So I bought this car for the shell (future LSx swap) but it's a great 2 owner example of an '88 GXL. The original owner took really good care of it and the second owner only had it for several months before the fuel bills started hitting him too hard.

Anyways, not having driven an RX7 in years, I took it easy for the first bit after leaving the sellers place, 3-4krpm shifts, the occasional burp up to 6-7krpm, just to get a feel for the motor, tranny and handling. Great, just as expected, runs beautifully.

After a few hours of driving, I finally decided to try to put it through it's paces. 4500rpm launch from a dead stop, let the clutch out.... BANG!!!

Long story short, the front u-joint granaded, okay, no biggie. My real problem is that the upper cover for the shifter linkage cracked. It's the long housing, on top of the rear section of the tranny, held in with 4 bolts.

Is it possible to replace that piece w/o removing the tranny? Can I tilt it down and gain enough access or does the tranny have to come out?

Also,can i replace the u-joint or do I have to buy a new shaft, complete? I've been getting conflicting suggestions.

Thanks for your time.

 

You need to drop the transmission. I'm also not sure you can easily remove just the extension housing. The transmission in my car had the extension housing broken during shipping, so I swapped the whole tail housing with another one in about 10 minutes. Removing the shifter linkage may require some special tools.

The driveshaft u-joints are officially non-replaceable, but some have reported shops swapping them out for replaceable versions. It might be a call-and-ask type of thing.

 

what that guy said^^^^^

ive had this exact same problem before, u-joint busted and beat the **** out of the "tail" of my tranny,
the answer to your question is no. you will have to swap the tail housing over dont bother taking it completely apart to just get that one piece too much time and trouble. and yes you will have to drop the tranny.
what i did was source one with a blown out 5th gear for like 40 bucks and swapped the tail housing over,got a newer-ish shaft for like another 50 bucks and it was good to go. had to reseal the tranny but that goes without saying. good luck. also replace the cross member bushing, and stuff while your there there 9/10X there completely trashed which leads to excessive play.

i have a picture mines somewhere floating around on the forum with the entire rod, and tailshaft bent pretty badly and cracked. lol it wasnt pretty. Good luck and extend your resources on the forum im sure someone has a clunker tranny theyre going to scrap you can nab for next to nothing.

as far as the LSX swap thing... thats not such an easy fix.

 

Thanks for the heads up, guys.

I pulled the exhaust out in one peice, from the front cat all the way back (all the fasteners would've broken otherwise), all the heatshields and the driveshaft.

The blown, front u-joint is aftermarket but has no markings, hopefully I can take it to my local driveline shop and they can get me something by dimension.

I have a line on another S4 tranny so, since I know mine is still good, I'll just swap the tailshaft housing. Will I need to remove the shiftrod and housing to do this?

Man, all this work so I can keep the car driving and out of the driveway to dismantle the donor car. At least it going to be easier to sell this drivetrain in a running, driving car.

 

Swapping that tail housing is a major pain in the Keester.
just get a known working used transmission and plop it in.
Try guys on BC Rotary as they are a club specifically in BC.

 

It's really not hard at all to swap tail housings. Something like 6 bolts hold it onto the center section. With the transmission facing input shaft down, remove them all, and then lift the tail housing up. The arm on the shifter linkage will be caught under the ends of the 3 shift rods, so you just have to angle away as you lift.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
exactly any 12 year old with an autozone socket set can do it in about 15 minutes.

just like 6 or 9 bolts and it just pulls up no need to dismantle anything. i have a pic here somewhere i can link it but if your looking at it in front of you its very clear.

 

<old tail housing

 

its hard to tell how crooked it actually is without having something straight next to it, but you get the idea. the rod was bent and cracked that top thingy lol and i was taking off from a corner in my neighborhood maybe going.. 10 mph? hope all this helped

 

Thanks for all the help guys. Much appreciated!!!

I finally got around to pulling the tranny today and mine looks just like Rotor Venom's. Easy enough to get everything aparts and pull the tranny but 1 problem: I got the wrong tranny for parts.

He said it was for an S4, non turbo but the tailhousing is completely different and the shiftrod and extension housings look shorter than mine.

Off to find another donor.......

 

Good luck! I also just picked up a project FC S5 that needs a clutch replacement! Hopefully I'll be able to get everything fixed up as easily! Quite a bit of FC owners in Vancouver eh?

 

that sucks i didnt know S4 and S5's were different. try the forsale section on here i usually find what im looking for without to much hassle.