Nightmare on Trans Street

[turboglenn]

I'll be short and to the point.. friend meaning well helping install my AWD starter plate because i was killing starters and he wanted to learn about cars more.. Well i'm very anal about keeping track of every nut adn bolt and not having or ending up needing extras.. Well we come up one 17mm nut short for the top tranny mount, he says he dropped it on the "black thing down there" pointing to he subframe, I look and look and never see it, I also look in the trans speedo hole as it's known to ingest bad things and make bad doo-doo from it, never found, he says "found it" by grabbing one from the spare nuts and bolts bin (i know this NOW)

Why is this important and why do i know it NOW?? well, this AM i replaced my seal for the driver CV intermediate shaft and assembledthe car and drove today, then i hear what sounds like a rotor dust shield grinding hard, check them and none are bent, go home and do the usual walk around after any servicing and see trans fluid pouring from the area of the T-case and trans junction...

long story short i pull trans, rip apart in about 2 hours tonight only to find that 17mm nut was inside the trans when it went back in for the starter plate, I was luck not a single gear tooth was damaged as it was between the face of the ring gear and the case, well it spit out of the case and into the clutch housing area and now YEY i'm building ANOTHER F*CKING TRANS!!!!!!!!!

All i've left to do is pin the shift forks, toss on middle case, toss on sandwich plate and check that the same shimming is still valid since i transferred all bearing races, andeverything else (basically swapped bell housings till i can repairt damaged one)

My friend meant well, but i should have known to stop asking for his help when i would ask for a 13mm ratchet and get a nut handed to me , oh well, live and learn, i'm not even gonna tell him about it just yet, I hope to have the new trans built and in the car in the morning because i have a lot of things to do that depend on me being mobile..gotta go to the dept of inspections and permits, need o sign up in person for traffic school for a large ticket i got, and need to go ship parts everyone bought from me last night and today.

They get easier and easier the more you build them and the more you pull them (with a hoist anyway, to hell wth a jack, i'll just wait till i can leveltate them anymore after having a hoist for the last 3 R&R's)

The main reason i knew something was wrong at first was the grind, butthen that the cliutch was slipping EASY and i have the newer 2600 PP with fairly new RPS street disk (imean i was slipping in first) and instead of clutch i smelled freaking tranny fluid burning and saw smoke as i stopped.. i was so pissed, babied it home, started tearing it apart, went to walmart at midnight for carb cleaner, gear oil ad RTV and am stopping now with the clusters, races, rails and forks transfered to the new bell housing. I"ll pin in the forks tomorrow and assemble the rest (probably an hour and a half left to assemble correctly then another hour to install - i'm getting really fast at it likei said, but the pain it's putting me in doing this so many times has me wanting to die or go to the ER, and i've got too many bills for the lord to let me die

What's taken the longest is cleaning and re-cleaning all the clusters, bearings, race seats, passages and everything else to make sure theres NO metal left behind on the new assembly in the morning, I've burned through 3.5 cans of carb cleaner and i'm about as high as a freakin blimp and i don't like the feeling right now

but, another day another trans i guess... This bell housing is bad so maybe i'll do an article on just how much i can do with a TIG, some busted cast Aluminum and a little bit of scrap 1/4" 6061 plate (we'll see how i feel i after installing this one tomorrow anyway..the article may wait a month as i need the rest and to be back to earning something to pay bills with instead of buying trans fluid, oils, and everything else i need to make pulling and building transmissions a f**king daily event!!!!!!!!!!

err i'm irritated sorry

 

[rEclipserGST]

Damn. Those feelings you get. Matrix dejavu style or a mothers intuition. Did he learn something though?

Sorry to hear about the time & money lost.

 

[rlacasse1]

Damn dude that sucks. You seem to constantly have bad luck.

 

[pauleyman]

You need to measure again. Changing cases changes the dimension.

 

[Tiki2777]

Dude I think I know what a ratchet is....seriously I'm free today if you want some help I'd be glad to. No Work yea

 

[turboglenn]

I don't think the guy learned anything, he was just like "oh, i didn't think it wojuld've went there"

BUt he won't help around here again, Although help is apreciated, so is attention to what you're doing on parts that cost thousands (or at least each inner part being over 100 pretty much)


I'm re-shimming it in the new cases now, the numbers were coming out near the same but the damn trans was so damn difficult to turn when in gear i just didn't trust it and am trying again with different solders just like last time, averaging both solder sizes after crushed unless one is way off and averagine the 2 pieces per bearing

 

[pauleyman]

I do one bearing at a time with the softest solder I can get. I think I'm using plumbers solder of some type if I recall. I've also used a dial indicator before. If you had a selction of shims (and I do) always wondered what would happen if you chose an end play spec then double checked with plastigauge.

 

[turboglenn]

Well, werd thing is I just finished this one and even though the specs were coming out the same on both solders the same shimming was much more tough to turn, but i'm thinking this could be because EVERYTHING inside was carb cleanered and air blown out, rinsed with water and repeated and then only sprayed down with light penetrating oil instead of gear oil.. Once i get some gear oil in it and see how she does i'll know what's up. It''s much harder to turn the input by hand on this one but ths shifting is perfect whern i spin the input with the tool i made and a breaker bar

time to put that biatch in and see what's up I juist hope the clutch will hold after having been coated in trans fluid,io don't have money for another one, pray for me fellas!

Update: almost done!!! just 2 short bolts on t-case, the down pipe, intake pipe and UICP left (and putting on a wheel and taking off jack stands) boy what a F*cking day!!!!!!!