Thread: I been had... New car, bad trans.

Originally Posted by nukkinfuttz

The other thing that deeply concerns me is my driver side axle stub coming out of the trans... I can wiggle that thing all over the place. I'm sure it cant be that way from the factory, it must be located by a bearing support or bushing or something, right? I want to get in there to at least see what thats all about.

Maybe you know this already, maybe you dont. But after tearing this thing apart, I have realised that the axle stub is free to move around. What locates it is the CV axle. When you plug your CV axles onto this output shaft, the outter shell of the CV axle that also goes inside of the transmission is captured in a cup, and that cup is what holds the outside of the CV shaft steady. And by doing that, the CV axle will then hold the output shaft steady. So, when you take your CV axle out, and the output shaft of the transmission is wiggling all around, dont worry about it... its completely normal.

Originally Posted by nukkinfuttz

I have run into some trouble trying to get the valve body/chain cover back on. It seems that the gear that is driven by the Torque Converter is "out" too far and is preventing the valve body/chain cover from seating all the way down. its not much at all. If I remove the plastic thrust washer that rides on the face of said gear and separates it from the valvebody/chain cover, then it will all set down perfectly. The thickness that it is "out" must not be very much at all, but i cant seem to find it. Maybe tomarrow. I am about crippled from the akward positions I been having to work in today.

I messed with this some more... I'm stumped.

If i dont put that thrust washer on, the valve body sets down perfectly. If the thrust washer is put on, then the whole valve body "teeter todders" on it. In other words, if i just try to bolt the valve body down, it will crush it and jam it up. I bet it would cuase the valve body not to seal properly, or to break if i put that kind of clamping load on it. At the very least, when i started the engine, all hell would fly loose. the thing is .047" thick. Got any ideas?

I tried pulling the shaft that the gear is mounted to all the way out, but it will not come out. I can pull it out about an inch or two, then it becomes stuck. On what I dont know. i can push it in with all my wieght while twisting it, hoping it was just a seal that needed to drop in place, but thats not producing any results either. I donno. anyone got any ideas?

Im not finding any words of caution about this issue from anyone else's build that i can find on the internet. Maybe I'm making a mountian out of a mole hill? Should I just put the thing on and go with it? I didnt even mess with that shaft, I dont know why its a problem. All i did was pull it out enough to be able to get the chain off. Its not like i did some major overhaul to that part... i just moved it an inch. maybe its nothing?

try pm'ing this guy, he seems to know whats going on inside a trans. http://www.grandprixforums.net/trans-build-46796.html

that washer should get gooped to the channel plate. It might not be in the right orientation if you don't goop it before you try to install. Similar to the bearing behind the parking pawl gear. If that isn't gooped and in place properly.. you are going to crack a diff cover.

sounds like when you pulled the input shaft out the inch or so that it moved, the thrust washer behind the input sprocket fell out of place. Dont force it on you will just break stuff. The reason you cant pull the input shaft out of the case in the car is that there is a rubber o-ring on the other side for lock up. It doesnt fit through the stator tube. When you disassemble one of these you have to pull the o-ring off before the input gear can be removed. Similar to what Im doing right now on my personal car though, you can pull the snap ring off of the input shaft and remove the input sprocket. Then put your thrust washer back into place with some assembly gel or whatever you are using and you should be good.

excellent, THANK YOU very much! I will do just that.

well, that thrust washer had three nipples that protruded from it and would engage into the holes in the gear that keep it in place. those were perfectly engaged all along. However, not knowing for sure what was behind there, i took the drive gear off to inspect as recommended. Today when i bought the new outter thrust washer, I could not just buy that one, i had to buy a kit that contained several. In my kit, there was also a brand new thrust washer for behind the gear. so, since i had it off, i replaced it as well, why not?.

while it was off, i was able to confirm there was nothing wrong back there. At least now i know for certain. I put the new thrust washers on, goo'd in place, and puts the gears back on. I tried to install the channel plate and again, the thing would tedder todder and not sit down correctly.

Since i know for certain the thrust washers are where they are supposed to be, and i measured the channel plate and transmission surfaces for flatness, i dont know what the heck is going on. the only thing i can speculate is the last teflon seal ring on the shaft. Maybe when i put the channel plate up there, that one seal does not drop in easy as the first one. I know i have looked at this every which way, its time to take action. I assembled it how it is. I might pay the price for it, but i dont see anything that is responcible for the tedder todder, i dont see where this has become an issue for anyone else, and i got all new parts in there, so im just gonna go for it.

I put the channel plate on for good and torqued down all the bolts per the manual. I did not hear any cracking or popping. If i had never felt that rocking, i would not have noticed it now for sure. it went flawlessly. After all the bolts were in and torqued, i checked all the way around the channel plate and did not see any gaps. I feel it is seated down properly now.

I'd say out of all the work i did on this transmission, this is the one thing i feel unsure about. Oh well, I am down to installing the wire harness and solinoids, then put the cover back on and subframe, etc. I think i can test drive it tonight for sure. Then I'll know.

by looking back at your pics, and the wording you used, is the trans still in the car?

if so all that work will be for not, due to the torque converter being full of the old crap.

if your doing a full rebuild, you need a new converter, this is not the place to be taking short cuts. at this point your like 9 bolts away from it falling on you.

Done. Test driven, cleaned up. Shifts perfectly at all driving conditions. Next test- longetiviy. Thanks for all the help. I look forward to doing some performance mods next.

1000 mile check-in... everything is still performi
ng flawlessly!

10,000 mile check-in. Still rollin I musta done something right.

well, she's fried. A week ago on the way to work, it was only 9*f outside, and for some reason my external trans cooler fell off. (just held on with zipties, opps). I did not know until it just stopped going. Had to pull over and then I saw major smoke rolling out from under the hood. I got it towed home, put a new trans cooler on it, and filled it back up. Test driving showed that after about 10 minutes it starts slipping bad. I think its toast. Oh well, I got 27K out of that rebuild.
Next question... is a 5 speed swap an option? whats a good donor car?

search google for the 4 or 5 speed swap. the hard part is finding a working getrag trans. and theres fab work. not really worth it anymore due to the lack of parts.

sucks to hear about your trans, but you been in there once, why not twice?

it was a complete *****. I'll junk the car before I do that again. hahaha. But I kinda wanna keep it and do something extreme with it. Its a nice looking car. I can certainly do fabrication work... I build the entire turbo system on my Beretta among other various things. I wouldn't let that stop me. Thanks for the tip, I'll search 5 speed swaps. Good to know its been done before.

like i said the tranny is the hard part to find, then if you blow it up after its in, there no rebuild parts left either.

there was another thread where there was talk of another manual tranny swap, for the life of me i cant recall what tranny it was.

Crazy... I just let the car sit untouched until yesterday. I decided to spend a little more time with it. I drove it around the hood for about an hour, no problems at all. Odd. So then we took it across the city to go down to river for the day, worked fine at all speeds and conditions. I don't know how to explain it, but it seems to be working fine now. I'm going to drive it to work tomorrow, which is an 80 mile round trip, I hope it goes well.

trip to work and back went fine too. cool freakin deal mang