Kentetsu

For the last couple of days I've been getting a groaning/growling noise from the tranny when it is in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th gears. 4th gear sounded fine.

Flash forward two days, and the noise changed from the growling to a whining. Started sounding like a rally car with a dogbox tranny.

Today I drained and refilled the tranny before leaving for work. Sounded a lot better, but still had a bit of whining to it. The fluid I drained out looked fine. A few miles from work, shifted into 5th gear and something let loose. Just free revving. Back down to 4th and everything was fine.

Got to a stop sign, crossed my fingers and tried 1st to see if it was still there. It was, but it was very loud. Same with 2nd. Same with 3rd but now you could throw in a "chunking" sound you could actually hear. Kinda like a ball bearing would make if it was trying to jam itself into a gear or something (I was taking it VERY easy needless to say).

Well, I made it the 1/4 mile down the road to work and that's where she sits. I'll be leaving for home soon, so if anybody wants to place bets on whether I make it or not feel free.

As long as I can get her there I'll be all set, since I've got a spare tranny from a car I parted out a few years ago with a lot fewer miles on it. Mine currently has 232,000 miles on it, so not too shabby of a life span considering the abuse I put it through.

Wish me luck




.

13x

ouch, good luck getting her home

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

Good luck bud. At least you already have a spare.

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

1/4 mile = pushable, unless it's uphill. Two guys, easy peasy.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

too bad your clutch is new! my neighbors t2 trans got stuck in 4th, i had no trouble driving it home

that noise is likely to be the center countershaft bearing

Kentetsu

Made it home okay. Just took some creative driving to avoid any stops.

Stupid soccer mom in a dodge minivan with a cell phone clamped to her ear screwed me up at one point though. I was timing the lights and hit like eight of them in a row, then got stuck behind her going 5 under the speed limit. Then she wakes up in time to floor it and shoot through the intersection about a second after the light turned red and left me sitting there. Bitch!

But 1st and 2nd held together long enough for me to get her into 4th again, and everything else was smooth sailing. At least I won't be wondering how I'm spending my weekend now.

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

Good thing you got her home and have a spare! You planning on rebuilding it? I have always
wanted to do that but seemed daunting. I had a gold (yes, gold) SA trans I tore down but
never put back.

Kentetsu

I have toyed with the idea of cracking it open and taking a look, but I've never messed with them before. They seem a tad intimidating to me.

I'd like to think that I'll give it a shot, but the truth is I'll probably never have the spare time to do so. Maybe I'll just hang on to it until I retire in another 25 years. lol

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the transmissions are interesting, but they are kind of tricky too.

if the motor is a 5 to rebuild the trans is like a 7-8.

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

Manual trannies are pretty easy. I rebuilt a Ford top loader 4 speed with no
big issues when I was in college using some very basic tools.

Now autotragic transmissions is a whole other realm of mistifying. I've seen
pros redo autos more than once to get them right.

bad 83

iTrader: (3)

I feel for ya bro. This is what happened to mine Monday. Sad part is this is a S5 trans with less than 10k on it. But, I guess this is what I get for stabbing 400hp through it

Rebuilding these trans is not that bad. Just time consuming. It took me two days to pull the trans out of my car. Tear this and my spare trans down. Put my S5 trans back together, and put it back in the car. If you think that your up to the challenge, just go pick up a Haynes manual and give it a stab.





No mettalic dust here. Just cleanly sheared the teeth off the input shaft and the counter shaft. There was no driving this home. I had to get a buddy to drag me back home.

Bobbo

iTrader: (4)

yikes.... 400hp through n/a tranny = toast.... but i guess you figured that out already lol

MikePhillips

Just so you know next time....when you start hearing ugly noises from your tranny, stop driving it and get it out and broken down. If you keep driving, bad always goes to worse, as I'm sure you now know. When it first started making noise, it was probably a bad bearing that could've been repaired for under $50 (if you do the work yourself). But when you kept driving it, those loose pieces of metal from that bearing circulated through the gears, knocking more chunks loose, and those moved through knocking more loose, until it ground itself into pieces. Now you need a new tranny. This will ALWAYS happen. You can, however, prevent it from happening as quickly next time by bolting a couple of high powered magnets in the bottom of the tranny case (if there's room). They'll catch most of the metal pieces that break off, but this will only give you more time, not keep it from happening eventually. The magnets are always a good idea anyway, though.

Sorry for your bad luck, buddy.

7aull

iTrader: (2)

If you should feel brave - complete rebuild kit for trannys are quite cheap:

http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_cata...rhaul_kit.html

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

DarrenTRS

iTrader: (1)

Which kit would a GSL-SE owner purchase? I only see 12A [according to their catalog] trans' kits.

Or would sourcing a S4 n/a and swapping tails be a more viable option.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Looks like it's time to pull the engine again, eh? Kinda sucks that you have to go through that whole procedure. I've found dropping a tranny out of a 1st gen to be easy, both literally and figuratively. lol

I'll be dropping the tranny in percent's car soon to swap clutches and move the tail housing to an FC tranny for the better taller 5th gear (peejay must find this a dubious statement). Percent's current tranny had pieces of gear teeth inside the front slider hub when I pulled it a while back to install a new seal as it was leaking onto the clutch. It used to grind a lot going into 2nd but seems to have healed itself a bit over time, and he's learned how to drive it with bad second gear synchros. I think we did a mixture of ATF and other oils.

