I just recieved my replacement 5MT (mine is leaking really BAD from the input shaft) and the replacement has a little play in it.

Should I be concerned? I don NOT want to have the same problem again.

 

You should always open up a replacement trans to check the status of it (i.e. seals / syncroz / bearing play). Have you already installed it yet? If not, open it up, it's not hard .... see my sig - there's a link to my rebuild and that will walk you through opening it up and checking it out. How much was the 'new' trany?

 

$545 from TX and $120 shipping. under 30 day warr.

No its not in yet and i was planning to "check it out" first, but the first thing i checked was the playin the input shaft since thats my current problem. I just dont know what is "acceptable" and whats not.

From one thread i read (posted some time ago) i recall that ANY play is generaly considered "bad". (cant find it now)

 

^so you paid total of $665? is that cheaper than rebuilding/taking care of the leak of your old one? if you gonna do all the work of opening it and such.

 

Well if you consider the cost of materials (replacing almost all the gears, barrings, seals, shift forks, etc to the tune of about 1280.00) yeah ...

The other issue is that this is my daily driver at the moment and it has to drive, so i really dont have the extra time to take to do a full rebuild.

ALSO, since it is my daily driverm i need to be sure that the one i'm about to put in works well as soon as i put it in.

 

There should be no play in the input shaft that you can feel. If you put a dial indicator on the shaft end you might be able to push a couple thou in the direction of the shaft axis but you can't feel it by hand, ever. A leak through that seal is another indication of trouble.

Take it to a transmission shop and pay them $50 to open it up and have a look. One glance at the trans magnet usually tells quite the story.

Dave

 

So i should crack it open and replace the barings then?

 

^^^^

Deff a good idea! And yes, the magnet can give you a great indicator of a lot of possible issues.

 

Yes, I would expect the transmission needs a rebuild. If you have the capabilities to do it, it's a no-brainer.

If you would by paying someone else to do the rebuild, you may be better off exchanging this transmission.

Dave

 

I FINALY found that post i was talking about. (http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...t-bearing.html)

Im gonna bust it open tonight. IF its trashed, im 1/2 willing to ship it back and get a refund.

I havent measured the play yet, but if i guessed id say its about 1/8" in either direction. (u/d/l/r) maybe a lil more even...

If i find TONS of metal in the case ... im sure i will return it.

IF i just have to replace the barings... maybe they will cut me a lil refund???

well... lets hope!

Ill post up pics tonight when i get it apart. Maybe a few of you experts can tell me if im screwed...


BTW: for anyone who finds my post.. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING LINK!! GREAT INFO!!!
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...t-bearing.html
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...t-bearing.html
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...t-bearing.html

 

Hey Dave;

Do you have any good books you recomend for the entire rebuild process? My lame **** manual says "refer to mechanic" fo teh 4th Gen book, BUT my 3rd Gen book has the entire walk thru (basicaly)

 

Just use Jtzmax's walk through and the one on motorvate.ca Those are the two I'm using and my own mechanical background and havent had the slightest bit of trouble.

 

Get the factory service manual. If you know how to work on bearings and stuff that's all you really need.

Dave

 

ok Got JtzMAX walkthru.. great resource! but WHERE did you get that bareing set?

 

ok i found the bareing set and i even got the place i bought the tranny from to pay for them...

NEXT: IF (and its a BIG IF) the tranny i have is a LSD (which the firewall plate says its not, but it has the little "cross piece" when looking thru the tranny where the drive shafts go) and the replacement tranny is NOT LSD ... (i havent been able to check it yat since im at work, but the placve i bought it from said its is definatly not) ... CAN the LSD be moved from the old tranny to the new one? or is the case differant? ... If it cant be moved from one case to the other... can i use the guts from the new one to replace the guts in the old?

sry i know its a tough question..

 

The cross shaft for the spider gears means that it's an open diff.

No, the cases are different between VLSD and non.

You should be able to use the internals no problem, but if they're both open, I'd take the half a day to rebuild the whole thing.

 

half a day huh... wana fly out here to Reno Nv and do mine? lol!

