Metal shavings in a manual trans

[79vette]

I have an Advanced Adapters "ranger overdrive" in my K5. It's an aluminum case 2 speed manual transmission that mounts between the bell housing and an SM465 and operates like a stick shift version of a Gearvendors overdrive.

Anyway, it started making a howling noise on really steep inclines on my last off road trip, and when I checked the oil it was pretty low. Like 1 qt low on a 2 qt system. It was fine on the highway and never had any problems shifting, but on really steep hill climbs at full throttle it would grind/howl. Never had any problems even in extreme conditions prior to that trip

I've had it in the truck for 3 years and probably 20k miles with only one oil change, about 250 miles after installation per the manufacturer. When I changed the oil tonight there were some metal shavings, honestly more than I would expect to see from such a low mileage trans.



What do you guys think? Pull it and inspect it (also need to pull the np205 and sm465 to get to it), or just run it and see if the noise comes back?

See pics of what came out: