I was having a problem with my tranny (118k) the last 2 days. At times it just would not go into 1st, 3rd and 5th, then it would just be back to normal and be shifting fine. Today, on my way to school, it did it again for a short period and then was back to normal and when I put it in 3rd (?) there was a long bang and it wouldnt shift into anything and all the gear oil poured out from the bell housing. With the car off, it seems like its shifting into the gears okay. Anyone have any idea what happened?



My fairly new Spec Stage II is oil soaked so I need a new clutch. New setup is probably going to be a Clutchnet 6 puck sprung w/ Red 3x Pressure plate and a VLSD trans if I can find one soon.

 

Sorry to hear about that man. Were you hearing any whinning from the trans, or any leaks before it blew up ?? My guess would be your diff bearing blew up and thats why oil was pouring out of your trans. beacuse the axle wasnt being held in the tranny any longer.

I would go with the 6 puck clutchnet disk with the Yellow pressure plate. All of the guys running the Red Pressure plate on here, purchased there kit over a year ago and the colors have changed. Yellow is the same as the old Red.

 

No noise from the tranny. It just would go into those gears for short periods of times, happened maybe 3 times to me before it went. There was a minor leak where the shift linkage goes into the tranny but was nothing close to dripping. The gear oil poured out where the trans meets the bellhousing so my guess is that something broke through the housing so I will have to wait and see when it comes out.

Plan was to buy another trans when the turbo goes on, wasnt expecting this to happen all of a sudden. My guess the terrible wheel hop I was having before I replaced my control arms, suspension and tires took part in it.

Thanks for letting me know about the color change, I came across that when searching and wasnt sure if it was true.

 

Damn man, sorry to hear. Good luck with the fix.

 

You had some metal chips or something broke in your shifter assembly, causing the hard shifts. The fact that 1st/3rd/5th were trouble gears suggests that something sizeable, was blocking the striking rod from pushing forward to reach those gear positions.

Today the loose piece got betwen the position sensor and shifter. The position sensor, being brittle plastic, broke and popped out, creating a 1.5" hole that's good to drain your oil in a few seconds.

Dave

 

The position sensor is located on the outside of the transmission right? The oil poured out where the clutch is, between the transmission and bellhousing. Im thinking something broke through the housing there. And also from the noise, it sounded like a few things snapped/broke.

 

Well at least you didnt put a huge hole in your tranny.



Sorry to hear about the tranny though. If your looking for a VLSD tranny and your ordering a used one make sure that it really is VLSD because i ordered one and they said it was but when it got to tilley it turned out to only be an open diff.

 

Sounds like he DID put a hole in his tranny, but inside the bellhousing where he won't be able to see it until he removes it. I've seen it a million times, exploded gears cause it for the most part.

I'm sure it wasn't your diff bearing as someone suggested, that makes no sense from what he described (and I doubt that type of bearing could do that anyhow, how they are seated in there and how they operate doesn't lend itself to catastrophic explosions. They just wear themselves away to nothing and become a mangled mass of bearing material).

 

maybe your diff pin. came loose and well you know

 

is this due to age or hard shifting/driving?

 

Yeah, if the oil was coming from the bellhousing and not from the position sensor, expect to find a hole punched thru the housing.

Dave

 

I should be taking out the trans tomarrow. Ordered the clutch but no luck with a tranny. Locally, I can get a 2k open-dif w/80k miles for $800 which is expensive. Im going to do some more searching for a VLSD, if anyone knows one for sale, let me know.

My friend got a trans shipped to him and it wasnt a VLSD, so Ill look out for that.

 

car-part has couple VLSD's i picked up my second one on there for $700 a couple weeks ago.

I checked it today and there is 3 on there.

 

You guys think I should avoid rebuilds?

 

If you buy a rebuild make sure it was done properly. Most rebuilders who don't do maxima trannys don't stock the shims needed to get it adjusted properly (since they often left the factory with improper shims), and they don't bother to verify if they fit. So they just change the bearings and put it all back together. So if you buy a rebuilt, I suggest you talk to the rebuilder and verify that they did measure the preloads and get it shimmed properly.

The problem with junkyard trannys is that I would assume they need rebuilt, or at least take it apart to verify the condition of the internals. If you're not comfortable taking off the housing to look inside, take it to a tranny shop and they should be able to give a good inspection of the internals in about an hour. I would talk to the junkyard and make sure you would be able to return it if the insides don't look good, or get a discounted price.

