Totaly agree! I called it a 10 as well, but now that I've done it a few times too, I am not really afraid to tackle much of anything - in the words of Joe Swanson - BRING IT ON!!!!!!. LOL

Also, the satisfaction of knowing and understanding how things work has always held my intrest. It's a complex thing and it could be easy to really F up I'm sure. Well ... with enough beer that is. Cost of the rebuild kit ~$275 +/-, cost of misc tools ~$50 +/-, cost of knowing that you can do it and NOT pay the shop - Priceless. Good job dude!


I had mine stuck in 2nd at one point, but I didn't know this trick - wish this was posted about oh, a couple years back. ROFL Same thing, in N, but NOT in N.

 

Wow! Thanks for the nice write up!!

 

I've posted about it before.

 

Jim, do you still have any of the extra pictures from your install? I like nice big pics to help reinforce what I'm reading.

I will need to tear apart my transmission in the near future to asses what I damaged from pushing on the shift selector rod when I had the crossmember out last month. I'm not leaking any fluid from the axle seals so hopefully I don't need to mess with the bearings. I haven't disassembled a transmission before but it doesn't look too bad. I have replaced a clutch and that was on a '00 M5. That experience was a PITA too...the stock exhaust on the e39 M5 is one piece from the behind the headers and there are 4 cats and four mufflers...so the damn thing is heavy and awkward. Not to mention the 6spd trans was really heavy too. I'm almost looking forward to pulling the maxima trans in comparison.

 

Great writeup man! Just wanted to share some knowledge of bearing installation. You know,almost 90% of broken bearings are because of wrong installation. A good tip is always to press the side that has tension on it. So if youre installing bearing to an axle,you press the inner case of bearing. If you install it on a hole or mount,you press the outer case of bearing.
I usually also put the piece or the bearing to freezer for a night or so,thatll make the installing much easier (it of course depends which needs to be smaller).

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-piece...set-68339.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/16-inch...bar-31383.html

This kind of pry bar works WONDERS on the outer bearing races that are in a "dead end" spot in the transmission housings.

 

Your write-up has made me want to rethink the swap. I think im going to go ahead an lube up for the tranny shop buttsecks.

 

Great write-up

 

 

is there any that can tell me where the part in the picture goes, and i need to know the name of the sensor in the other pic as well, i started to change my dif bearing and when i was taking of the cover that plastic part came out and i have no idea where it goes if anyone can help that would be cool.

 

The plastic piece slides into the case in the location shown in this picture.

The "sensor" is the gear position switch.

 

thanks alot, im hoping i can finish it today

 

I have not looked at this thread in a while, but why do you need to rebuild your transmission if you just jacked up the shift selector rod?

that doesn't make sense to me, especially just from dropping the cross member?

 

Chillin to the rescue!

 

I checked today to see where the plastic piece goes but it already has that one the one that is in the picture came from the housing part

 

Look on the opposite housing. It slides in lengthwise alongside the two deepest bearing bores. The bits of red foam rubber should give a clue where it came from.

 

it goes where the breather hose/breather nipple is visible on the outside of the case. it is a shield to prevent trans oil from coming out that breather port. it would be on the top of the case when you have the case oriented as if it were sitting in the car.

 

ok i got it now thank you.

 

I just recently replaced the clutch, differential bearing and gear position switch i put it back together, when i tried to turn it on i lost all pressure on the clutch and i found a leak on one the steel hose. i tighten the fitting and primed the clutch but now 1st 3rd and 5th go in rough and 2nd and 4th dont go in at all reverse and 5th sometimes go in but very rough. im wondering if any one has any ideas of what i can look for any help is appreciated

 

I had the same problem and ended up having to use assembly lube on the shift forks, detent *****, and the bores that the forks go in. Another idea you might want to try before doing that is filling it with ATF, temporarily to loosen up everything. Since ATF is much thinner, it should make everything shift smoother. You could also remove those two bolts that hold in a couple of ***** and springs and fill those up with assembly lube and put them back in.

