hurst01,

It's been 2 1/2 years since my post, so I have forgotten some of the details, but yes, repair of the B3 reverse clutch requires removal of the transmission and opening it up. I didn't do the work myself, I just had a local transmission shop do it. My main reason for trying to understand what was wrong was to make sure that I wasn't going to be lured into getting more work done than was needed.

In my case, I had lots of warning of the emerging problem, as I was seeing the typical symptom of reverse gear taking longer and longer to engage (seconds, then many seconds). Then it got to the point where it wouldn't engage at all without blipping the gas a bit (and then it would engage with a lurch). Then, shortly thereafter, it began not engaging at all. The older 722 transmissions (i.e., 722.1, 722.2) had an external reverse band adjustment. But the 722.3 and on require opening up the transmission to repair/replace the B3 reverse clutch.

The question that you have to think about is whether it makes sense to do a full rebuild while the transmission is removed and open. In my case, the mechanic said that everything else looked to be in pretty good shape, so I limited the work to just the B3 clutch, plus general replacement of seals. I am forgetting the price I paid, but it was a bit more than half of what it would have been to get a full rebuild.

Evidently I made an OK choice. I still have the car, which now has 192,000 miles (a bit more than 20k miles since the repair), with everything working fine. Good luck!