 

Can take you a 1/2 day, but gettting the diff shims might take a bit longer. Most dealers don't stock that item and it's an order only item (the shims that is). Most Maxima's are open diff (non-locking) and it sounds like yours is too. Not that hard a job really .... if you have the time, tools, patience, and help of the .Org!

 

Well JTZ... This is entirely true... I have called the places listed in the http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...uild-kits.html post and I have found that if i go thru rsgear.com that they have the best base price thus far. The kit I'm looking to order is the BK-182D but the guy there says that he needs the numbers on the race of the diff bareings. Any idea why? None of the other places (GT and Transtar) asked.

I will probably order them from the Transtar guy since they are only $30 more and shipping is only 1 day vs the 5 days from NY. But before I do, I really wana know why the other places didnt ask.

Thanks again for your help.

 

OK.. NEW PROBLEM!!!

Pulled every bareing with no issues EXCEPT ONE...

The Diffy on the spedo side didnt go so well. I took it to several shops for help removing it cause the top of the bareing ripped off the sleeve. Ok.. so this happens and iv read things about how to get it off, BUT I didnt feel comfortable "cutting" it...

So i finaly found a shop that would help me. .. (at least thats what they called it)

Here is what i got back.







Any ideas?

The shop said that it should still be "ok"...

Now its your turn...

Please tell me what you think...

Be honest please! (brutaly if nessessary)

I do have another diffy, but its in the trashed tranny and im not sure i want to use it cause the ISB was basicaly destroyed.

 

I would get that tranny put back together, then send it back and get your refund. Show the company those pics if they try to deny you a refund. If you still have the original trans, you should go ahead and try to rebuild it yourself, it's pretty fun once you get it on the workbench. Use NSK brand bearings! I'm going on 50k hard miles on an NSK ISB. Also, buy new seals, if you have somewhat low miles on the tranny, you're probably good with the seals and ISB, course don't take my word for it, make an educated decision after you inspect things, you guys also have those diff issues as well, so that's something to keep in mind.

 

Wow, that is ugly. If you cut off the plastic speedo wheel ($20 part) you can easily remove that bearing with a 2 jaw puller. Whoever removed that bearing has no idea what they're doing.

Use a bunch of green loc-tite on that bore when reinstalling the new bearing and you should be ok.

You could swap the diff from the other trans. Make sure to exchange the ring gears and just use the diff itself. Then pull the bearings in a better way.

Dave

 

I agree with Dave .... that is a nasty job. When I cut my bearings off, it didn't look anything like that. That is just impatience, poor technique, and plain stupidity. Sorry ... you said to be honest. lol

IIWM - I'd pull the other diff and do like Dave says, just use the diff ... in case of metal shavings or chipped diff teeth. Green loc-tite is not cheap, but it works like a charm, well worth the purchase!

 

Yea, I agree with Jim and Dave. This is the worst I did to any of mine and it just fine.


I also had to use Loctite on one of my bearing races. Wish I wouldve known about the green Loctite tho. I use the strongest red I could find…I think.

 

I'm with Hectic on this, put it all back together and send it back to the place for a refund, and say it was ****ed from the time you put it in

 

ok well.. Jim, Dave .. and .. (sry im not sure who you are NissanMaxima91)

I went the Green LockTite method after taking a closer look at my other diffy. (its probably not worth saving)

Finished the rebuild per the Rebuild post (thanks again!) got everything all sealed up.. Had the flywheel resurfaced while the rest of this had been going on... Got it all installed and started filling her up with Moblil1 Synthetic 75W90 and added a bottle of Lucas Pure Synthetic...

Then i started cleaning up my workbench and found under a oily rag that little plastic piece that looks like a small funnel that sits in near the MS bareings...

Part 32108 in the picture below



So how "bad" would it be to drive without it???



Also... If i DO have to break open the case again (PLEASE SAY NO!!) is there a good place to place a second magnet? )not that im expecting to get excessive wear while running synthetic and changing the fluid regularly)

(btw: how regularly do some of you change your tranny fluid on a MT? every oil change? every other? third??? Im thinking every other ...)


?

