Is there a way to tell if your transmission is good out of the car?
 

I have three transmissions to use but don't want to take it apart to look at the gears and wear components(not yet at least).

I'd like to install the one that is the best out of the three.

Any way to tell which one is the best? I've tried shifting through the gears and I can't feel any nicks or having issues shifting into each gear.

Anyone have a way to find out while it's out of the car?

Thanks

Mike

If you bring it to an experience transmission shop, they can open it up and take a look to see how everything as far as gears, synchros, seals, ect are.. Someody with little experience in rebuilding transmissions probably can't recognize wear patterns and abuse although you can probably notice if its completely destroyed or not!

Good luck i need a rebuild myself

I called an experienced shop and one was too busy to look at it.

I called another and they told me they have to drive to pinpoint where the possible issues of the transmission might be.

I'm contacting a third one and they haven't gotten back to me.

The one shop I talked to said it most likely would come out to around $1200! Is that even normal?

I have three transmissions to use parts for but $1200 to rebuild? If it's that much, I might as well as go for something close to new.

(This is really just me showing off some pics I took when I replaced my 5th gear synchro).
If you are thinking about doing it yourself, here's a test.

Can you tell the good part from the bad part in the first 2 pics below?
Now can you do it from the vantage you have in the 3rd pic?

Actually one thing you can do is pull the drain plugs. They are magnetic so the one with the least gunk on it is probably the best.

a new FD tranny is over $2k..... a brand new JDM tranny is somewhere around $3500+


id say $1200 for a rebuild is a damn good deal.

flunkysama, thanks for those awesome pics. I definitely can't tell looking inside the case to see which ones to replace.

I can kind of tell on the first and second pic but it's only a guesstimate, nothing more.

I took a look at the FSM and it looks very labor intensive removing everything and inspecting each part.

For giggles, I'm going to add up each part from the Mazda Motorsports store and see how much it comes out to.

I'm going to look at my options...

Another cost into this expensive project of mine. Hopefully everything will turn out well.

Thanks guys.