I found the source of the flakes...

So yesterday I "adapted" a 4" gear puller to remove the starter clutch on the transmission. By "adapt" I mean that I ground down the jaws on my grinder until they fit...

What I would is both promising and a point of concern. It's promising because I've found what I think is the ONLY (I hope) source of the metal flakes in the transmission oil, and a point of concern because I need to figure out WHY it happened so that it doesn't happen again.

See that big gear? It's on the main shaft and slides freely left and right on the shaft. In front of it, you see a round bit? And between, you can just make out the ramped teeth that engage each other. That out bit is the clutch. The gear is held against it by a spring between the gear and the transmission wall.




Here is the starter clutch. No, it isn't supposed to look like that.












I have another transmission, so I'll be pulling it apart in parallel and will scavenge from it what I can to repair this one.