 

That plastic piece sits in the shaft of the IPS. It's an oil guide. You'll probably be fine w/o it ... not sure that it really does that much anyway. As for a second mag ... no need, with the way things get churned up it's like a vortex in there and everything passes that mag eventualy. As for changing gear oil ... nobody does it as often as they should (me included I'm sure!). I'd say if I had to guess, every 60 - 90 k or so. Depends on how 'hard' you drive the car too. If you're smooth with it and not hot roddin ... you might get 120k + ....

Glad you got it back together ... hope it does well!


EDIT: oh ... that piece ... yea, lol sorry. Still ok, it's an oil guide but I think you'll be fine. I just re-read your post and looked again at the part ... that's what I get. lol

Cheers!

 

32108 funnels oil flung up by the diff to the main shaft (counter shaft). without that piece, your main shaft is probably not going to get nearly as much oil as it should be getting. of course I was just inside one of these transmissions the other day but I wasn't looking specifically at that part of it - I can't remember if the channel which that funnel supplies oil to goes to the main shaft front bearing itself, or if it supplies the oil to the hollow main shaft (which then in turn goes to 1st and 2nd gears to lubricate them as they ride on the main shaft)... I'd check for you on monday but today was actually my last day working at that job (i'll be in there to do some of my own projects in the coming few weekends but I am moving out of town tomorrow and will no longer be in there on a regular basis). Perhaps dave can shed some light on it. My instinct tells me that the channel goes to the hollow part of the main shaft to supply oil to the gears.

whether or not you replace it is up to you, but you might have a trans that prematurely fails on you and when it does so, you might end up with a pile of ruined gears and a ruined shaft, definitely a more costly fix than just replacing a few bearings.

if it were me, I'd suck it up, spend the 4 or 5 hours or whatever it takes for you to RR it, and replace it. in my mind, 4 or 5 hours of extra work now is worth not having to do a trans rebuild next year.

Fluid changes don't need to be nearly that often. if you don't race this car you would be just fine changing the trans oil every 30,000 miles or more. most people go even longer (years and years).

about the magnet, if you get back in it, you can RTV a low profile neodymium boron magnet just next to where the stock magnet sits, or just stick a low profile NB magnet to the stock magnet itself.


edit: i can't believe what that shop did to your differential... unbelievable. a press and drift or a puller can get that bearing off there in about 15 seconds flat without any of that hack job business. i'd have raised hell...

 

Yes, that piece collects splashed oil and feeds it into the funnel at the front of the mainshaft. That oil then follows into the hollow shaft and lubricates the journals of the drive gears.

I would also replace it. Fortunately you have very little disassembly in the transmission itself to install that piece. Just pop the back housing half and put it in.

Dave

 

/sigh

to continue this story...

ok so today i drove it to work and as soon as i got there i noticed that my front left tire was going flat. No big deal for me since TireRack.com's warehouse is just down the road. I got a new set of tires for the front (it needed em anyway) and went to have them installed...

And thats when i noticed it... the transmission is leaking... and im not even sure where from...

There is fresh oil all over the place on the transmission itself (spots here and there, etc) .. not like coated, but little bits in places that i cant imagine how it got there. And maybe even inside the bell housing... Sufice to say its leaking enough that i noticed it at first cause of the few drops that i saw under the car when the tire guy drove it into the shop. Its leak is a LOT less then the one i removed.

But anyway, now, regardless of what i "want" to do, its gotta come out. It just make me so {explitive deleted}{explitive deleted}{explitive deleted} upset! (lol i love typing that) ...

I spent hours painstakinly going over this thing again and again. (yet i still managed to forget that stupid piece, but it was hidden and i didnt notice it missing in the pics i took of before and after)

SO .. I am left with the question... What next? I spent a small fortune getting all that synth oil and lucas for it. All a total loss at this point???

As far as the sealer that i use on the case, I asked a mechanic friend of mine what he would recommend, he told me to use this can called "The RIGHT Stuff" and now im wondering if thats the cause of the leaks?

Or, did i add too much oil? I was quoted 10 Pints (5 quarts) Would/Could that cause leaks? Jacked up in the front it took all 5 quarts without spilling out.

I've seen posts before about it not "hurting" to over fill it a little bit so i doubt that is the problem.

so like i said .. /sigh

sugestions?

