Hey guys,

So I cracked open the 5spd I put on my Max last year and have driven maybe 20 miles since my clutch starting slipping immediately afterwards. I bought it from JagerBlunt and I figured he bombed it which is why it slipped in high load situations, but that's what I get for buying a used clutch. Also, the Input Shaft seal was leaking, which is what I am in there to replace. Would transmission fluid cause the same symptoms of a bad clutch?? Is the clutch ruined now that it has been contaminated??

Back to the subject. I have it broken in half and I want to remove the entire gear assemblies since I am not replacing the bearings. I have the two out of 3 guide pins removed and the last one is pretty hard to access. I was hoping my pencil magnet would pull it out, but I am left scratching my head.

Can I use air, is there a tool for this, or should I pay a tranny tech to handle it?

I can post pics if necessary......

 

tranny fluid will only make it hard to shift or grind if its the wrong fluid, not bad clutch symptoms

 

A contaminated clutch must be replaced just like an oil-soaked brake pad/shoe

When you say guide pins, is it the retaining pin or the fork rods?

go here: http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/1994/mt.pdf

 

It is the retaining pin holding the two assemblies closest to the final drive gear. I am at step #10 on pg "MT-13". Though I haven't disassembled the gear assemblies at all in hopes to dodge a bullet or two...

 

Did you skip any step? Pics would help.

 

Disassembling the shafts requires a hydraulic press. Do you have one? If not, don't even attempt to do it, you will be wasting your time and cause yourself a bunch of headaches.

The FSM tells you to do way more than is necessary. All you have to do to remove the shafts is pop out the top snap rings on the shift rods and pound out the retaining pins that hold the forks to the rods. You can do that with a ball peen hammer and center punch or "suitable tool". Then you just slide the forks of off the rods, along with the both gear shafts. It's tricky, but after some wiggling and jiggling you will have them out. Final drive is then free and can be simply removed.

Replace the leaking seals and replace the front ISB regardless of whether or not it's in once piece. It WILL go out eventually. Do not buy an OEM bearing, get an NSK unit. I'm going on 40k hard miles on mine and has put up with all kinds of abuse. If you want to replace the synchros, call around and get some quotes (along with front bearing replacement). Or buy a press that you'll use once If you're stuck trying to figure out how to remove the pins, imagine what would happen trying to disassemble those shafts using hand tools.

 

I don't have a press and wouldn't dismantle them full assembly even if I did have one; not right now at least. The gears shift well and there isn't any odd grinding or anything like that....

I thought about replacing the ISB, but that was only because mine made some noise after the car sat through the winter mostly untouched. After I started it up and drove it around, I think the oil made it's way back to it and it's now noise free. I trust your advice though and I probably should install a new one while I have it cracked open.

-Will the non-VLSD ISB work on my VLSD setup?

I didn't want to mess with all those little pins on the shift forks, but I guess I may have to to actually get enough free play on the retaining pin to wiggle it out.

-How did you get that retaining pin out of there after you removed the fork(s)?

-Do you think the forks will come out with the complete assemblies if I remove this last retaining pin?

 

My bad, I thought you said you wanted to "rebuild" the shafts. Anyway, Replace those seals, and considering the ISB has made noise in the past means the cage is at least partially broken, so there's no question you need to replace it. Find a bearing shop and buy the NSK cross reference with whatever is written on the bearing.

I'm pretty sure the input shaft is identical, not only between both 3rd gen versions but on the 4th gen as well.

Are you talking about the part with the standard driver head on it? I don't think i've ever removed that without disassembling how I described. Once the shafts are out, you're free to pull the check ***** and springs, as well as the shift rods with ease.

That part is the reason I pull the shafts off the rods. It's just two snap rings. You can get them off by pushing with some fine point pliers and pushing with equal force on each lip of the open end. Make sure you watch where they end up because they can shoot off somewhere.

 

can someone say . . . cryo'd VE-5??

 

Now see there, Joes got this S*** covered, Hey joe, how hard is it to switch my auto to a 5spd? I want to install a stage 2 5spd and a short throw and I think I am going to order titanium shafts from an aftermarket cv axle shop.

 

I have the shift linkage dismantled. I now need to get the last retaining pin out and no one has yet to inform me as to how this is possible. IT is the one holding the gear rods in position. Once this is removed I can access the input shaft seal and bearing. Enlighten me oh tranny guru!!

 

I am not a tranny guru unfortunately. Blindfold me and put a wrench in my hand on everything else, no problem. But ive never take the tranny apart myself.

i actually have a shop a few miles away called AA Gears & Shafts, they specialize in manual transmissions and charged me $75 to disassemble it and give the shafts, synchros, gears and diff to send off for cryo treatment.

When i get the parts back from cryo, the shop will reassemble and add new bearings/seals (labor another $75 and $150 for the bearings and seals).

$150 in labor is worth it. I watched the guy do it and the tools needed would meet or exceed the cost of labor, not to mention the time it takes (which you have an idea now of im guessing).

 

do you have a picture of the pin? i can print it and bring with me tomorrow when i go back to give them the treated parts to reinstall.

 

Here is a picture of the visible details that will help specify the pin itself.

The arrow is pointing at the telescopic magnet I stuck in the hole from the outside of the transmission case deep to where the pin sits. The pin holds all 3 (labelled) shaft rods in position.

As you can tell it's in there and I have no idea of how to remove it.

