80 Trans. failure update...DOA

[dclose@tcadvertising.com]

Hey all,

Pulled my gearbox Sun. There's a hole the size of a quarter in my Torsen
cover. Something blew out the side and let all the oil out with it. I took
it back to the gearshop, took it apart, and a thrust washer inside the
Torsen broke in half, worked past the worm gears, got lodged in the Torsen
and while it spun around, it machined a groove in the housing and finally
blew out. It looks like a BBQ pit inside the rest of the box.

What could cause a Torsen thrust washer to fail? Could it be related to the
trans repair guy beating on the Torsen case so hard that he broke the
housing and had to have it welded?

The shop owner is hinting that he isn't responsible (of course). Is there
ANYTHING that I could have done while installing it to cause such a
failure? The driveshaft CV that bolts to the trans isn't very smooth I just
noticed. Could this have caused it? I don't want to take him to court if it
wasn't his fault. Also, any leads on a good gearbox? (88 80 Q). TIA
____
Dave