Do any of you know a good way to "test" a transmission when it's not in a car? The only thing I could come up with was to just try and put it into all the gears and turn the input shapt by hand and listen and feel for grinding or anything out of the ordinary...I was just wondering because the 83 GSL I just got (for my birthday ) has the tranny out of it cause the guy was gonna pull the engine to have it fixed (carbon lock, didnt need to pull the engine ). Well, I'm not 100% sure the tranny is good, and I was just wondering if there was any real way to tell, short of tearing it apart and looking, or putting it in a car and trying to use it.

~T.J.

PS - I tried the putting it in gear and rotating idea, and all is well, as far as I can tell anyway. It seems a little "rough" turning in all gears, but I think thats from a lack of tranny fluid.

 

spinning it by hand will tell you if the bearings are going by listen/feel. there is no way I know of to test the gears or syncros while out of the car and not tore apart.

 

Anyone else have any ideas?

~T.J.

 

I tell ya what, put it in 5th and turn that shaft by hand, and i will call you a real man

Only way I know to test one, is either in the car, or to disassemble it ( a task I NEVER WANNA DO)...

good luck

 

Well, you could always disassemble the whole thing (requires special tools that the Mazda dealer will deny exist, as well as pullers and presses and other cool stuff) or you could just stab the tranny in the car and give it a go.

 

Did it...Should it be hard ? Granted, it was harder thanthe other gears, but I still did it, and left handed at that (im right handed)...Although, I cant see the output shaft to know if it's actually turning. I guess Ill have to try again later and watch with a mirror, or reach down and see if I can feel it moving.

~T.J.

PS - Am I a real man now ?

 

I turn the shaft by hand. With an old clutch disc slid over it

I'm with peejay on this one (as usual). Stick it in the car and go for it. If it makes noise, fill it with synthetic and run it till it breaks.

 

Speaking of which, here is the best/only writeup I have seen of a mazda tranny rebuild. It is a miata but should be the same as any similar rx-7 tranny.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tranny_rebuild.html

 

I got both of these trannys apart at home, and im hating life. Im no where even near the hard part I wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy...

 

If the tranny is giving you problems, I would just rebuild it. Before that, however, I would perform a visual check of the gears and such.

 

The problem is, to do any kind of visual, you need to take the trans apart, and to take the trans apart you need special tools...

 

And a big, flat, clean area to work on. And a damn good memory. Ever seen a manual trans taken apart? That's one of the very few things I have done for me.

 

I have several boxes full of tranny parts. Fortunately I can pull something complex apart, let it sit on boxes for a year, and then put it back together without any "pocket parts".

Good thing, too... until I get access to a 12-ton press and a good air supply again, I won't be able to finish changing some bad bearings and, ahem, modifying it. Kind of a shame, I was hoping to use the trans this year.

 

how much does it cost to get the bearings freshened in a tranny? I was thinking of tackleing this project untill I started looking into it. But if it needs new gears or forks it looks like it cost more than a good used one.

 

Good used one will still be cheaper. It's a lot of labor to tear the transmission apart, and then you haven't bought any bearings or synchros yet. Of course, in the end you'll have a like-new transmission.

 

After reading that Miata article, I will NOT be rebuilding the transmission myself.

I'll probably ask the local tranny shop to order me a GSL-SE tranny from Jasper or something and give them my GSL tranny as core once they get it in. (They look the same, don't they, aside from that vent hole.)

PeeJay, what modifications will you be making to your tranny?

 

I don't wanna say right now, for fear that other people will start doing the same thing to their trannies. Y'see, I don't like telling people about my crazy ideas until I know if they work or not, I'd hate to find out that other people also ruined their perfectly good trannies.

Let's just say that it should improve shifting immensely. Probably at the expense of strength, but oh well.

 

But that's their own fault for doing something before researching it.

I gotta take my tranny out and have it rebuilt because that funny grinding noise that I had a while back and that suddenly went away makes me nervous...

Me learning how to drive stick on that car, including the many mis shifts, the tranny oil that came out like applesauce, and the sparklies in that applesauce dont ease my feeling either...

I'd hate to have the tranny rebuilt and you come to the board later saying "WOOHOO! I made the tranny better by doing this this this and that!" When I could have hat it done while the tranny shop had it apart.