is a bearing ball.

thanks DD

weere did you get this image?

do you have the entire manual of my gearbox?

hi dsss, it is from the parts catalog. I do not have the repair manual.

Seems like the only common way for the ball bearing to go bad is low oil (lack of lubrication). Although if the wrong thickness thrust washer is installed, it might suffer from side movement.

More detail on this part:

Counter Gear