Whenever you're ready, percent, you just need to choose a p-plate, disc and flywheel from the pile.

kentetsu, don't be surprised if you see ball bearings coming out when you drain the oil... one last time .

Kentetsu

What an awful weekend! I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it, so I figured I'd try pulling the tranny without pulling the motor too. Bad choice. If I had gone ahead and done it as a unit, I'd be done by now. But instead, I've got the tranny halfway disengaged from the motor but I don't seem to have enough room to get it all the way apart. So now it's jacked up, and propped up, all in an effort to keep the tranny from hanging on the clutch and ruining it. Looks like I'll have to pull the exhaust and shielding off, at the least.

With my engine bay stripped like it is, it seems like it's so much simpler to just pull the damn motor along with the tranny. Saves a lot of undercar work. Now I know what I'll be doing after work every spare minute this week.

I'd rather wash dishes than work on cars. I much prefer to drive them.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Crap. Now I feel like I handed out bad advice. Mental note: when it comes to kentetsu, recommend yanking engine AND tranny together as a unit because his engine bay is set up for it. For everyone else, make recommendations on an as-needed, per-project basis.

I've been there, done that with my FB. Had to quit for the day with the tranny hanging there because it would not go in. I used a bunch of scizzor jacks with 2x4 pieces to support it over night. Turns out I forgot to put it in gear before lifting it up to install. The splines didn't mesh. Nearly destroyed my HD disc. I had to pull everything back out and dress each spline with a file. Time consuming, but I learned something so... worth it I suppose.

I just dropped a fresh rebuilt engine into my REPU today for break in purposes. The clutch feels soft. Intake, waterpump etc go on tomorrow. After it's broken in, I'm yanking it out to go in my toy. The next engine to go in the REPU will get a nice looking low mileage centerforce pressure plate for a better feeling pedal. The CF is currently in the FB. The FB is getting an RB SS p-plate next.

Kentetsu

lol, no problem Jeff. Your advice is always appreciated.

I think I'm going to get a couple of bolts back into the tranny/motor mounting, then go ahead and pull the motor/tranny together. That will give me a chance to swap out my leaking oil pan gasket while I have it out, which it could use anyway. Hopefully she'll be back on her feet by the end of this weekend (I have a two day event the following weekend).

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

I did that a month or two ago. I yanked out the R5 13B to swap to an aluminum flywheel and noticed my oil pan was leaking. I also had to change the waterpump so technically it was easier to pull the engine than to drop the tranny because really the only things that needed to be disconnected were the two oil lines and the two front motor mounts. Oh and the spark plug wires and heater core hose at the rear plate. Intake was already off (swapping to the 5"), header was already off. Made sense to do the oil pan up in the air instead of witht he engine installed. I can't imagine how annoying that would be with all those crossmembers in your way as you scrape RTV off of everything.

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

The things I could do if I had a garage. You have to remove the exhaust center section at least and probably the heat shield as well to do it from underneath. The 2nd time I swapped clutches I didn't have the heat shield in place so that probably saved me a few minutes and explains why I forgot it was necessary. Now that I think of it, it probably is way easier to remove the engine/trans assembly as one. It's a lot harder to put things in place when you underneath them.

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Main reason you need to remove the exhaust section is so the rear of the engine can drop & allow the trans to clear the inside top of the tunnel. The tunnel narrows too rapidly to let the input shaft come all the way out the clutch as the trans goes rearward, unless you let the rear of the engine drop some.

Make sure you've got the rear of the engine supported with a jack you can lower and raise in small increments. & watch your engine plumbing, especially the "mystery hose." Unless you've got solid engine mounts, you don't need to undo them; they flex enough.

The car has to be higher up off the ground than you might expect, so you can get the trans out from under when it's free, too - - the bell housing is large. Raising the body after you pull the trans means having to raise the engine support, too.

You'll want to have fine control over the engine tilt when you go to put the trans back in.

Getting things lined back up will make you say bad words and throw things.

Having done the job both ways (engine & trans together out the front, trans only out the bottom) I can say that's it a 'smaller' job doing the trans alone, but it takes a lot of patience and brawny help to get things to mate up proper.

Advantages of bottom exit are no need to disconnect and drain coolant and oil. No need to remove hood, radiator, fan, etc (worse if you have AC). No need to rent hoist.

Disadvantage is, it's really really finicky to get lined up proper.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i discover the easy way with the P port.

you raise the car up, a lot. put the floor jack under the bellhousing, remove the center link, and lower the engine and trans out the bottom.

i think the floor jack goes in from the front, and the arc it traces has the engine clearing everything.

you do kind of need 2 people, one to keep the engine on the jack, and the other to operate said jack.

but no engine hoist, no lifting, no removing of hood, and its quick too.

Vashner

Transmission is same 84-85 all manuals. Correct me if wrong plz.

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

GSL-SE transmissions have a taller 5th gear but are dimensionally the same as non-F.I 84-85 models.