Dave

 

My guess is nitrous + stage 2 clutch + wheel hop = very hard on the drivetrain. Wheel hop is really bad for the tranny...that's why some of us are installing traction bars.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=456833

 

FYI my second VLSD tranny came from the junk yard with a 6 month warranty parts and labor on the tranny. I would have purchased an extended warranty as well. I think most yards offer this. My suggestion is since you seemingly like your car and you have invested quite a bit in it. Find yourself a nice VLSD tranny and have it rebuilt. Dave does rebuilds and as he explained to me the sooner you do it the better off you are. I am going to have my Open diff tranny rebuilt and hopefully it will just require bearings since i pulled it as soon as it started making the noise for input bearings

 

Over the winter my wheel hop was terrible, even with the traction bars. It was probably because of the tires and worn control arm bushings. Its fine now but the damage was already done and something just came loose. The rebuilt tranny is most likely going to come from Tilley. I guy at the shop said he had a few busted ones that he can rebuild. Im going to give him a call Monday and see if he has any VLSDs.

 

Had time to pull the transafter school today because I didnt have work. Heres some pics:











Looks like the diff went, probably because of the wheel hop.

 

lol yep, that spider gear definately shouldn't be there. sorry to hear about that man.

 

Were you continuously launching your car hard despite of the wheel hops? You should have taken it easy. How's your tranny mount? BTW, you pulled out your tranny while the car is parked on the street??? You're brave!

 

^thats very impressive.

 

Aw, that's nothing - I've seen cars in Chester stripped to the frame in just one night

 

Now that's real ghetto!

 

Towards the end of winter the wheel hop was just really bad. Accelerating hard or going WOT would cause it to wheel hop and it would hop bad into 2nd and into 3rd. I tried to take it easy and didnt go WOT for a while in 1st. Then I fixed it and its been fine and but the damage was already done. All the mounts are filled with 80A shore urethane and the tranny was did crack a little but the stock rubber was fine. Im going refill all the mounts with 94A before it all goes back in.

I dont really have a garage so everything gets done outside...DE-K swap, clutches, trannies and hopfully soon the turbo setup

 

Good going jeeve, sigh, get that vlsd

 

How long did it take you to remove the tranny in the street? I'm assuming no air tools out there, right?

edit: <---the big 2000

 

I did use air tools just for the lug nuts, tranny mount, axle nuts and the knuckle bolts, its easier to just use a breaker bar for everything else. Pulling the tranny took about an hour.

 

That's impressive! Took me and my friend an hour to do this with the car on lifts and with air tools. But we were shooting the breeze so it probably would have taken us less time otherwise.

 

How much torque is applied to the tranny mount? I've been able to break the axle nut, knuckle bols, and lugs (obviously) without air tools. I'm hoping to get a set of air tools though this summer...I'm never doing suspension by hand again. An hour seems like a really short time - I can't imagine doing it in that little time. Good job! and keep us updated.

edit: how many times have you taken the tranny out before?

 

I didnt have to use the air tools, just used them because its a little bit faster. I took the tranny out maybe 2-3 times before when I had to do clutch, rear main seal and the DE-K swap. I can probably do it in less then an hour, I was just taking my time and had some friends talking to me.

 

Yeah, congrats on the streetside tranny-drop, JeEvE! I'd forgotten you were the one who did the DE-K swap on the street. I saved all your engine swap pics to my hard drive partly for my reference if I do the swap, and partly because I was very impressed that you did it on the street.

 

I saw that too. What was up with the TB? I thought it doesn't require any special modding to make the TB on the de-k work. I know that the de-k FI's needed to be spliced into the stock engine wiring.

 

sorry to hear about the tranny.


You guys must have missed it, he swapped the DEK into his car on the side of the street, so the tranny is cake by comparison.

 

The 5th gen throttle body has the IACV bolted to the bottom of it. Since the 5th gen IACV is not used, and it also blocks the 4th gen EGR, it has to be removed. I just cut out an aluminum plate to cover it up.

 

................................

 

Some guys are using the 5th gen IACV now on their 4th gen. Not sure how good it is though. When my DEK goes in, in about a month, im using my 4th gen IACV.

-matt

 

sorry man. I was expecting to see you at the meet. good luck man

 

Im probably still going to go, ill be riding with abci30 -blue I30 w/ BBS wheels

 

Finally I have all my stuff to get the car up and running again...

resurfaced OEM flywheel, Clutchnet six puck and Redline Shockproof oil


99 trans (23k) with Quaife -thanks to Jay25, amazing guy to deal with


Jaime shipped the tranny out right away but FedEx screwed up and tranny has been sitting at the local facility for a few days. They finally figured out it was there and I picked it up today. Had finals to study for so it will be done tomarrow after I get home from school. Cant wait anymore!!