I am currently looking at a 95 FD, PEP. It has 88k miles with 5k miles on the engine, salvage title, due to the engine being stolen. Comes with a number of different gauges, Apexi BOV, pedals, and other minor mods, none of which are installed. He is asking $14k for the car and parts. The transmission has the 5th gear sychro problem. I know that this is an inherant problem with FD's, but I was wondering how difficult it would be to repair myself. I am pretty mechanically inclined, and have been workin on cars for about 5 years now. I have rebuilt engines, installed suspension lift kit on a jeep. Would it be plausable for someone like myself to do this work? Are there any special tools required? Please let me know if any one has tutorial on how to do this please let me know. I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me.

andy
MonteSS86@hotmail.com

 

pm ISUposs.... i think he had a 5th gear synchro problem. and i remember seeing a write-up about it not too long ago, it might show up if you search for it....

welcome to the forum by the way

jimmy

 

While this is primarily for the clutch replacement it will get your transmission out. From there the synchro is not difficult.

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/clutch_install.html

 

not difficult my ***, have you taken the ****** apart.... its nothing i wanna mess with, mainly becuase i dont have the proper tools

 

...

 

I haven't had mine repaired so what I do is not use 5th

I am not going to pay to have it done either because the labor to pull the tranny is sick althought the 5th gear synchro part you need is 25 bucks.

I am going to wait to do it myself.
If you rev up the motor while slowly trying to put the car into 5th gear and do it in slow motion it will go in without grinding. When I get on the highway and I am forced to used 5th I do this. Other wise it's a good way to stop me from speeding because anything above 50mph in 4th takes you over 3k rpms and that's just annoying with my setup. It would be the same as going 85 or so in 5th though.

 

ejmack1 he wasn't talking about doing the auto to manual conversion either this is just replacing the synchro

here's the badboy giving you the grinding

 

I am FAR from an expert, but I can give you some tips, if i can remember them.

get a shop maual, or print the transmission chapter out of one online. It will pretty much guide you through step by step

have an assortment of pullers available. you need one with a long set of jaws, and one with a shallow set of hooks. it's kinda hard to describe the shallow ones, but they need to fit between a bearing and 5th gear(?). mine ended up not working, so I made new jaws.

you'll need a really long socket. I honestly don't remember the size, sorry. just be prepared to make your own, because unless you have the mazda Special Service Tool(SST), good luck finding one that will work.

order a new shift select spindle, new lock nuts in addition to synchros. you may need a new 5th gear hub assembly too.

DO NOT USE HEAT TO PULL OFF ANY DIFFICULT BEARINGS OR GEARS.

Take your time.

if you don't have a transmission jack, have a helper available. you can bench press it into and out of position. don't hurt yourself though. i'm not a very big guy and it wasn't too hard to do. i would guess that it weighs 100lbs or so. kinda awkward.

honestly, getting it out of the car was pretty easy. took me 3-4 hours to get it out, but less than 2 hours to put it back in and get on the road.

If i were to do it again, I would check around my local transmission shops and see what they charge just to replace the synchros (not to remove/install in the car) if it were less than a few hundred, i would take it in and have a pro do it.

let me know if there is anything else that i can help you with.

 

who mentioned anything about a conversion? I didn't take the rear half of my tranny apart to do a conversion

 

and if that sounds tuff, I rebuilt an automatic tranny once

What is that syncro made of that we keep breaking em? I heard they use to be made out of plastic. I guess the new ones are metal?