The tale of Tranny #1, by DC

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David Coleman
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Joined: November 7th, 2000, 2:01 am
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The tale of Tranny #1, by DC

Post by David Coleman »

Here's the post of my tranny experiences last summer. I posted them on PT, but figured they'd be useful here, if anybody wanted to go internal on a gearbox. <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><I>Originally posted by David Coleman </I><BR><B>Reminder of tranny failure circumstances: Not racing. Gentle [by anyone's standards, not just mine] shift into 3rd. Won't come out of 3rd. No grinding or crunching. No warning. Just stopped. Some trouble getting into gears infrequently and randomly last 3 months [maybe half a dozen times total before this]. When tried to move into any gear but 3rd, engine bogged and died. <P>Note: the best way to get the pinged section of the main and secondary shaft nuts off is by cutting it away with a rotary file or other carbide bit[<1/4" diameter preferred]</B><P>I have no air tools. So I got a 1/4" cold chisel. That just beat the heck out of the nut which kinda moved the metal around. I think it sorta forged it. I got the first one off by using a breaker bar and a hammer on it while putting a ratchet on the other one which was braced against the ground. Got off fairly easily, but I was stuck on what to do to the other one. The chisel was destroyed after the first nut, so I busted out my rotary file and Dewalt cordless from my porting project and went to town. Minimal damage to the shaft [maybe a roughed up thread, but no major problems].<BR><B>Note: Do not put a screw driver between the secondary reverse syncronizer gear and the primary reverse syncronizer gear to hold them still, as it will chip both gears easily</B><P>I tried to put a screw driver to hold the gears still so I could get off the 2nd one. I chipped the gears:sad:<P><B>Note: Do not put a vice grip on the secondary shaft to hold it still once you get the first one off. It will hit the 5/R shifter fork and break the sissy cast aluminum</B><P>So I put a vice grip on the secondary shaft to attempt to hold it still so i could get the other nut off. I didnt put it on the spline from the removed gear, cause I was scared I would screw that up too. The pressure from the Vice Grip pushing against the 5/R shifter fork (due to the gears being meshed together and I was pounding on the other with a breaker bar and a hammer) broke off a 1" length of the shifter fork. I think it will still work fine, but I dunno :sad: . <P><B>Note: there is a little screw on the side of the tranny that will prevent the transaxle case assembly from being removed even once you get the 2 main nuts off</B><P>Pryed on it for a while before figuring out there was a tiny little bolt [12mm head methinks]. <P>I was tired so I went to bed.<P><B>Note: soft scrub gel with bleach safely gets out the lovely black goo that is formed when Aluminum combines with MTL off of bathtubs and tile. Regular softscrub will take the finish off of the tub, as does GoJo.</B><P>I get out there this afternoon to look. Out pops this tiny L-shaped piece of metal. Searching what that could have come from. <BR>It is the small extension below the 3/4 shifter fork. Just broke off. The stress fractures are curved on it so it looks like it broke a little bit, over time [3 diff distinct marks], then broke the rest of the way at one time [when I gently shifted into 3rd]. So it shifted into 3rd, the piece broke off, so it could not be pulled out of 3rd. When I tried to move it into any other gear, the tranny was engaging 2 gears, which is kinda impossible, so it just stopped the engine manually. <P>So to get it running I need:<BR>2 shaft nuts<BR>5/R shifter fork<BR>3/4 shifer fork<BR>secondary reverse syncronizer gear <BR>primary reverse syncronizer gear<P>Does anyone know if there are any forged shifter forks in any G25M-R [G5M-R for the Ford guys :smile:]? Any idea on the cost of the afore mentioned parts? I'm gonna call around tomorrow, but I still think it will be cheaper to go with a used tranny due to all the parts I broke getting it apart. We'll see..<P>Any comments? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
David Coleman
I used to know alot about MX-3's, but not so much anymore. Oh well.
David Coleman
Senior Member
Posts: 2516
Joined: November 7th, 2000, 2:01 am
Location: Gainesville, FL USA
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Re: The tale of Tranny #1, by DC

Post by David Coleman »