This all assumes that you reassembled everything correctly too, of course.

I also found that you need to have it in gear before putting the case back together and NOT in neutral.

 

Yea im going to have to open it back up because i did leave it in neutral from when i changed my clutch, thanks alot for your help hopefully this works

 

Excellent write up and I'm in process of putting it all back together. I was careful not to lose any check *****, but just realized I'm missing an interlock plunger- I'm assuming the small plunger. I found the piece below (left) under my bench and am wondering if this is it. I set it next to one of my old diff bearing rollers (right) to give some perspective. This seems very small if it is indeed the small plunger, but am hoping it is. Can anyone tell me?

 

Hard to tell in the pic, but if it's a straight cylinder with equally rounded ends, then yes that's it. It's the only transmission part that will fit in the shift rod.

You can buy another from Nissan if need be.

 

That's it! I'm a little slow with the obvious at times; I just realized the small plunger actually inserts into the middle shift rod. Possibly, if the FSM didn't completely suck I'd be done by now. :/

 

Yep, you need that plunger in there .... Sucks to find it after you put it all back together, but hey ... at least you found it!

 

Thanks for the replies.

Another Q: I'm still assembling (taking my time LOL) and can manually shift 1-4 no prob. However, 5/R will not budge. Is this a leverage issue, which will cure itself once the trans is in with the striking rod and support bolted up or is something jacked up?

I really don't want to get this thing back in and have an issue. Thanks for any help.

 

5/R always seem to be a little harder to get into on the bench (especially R), but not impossible. try tapping the striking rod with a hammer or sticking a screwdriver through the holes on the yoke for a little more leverage. also, bench shifting is much easier if you are using lube of some sort on the shift rails, synchros, hubs, sliders, etc.

 

5/R is a few possible things:
- Can you push the striking rod into the reverse spring assembly ok? (If you can't even twist the striking rod into the N position between 5 and R, focus your attention here)
- Is the shift select pawl aligned to slip into the gate to 5/R?

If you can do that, then look at the other stuff:
- The interlock must be functioning correctly to shift, otherwise some gears will be blocked.
- Try getting more leverage on the striking rod yoke as Neal suggested, but also carefully add hand pressure to the shift fork.
- Usually, shifting on the bench gets better once the other housing half is installed and supporting the outer end of the shift rod.
- Lubricate everything if it's not moving well. Dry parts not only encourage more force to test their movement, but contribute to damage if things aren't going right.

David

 

Really excellent write up! I will definitely refer to this if ever doing tranny work or when doing my next clutch!!

 

Can't believe this thread is still going and that so many people reference it so much! That rocks !!!!! Glad I took the time to do the write up so long ago ....

 

definitely cool write-up

Question: Are there better and worse rebuild kits from what you know? Oem is the most expensive, I know, but what are the differences between a rebuild kit and a great rebuild kit?

 

IMHO, no. OEM are the most expensive because they're private labeled meaning there are more hands in the distribution channel all claiming a profit margin. I doubt you'd find an ounce of difference between the bearings with a Nissan p/n and those available in the aftermarket. Most likely, they're from the same manufacturer.

 

Between a good aftermarket rebuild kit and an OEM kit, no difference. The syncrhos all come from Nissan and the bearings come from the same exact bearing suppliers.

I have had a couple of times when the aftermarket bearing kit came with a non-brand name bearing or two. They were crap. But I still use aftermarket kits because of the massive cost savings.

The good bearing brands are Nachi, Koyo, NTN, NSK, and SKF. If I don't see one of those names on the bearing I get it replaced (from Nissan if necessary).

David

 

Great post David ....

I got my kit from GT Trans out of Georgia (USA). IIRC, they were NTN bearings. Still holding up ok after 100k miles. Can't say there's not some wear ... or that I'm always easy on my 5mt but hey .... still working is the important thing here. The kit should include seals also, if not - get them and replace them too. There's the shift rod selector seal, ds / ps diff seals and I think that's it ??? Most kits will not include syncrhos though. The price will tell you if they are included or not - most generally.