 

That's not a retaining pin, it's one of the interlock pins and you're trying to take it out the wrong way (you should leave them in the holes in the rods when you pull the rod out). I'm going to tell you for the third time: slide the forks off of the rods, there's several of those, several ***** and a spring or two that you would have to get out. You should be using a retractable antenna type grab magnet to pull these things out. I'm surprised you've made it this far if you don't have one.

Remove those snap rings, pop out the retaining pins that hold the forks in place on the rods and slide them off. Then if you want you can pull the rods, it will be a million times easier with the forks and shafts gone.

 

Okay, I see it more clearly now. Thanks Hectic, and sorry I wasn't getting a good idea of WTF that pin was supposed to do and thought it was holding me back. It appeared as though I could remove the forks with he gear shafts, but oh well...

I shall punch those roll pins out and carry on from there. I see now your instructions correspond with the shop manual steps 10-13 on page MT-13. Silly me to think the basic steps aren't necessary...

I ordered the new ISB from rockauto today. I hope the TIMKEN bearing is decent. Anyone tried it out?

Thanks again and sorry for my noobish gestures. My telescopic magnet saves my butt everyday, by the way.

 

Timken is a pretty reliable brand. I've used them before. If your that nervous you should order from courtesy.

 

Ah yes, "telescopic magnet". Not sure about that brand of bearing, but i'd prefer a US manufacturer over some Korean brand the shop tried to sell me once. Good luck on the reassembly. If you break or lose something, I might have a spare. Last trans I repaired required a new bell housing, and I left a lot of parts on the replacement when I bought it.

 

oh yeah this $hit, its a pain to put it back ima tell you LOL! those ***** and rods all want to go where they want to then the movement of moving them back knocks the ***** back out, took me an hour to get tham 3 rods back in there. but i thought there was a bolt on the outside you remove it and the first rod comes out, then you have to remove the 3 rods one at a atime in an order then put them back in same order i think its 1-2-3 might be 3-2-1 tho.

 

Update: I acquired the right tools, after breaking off the wrong tool inside a roll-pin in one of the forks, and now have to remove the cir-clips on top of the rods.
This is my project of the day, wish me luck!

Here is a picture of what I had to do to get the last roll-pin out. It's a bit over the top but impatience and determination prevailed. Notice the grinding work on the fork....

Any advice on how to clean out the trans now that I have contaminated it with metal shavings?

 

It looks like I made an error...... I have lodged the 5th/reverse gear assembly rod in a strange way that isn't giving it the freedom to move up and down appropriately..... Any one else have this problem?

 

Yes. Its called a parts wash. GL man

 

its prolly that damn check ball it fell into the shaft hole, take it apart and do it again ....

 

You can't let the rods drop when you reinstall the shafts. You need to have it in "neutral", (all the push levers on the forks are aligned). One of the rods tends to want to drop down so you need to keep the selector in between the two towards the edge of the case (IIRC) to keep all 3 flush with each other when installing the shafts on the rods. Once they're on, stick those top snap rings back on, which will prevent any dropping of rods. The check ***** ensure that only one gear can be selected at a time. If you're in two gears at once, it will get locked up. Pull up on the rods to realign. This is assuming you have the array of check *****, springs and pins installed properly. If it's completely locked, you might need to take the check plug and spring out, and maybe that first ball to free it up.

 

I will give you your props for having the determination to tackle this project on your own. Its not a complex gear box but many don't try this themselves without second guessing.

 

I figured I would have to take it back apart to perhaps re-align something. My problem is that the rod is so stuck I'm afraid it won't move even with everything off of it. I removed the gear assemblies with the forks and left the rods in place. I think I messed up when I tried to hammer the 5th/reverse gear rod down so the snap ring grooves would line up.... silly me

 

Ewww. Man you never want to introduce a hammer to the equation while dealing with the internals. That means something obviously was not put back right.

 

Remove the check plug on the outside of the bellhousing, pull out the spring, pull out the ball and mess around with the rods until all the levers are aligned (neutral position). It's unlikely you messed anything up even if you did use a hammer, they're just locked up, probably because you forgot to put a ball or pin back in place. Refer to the exploded diagram to see where all the *****, pins and spring is supposed to be when putting it back together. Then when you reinstall the shafts, make sure NO gears are meshed and sychros are in the neutral position (center). Then slide them on the rods exactly how you took them out. The top snap ring grooves should be aligned perfectly. Snap them on and you're safe.

 

This is valuable info I should have used when reassembling yesterday!!! Ha....

My friend helped me put it all back together yesterday, and we must have not had it in neutral as it locked up.....

Also, I have a question about the check *****. There are mostly one size for these, and I have one huge ball which I am unsure of it's proper location. I hope I didn't put the wrong size ball in the reverse mechanism by the striking rod.... I think I should replace the striking rod seal after all this abuse I have put it through.... hear hear?

Thank you guys for the help and encouragement. This isn't really a hard task, it's just a PITA when you don't know the exact process by heart!

 

Absolutely replace the strike rod seal! Nothing worse than filling your tranny up with some nice Redline synthetic only to watch it leak out at the strike rod seal over the coming days/weeks. Been there, done that

 

My first thought about the big ball was the reverse mechanism, so you might be right. But what would you have put there in its place? All the check ***** are the same size, the only other large ball that I can remember is for the selector return deal which doesn't pop free without removing the selector. If your ISB was blown up then the ball is probably from the bearing. It goes without saying, but make sure everything is reassembled properly before reinstalling the transmission.

 

I will look into another striking rod seal....

I did take the reverse mechanism out and thought I had the right ball in place. We shall see what the ball is like when I take it back out to replace the striking rod seal.....