Replaced the trans yesterday...

[nonovurbizniz]

Wow... that was fun... just had it out last week to do a clutch/flywheel too when my buddy was actually there helping.

I knew the input shaft bearing was bad... and I expect probobly every other bearing in the trans is bad too... it has 204k miles on it basically... SO when I had it out I couldn't believe how bad the wobble in the shaft was.

I found a used s20 trans for 175 delivered to me.. bought it cleaned it up a TINY bit... and put it in yesterday...

Only downsides were it didn't have a VSS no big deal I just used my old one... AND it was missing one of the mount studs which REALLY sucks... on and on top of it when I went to install it and put in the one smaller bolt... it stripped out the hole... so I just put it in the front hole where a stud should be for now...

It came apart and went together just fine... no hangups... Trans shifts and drives smooth...

I'm a huge pussy... lifting that thing and the trying to slide it into place while it's up in the air almost killed me... I almost didn't think I'd be able to do it... but I did.

Gotta excercise...

If anyone's interested I could do a write up.

[pdiggitydogg]

Id say thats a pretty decent price for the tranny. Did you know how many miles were on it?

Yeah, I stripped a mount hole on my chassis when I took out my tranny (already bought the tap to fix it though). Stupid thing...

You did the install by yourself??

[thermal]

I hate pulling tranny out with the motor remaining in the bay. It is such as pain, eventhough I actually got better and faster doing it now. We've replaced a clutch in less than 3 hours on a GSR motor before.

I normally use a floor jack to get the tranny up and move it around to align the dowel pins.

[pdiggitydogg]

It was such a pain in the ass for me...
I know I couldnt have done it without a second person

[nonovurbizniz]

Yeah it was the first time I've done one but last week my buddy did it... I actually barely payed attention too which was the worst part...

He was supposed to show up at the shop and give me a hand but he never did so I did it...

Yeah I did it myself and all over my head... It SUCKED SO HARD... I'm way out of shape too... I lifted the trans up and pushed in the input shaft... then kind of rotated it forward and backwards to line up the dowels... tried to push it in but ended up just drawing it together with the bolts...

The worst though was the fact that the first 2-3 times I lifted it up and went to put it in the freaking clutch fork popped off before I got it in... Sucked, had to put it back down the the ground and set it again...

The trans has like 90k on it and it's doing great... I've put around 100 miles on it and it's running way smooth and quite...

Figure I'll do a trans oil change in the next couple of weeks just to get any crap that might have worked it's way in there...

I also got a mag. drain plug for the engine that I threw in... I'm curious to see if theres anything rattling around in there... I doubt it but it's worth checking.

[pdiggitydogg]

Originally posted by nonovurbizniz

The worst though was the fact that the first 2-3 times I lifted it up and went to put it in the freaking clutch fork popped off before I got it in... Sucked, had to put it back down the the ground and set it again...

Yes...bastard thing did that to me too! What a pain.

You probably wont get much on the drain plug, since there already is a strong one inside the tranny and in the engine, its mostly aluminum.

[nonovurbizniz]

Yeah I didn't realize there were internal magnets...

I remember opening up some BMW trannies that had one (the oil pans too) and there's ALWAYS this sludge just stuck to it... like half oil half metal shavings...

I don't imgine there'd be much of anything on there but figure it's worth the added piece of mind...

[AzCivic]

damn doing that by yourself deserves a big kudos.

[nonovurbizniz]

Thanks... I had a hydrolic trans. jack and some adjustable (4.5ft->7ft) jack stands... which helped me hold the spindles out of the way to get the axels out.

The trans jack mainly just got in the way... It kept the trans supported while I removed all the bolts but when it was time to pull it down and put it up I just lowered it and kicked it out of the way (the jack not the trans).

My buddy was impressed I got it done too and he's a FT mechanic.

It really wasn't that bad... as long as you have the time and tools it's just nuts/bolts.... and a little heavy lifting.

Trans is shifting great and NO noise thank god...

NOW all I have to do is the HG and cam/springs... then I'm pretty much done for a while forgiving some minor things.

[4jacks]

Good Job Bro!!

Haven't done a tranny swap yet... not looking forward to it either. which reminds me, maybe I should flush my trans fluid.