I installed a broken transmission last night.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
04/09/2014 at 10:29 • Filed to: None

My friend Trever and I pose with our kill.

Of course, I didn't know the rebuilt transmission I'd bought was a turd. We got everything installed, after two days of work, and I triumphantly backed the car out of the garage. YES.

I wasn't out of the neighborhood before I stopped, bewildered at why all the other gears sounded like reverse. This thing is howling. More worrying still are the strange clunking noises it's made twice under acceleration.

The only three things I can think of that might be my stupid fault:

-Gear oil. I put in too much gear oil at first. We drained the excess, but I checked it again hot and it was still a little high. I'm going to drain some out today and see if it makes a difference. I know this can cause problems over time , but not for a quarter mile of suburban cruising.

-Pilot bearing. When we were pulling out the old transmission, the pilot bearing slipped out of the stupid, crappy, nevergoingtobuyoneofthoseagain Fidanza flywheel. I didn't know this for a while while we tried shoving the new transmission into place, but the pilot bearing had fallen out into its path. We "pressed" it back in with brute force and a socket.

But I don't think that was the issue. The noise varies with wheel speed, not engine speed. Clutch in or out, it's the same deep whine.

-Wheel bearing. It's possible I screwed up a wheel bearing while removing one of the CV axles. I doubt this is the problem.

What do you guys think? Did this kid just sell me a bad transmission, or did I royally Warcraft-2-mage-blizzard-attack my poor car?

DISCUSSION (6)

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig
04/09/2014 at 10:35

All I can see is that brilliant photo. En garde foul temptress!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig
04/09/2014 at 10:53

Intermediate bearing, maybe, or output shaft bearing. Distortion of drive alignment in the transmission - > whine. Very possibly a bad trans, IOW.

OtherBarry > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig
04/09/2014 at 11:07

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
04/09/2014 at 11:40

That's what I'm worried about.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig
04/09/2014 at 11:48

I should point out that the pilot bearing will make zero noise when the clutch is engaged, as there's no relative motion. Also, I neglected to cover the clunk sound - sometimes that's in the output splines. Generally not a good thing to hear, but things would have to be mucho bad inside the trans to hear a clunk from there - entire gear clusters jumping around bad, though if the trans uses the output bearing or the intermediate bearing for forward/backward location, small clunks are possible due to lateral forces of helical engagement. Or you just have so much wear on the trans in general that you have bad splines *and* a bad intermediate or output bearing.

Anyway - all internals may still be close to okay if you rebuild with fresh bearings *now* - but that's only true if nobody drove it with bad bearings over a long period.