JDm or rebuild tranny?
 

Alright so I took my trany down to Randy today a local RX-7 mechanic, super friendly and smartguy around here that works ona ton of 2nd and 3ed gens. He tried pullign the bearing as well and couldnt get it to budge. Now he didnt have the pullers on him at the time but I might swign by his place because they were at home...anyways, he recommended I just get a JDM tranny because he has a friend that can hook me up. Now I've read all the threads on the JDM tranny and it all sounds pretty good. shorter %th reinforced 3ed and 5th, and better internals for the most part. Now I was just going to buy a rebuild kit and stuff that in the box...but...which do you think is better, rebuild kit with all new synchros and bearings or a JDM tranny...right now the JDM tranny is goign to be a lot cheaper for me, and by the sounds of it it has better internals as well....so what do you guys think?

I actually just went through the JDM route (busted 4th gear synchro for as long as I've owned the car ~5 years) because it cost about half the price as rebuilding it. I, along with several other club members, have purchased low mileage JDM trannies from Brian (e-mail: ss427bb@hotmail.com, forum name: japan2la) with great results.

I actually haven't heard anything about reinforced 3rd and 5ths....my understanding was that the jspecs simply had the shorter 5th, and I think the 7 guys in Japan have fewer problems with their synchros primarily because of the shorter 5th, but I could be wrong. As I understand it, Mazda had to change the 5th gear ratio to pass US standards.

Yes, the JDM has a different 5th ratio. The 5th synchro was made from a slightly harder material sometime after 95, but I don't know when, and if I would count on that being the updated version in a JDM tranny.

What you do get is a generally good tranny for a reasonable price. No guarantees, but generally good value. A rebuilt from a trusted rebuilder is a safer bet, but at about twice the price.

Dave

Well actually I was rebuilding the tranny myself, and I was following your guide by the way haha. Very very very helpful...though the whole stick something between 4th gear and the synchro could have been a bit better. The pry bar method works, but....my bearing isnt moving at all it just seazed up...