Transmission under water

With all the ugly winter weather we have been having up here in Maine, I recently found my basement with 5 inches of water. Ahhh, the pleasures of living in the woods at the bottom of a hill and depending on electricity to power your sump pump. The next purchase is going to be a battery back up system for the sump. But I digress...

Submerged in my basement were many years of accumulated car parts. And now that I've begun to sort/clean/dry out/throw out/etc, I was aghast to find one of my good transmissions (T5 5spd) full of water. With no drive shaft attached, water was free to enter through the tail shaft. I poured close to a quart of water out of it but have yet to open the casing. As I have neither the time to disassemble it myself or the money to pay someone else, I am wondering what is the most effective way to dewater it?

Might there be a solvent that will absorb water yet not harm the transmission? I'm hoping I can pour something in the tranny, shake vigorously, spin the gears, pour out, then flush with oil. Would a fuel additive like Heet (sp?) which is meant to absorb water in fuel work? Would flushing with oil afterwards remove residual Heet?

Or does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks, Tony

How long was the gearbox under water? If it was brief I'd flush it with mineral spirits. Take the filler plug out, take the shifter off, tilt it, tailshaft up and and pour spirits down the shifter opening in until it's running out the hole. put the plug back in, spin it through all gears then dump it out. Do the same with some cheap ATF and you'll be ready to go.

I ran around for years with an early MGB box that had sat for at least 6 months full of water. The side cover split when the water froze and and it sat outside for maybe another two years after that. I took it to a coin op carwash and blasted the innards with hot soapy water then clear hot water followed by a mineral spirits wash to get rid of the moisture. Another side cover and a few pints of 10-40 and it was good to go. There was some staining on some gears but no rust and the rails were fine. The gears and most bearings were later used in a rebuild of an OD box that I'm still running today.