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><I>Originally posted by David Coleman </I><BR><B><I>If you don't want to read the story but want to help me, scroll to the bottom to help me fix my problems please :grin:</B></I><P>Ok, after 6 months I finally got her running!<BR>Mad props to Benji @ corksport [PT name RYGT] for hooking me up with a clean, low milage tranny. Shifts like butta with the cheapo Discount Auto tranny lube. Tranny went in great. Home Depot Motorsports Semi-solid front mount is workin fine so far...no noticible vibration in the cab and the engine is pretty stable. <BR>Getting the suspension back together was an entirely other story however. <P><B>Note: Don't try to do suspension work with out air tools. </B><P>My knuckles still hurt from all the forces on my frail little body :sad:<P><B>Note: The nuts for the cross member and the catalytic converter are the same ID, but different pitch thread. The ones with the rounded tops go on the cat. </B><P>And with that the car was back together!<P><B>Note: You can't read codes with a dead battery</B><P>Put the old battery in, and it wouldn't start, so i figured it was done anyways cause it was causing mad corrosion, but we decided to jump it just for the test run.<BR> <BR><B>Note:grin :ont tighten up the battery hold down so much that it holds the TB @ WOT, especially when you've let the engine sit and drain all the oil to the bottom for 6 months. Redline is bad for a non-lubed motor I think.</B><P>Once I figured that out we got her started back up. First stop was the gas station to get more than 16psi in the tires. She had a funny idle, so I just attributed that to a bad TPS, and kinda wiggled that around till it was somewhat normal. The first thing i noticed was that the brakes were odd. Not spongy like there's air in the lines. really hard and they don't stop too good. Drove to the Gas station and got a CEL.<P><B>Note: When you want to remove the EGR pipe, don't just break it off @ the valve, cause it will cause a nasty vacuum leak</B><P>I figured it was the EGR causing the stumbling, cause there was a huge sucking noise coming from that direction and I couldnt think of anything else in that area that would cause that. <P><B>Note: JB weld crammed in EGR valves will seal them nicley if you don't have another 1/2" NPT plug like you put on the exh manifold</B> <P>So once it cooled down I mixed up some magic epoxy and went to work. Runs smooth like a turbine now, but with code 16 still. <P><B>Note:The MX-6 tranny I got definately has a 4.111 final gearing. I used to hit 60mph @7300-7500 in 2nd with the 4.388 final gearing, now I hit 62mph before redline (7000). She cruises @ 80mph about 300rpm lower too</B> <P><B><I>So my problems are as follows:</B></I><BR><P>I'm very glad to have my baby back and running @ 98% again. I picked up some McDonalds before work today, and the hot latina @ the window said "I love the color!". Good stuff :tup: :tup:<P>_________________<BR>David Coleman #1891<BR>1993 Mazda MX-3 GS Special Edition<BR><A HREF="http://"http://www.PinkMX-3.com"" TARGET=_blank>http://www.PinkMX-3.com</A> [/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
David Coleman
I used to know alot about MX-3's, but not so much anymore. Oh well.
David Coleman
Senior Member
Posts: 2516
Joined: November 7th, 2000, 2:01 am
Location: Gainesville, FL USA
Contact:

Re: The tale of Tranny #1, by DC

Post by David Coleman »

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><I>Originally posted by David Coleman </I><BR><B>UPDATE:<BR>I was gettin a CEL for my EGR, which I disabled, intermittently [~85% of the time on] and I was getting very poor gas milage [~22mpg driving reasonably gently in the city]. I figured out that my FPR was not getting a vacuum line, and was therefore delivering max fuel psi @ all times, which was bad. So I figured that out fairly easily and swapped the vacuum line for an "extra" one I had laying in the engine compartment :grin:. Gas milage seems to be alot</B> better, but also my CEL is 99% gone. It flashed twice in the few hours I was driving around yesterday. My thoughts are that the O2 sensors were reading very rich, and were screaming @ the EGR valve to open up and clean those emissions up, which was why my CEL was almost always on. If that is true, then the EGR is only open a very small percentage of the time in stock form. Any comments? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
David Coleman
I used to know alot about MX-3's, but not so much anymore. Oh well.
David Coleman
Senior Member
Posts: 2516
Joined: November 7th, 2000, 2:01 am
Location: Gainesville, FL USA
Contact:

Re: The tale of Tranny #1, by DC

Post by David Coleman »

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><I>Originally posted by David Coleman </I><BR><B>*Update*<P>After a few months, I guess the PCM has gotten used to the disabled EGR, as my milage is better than it ever was at over 35mpg on the highway and 28-30 in the city. I guess it "learned" to operate optimally without the EGR. I'm sure the tranny ratios have something to do with it, but my tranny has stayed the same and milage has steadily gnoe up. <P>I broke my previous record of 320 miles per tank [old gearbox] with 357 on this box, but I only stopped cause there was no rest stop for another 40 miles. It was at about 1/8 tank :tup:. </B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
David Coleman
I used to know alot about MX-3's, but not so much anymore. Oh well.
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