Hey guys, I have a 93 FD with about 80k miles on it and was wondering if their is anyway of knowing if my gearbox is going besides taking it to a specialist lol. I go get whining in netural when the cluth is not engaged, but is not very noticable at all... Is my gearbox bad? Or getting there lol?

Thank you.

 

When the clutch pedal is up the clutch is engaged, when it is down the clutch is not engaged. Most likely it is your pilot bearing and not your trans. If you were getting noise in every gear but fourth then it would be an internal trans problem. However the trans has to be removed to replace the pilot bearing.

 

Whining with your foot off the clutch pedal and in neutral is almost always the big ball bearing on the input shaft of the transmission. It doesn't take much damage to make a ball bearing whine, so it doesn't mean the tranny is going kaput. However, on mine I had a similarly noisy input shaft bearing, and on teardown I found the captured needle bearing behind it was spalling and nearly wore out the race on the input shaft and mainshaft. (Those aren't cheap to replace).

If you're worried, drain the oil, drop the main pan, and look at the magnet. Black oil that shimmers with tiny metal flakes, and a big tobacco-chaw of metal filings on the catch magnet mean you have problems. You can also look at the synchros and gear dogs, which should have nice pointy points where they slide into each other. But now you have to re-seal the pan while oil runs down the inside of the case, which is the PITA part of this inspection.

Dave

 

If nothing else, put some good synthetic gear oil in the tranny, like Neo, Redline, or Royal Purple. I've seen more than one "problem" tranny get a lot happier with a good gear oil.

In general, our trannies are VERY hardy. Even if they make a little noise or clunk going into gear or something, they'll keep on truckin'. I seriously doubt it's going south any time soon.

Dale

 

damn those bearings.... just settle for a 99 spec gear box with a longer final drive

mine having similiar issues but if it breaks... i'll just get a 99 spec gear box and enjoy better gear ratio and higher top speed.

 

The 99+ have a shorter 5th gear (lower top speed).

 

ohhh okay a little misconception. but should be a better gear box.. in term of the age and also the gear ratios