 

anyone near Reno, Nv that knows their stuff about this wana come over and make some cash? PM me..

 

the spec is for 4.5 quarts, overfilling by half a quart wouldn't cause any leakage problems though. no idea why yours is leaking without pics. did you get all the old RTV off as best you could and also spray a clean rag/towel with brake parts cleaner to wipe and make sure all the sealing surfaces were free of oil/other crap before you put the sealant on?

use RTV Gray sealant. it's like $4 for a tube at the parts store. you can also use black or orange, but i like the consistency of the gray best once it's dried. that's what the OEMs use too.

 

Well you're taking it down and removing the housing.

I use grey silicone sealant. "The Right Stuff" is just super-premium stuff.

When applying the sealant, make sure the metal edges are perfectly dry and take your time running a bead of sealant on the inside of all bolt holes. Use the tip of the nozzle to spread it a bit. Then make sure you use sealant on the bolts that thread into/through the housing too. Give it a few hours to set up before filling with oil and make sure all bolts are snug.

Make sure the trans position sensor o-ring is not pinched and that the sensor itself is not cracked.

If you installed new oil seals, inspect them to see if they are leaking oil. I see a lot of transmissions where someone installed new oil seals and messed up the metal housing bores. I can only imagine how quickly some of them would have leaked. In those cases I spread a thin layer of the same silicone around the outside of the oil seal just to try and fill those gaps.

Dave

 

any way to easyly reclaim the synthetic oils that i used to fill it up? I really hate to waste $60 in fluids (especialy since im over tapped on fixing this things so far)

I was thinking that i could drop that plug near the shift rod (the one that you have to pull to get the pins out of the rod to remove it)

Is there a better one to pull?

 

You mean besides the actual drain plug?

 

That is the drain plug. Yes, as long as the oil is not dirtied when you drain it, there is nothing wrong with reusing it.

Dave

 

Sorry to hear bout this mate .... collect the oil in a clean container and reuse it. And yes ... the drain plug is that bolt by the shift selector rod.

 

That sucks man.

Couple questions. When you resealed the clutch housing, did you go around the inner side of the bolt holes or the outer side?

I have no clue what the sealant you use, perhaps its differant down south. At my work, for any oil/water related job we just use the good ol' grey permatex sealant.

Perhaps you used a sealant designed for water purposes(coolant)? I know the stuff that nissan wants use to use for the P71 cant be used for coolant, but it seals oil great.

Did you replace the axle seals? its quite possible you may have nicked one of the seals when you were installing the axles, which caused the gear oil to spray everywhere when it leaked?

If you followed the stickies, im sure you did, but did you just re-use your old shim for the diff bearing?

 

I agree with everyone on here. If the fluid isn't dirty and you collect it in a clean container, you can re-use it. Also, when I filled mine up for the first time, it took a full five quarts on level ground. If the damn thing is leaking, pull it out, out the oil channel back in and re-seal it. I used Permatex Black RTV (High Temp stuff I think. Works great.) Also make sure you seal on the inside of the bolt holes like the other guys stated. And as 96blkonblkse stated, I hope that you did re-shim the diff bearing, or at least measure it to know the existing shims were what you needed.

Matt

 

indeed all...

I bought a new collection container just for this (orher 5 are all dirty)

I have pulled it out and visualy inspected it. it does seem that the leaks were only from the created case seals.

As far as the question that yall keep asking, the answer is yes. I always put the gasket sealer around the holes, but i think that Nealoc187 hit a good point. Generaly when i clean off the old stuff, i just scrape it all and sometimes use the wirewheel on it, but this time it "looked" clean after scraping it alone so i didnt bother with the wirewheel. also i didnt originaly reclean the surface with brake cleaner etc, remember that it "looked" really clean. Now thining back it probably still had a fair amount of oil residue on it that made it "look" nice and clean. This time around , since im out of break cleaner (used the rest on the flywheel) i used a clead rag and starting fluid (recomended by another mechanic friend of mine) and prepared the surface nice and perfect, then used the gray RTV (600 deg) [screw that right stuff crap, its too hard to use and you ounly have 1-5 mins max, stay away from this on a large seal, it also sux cause of the container, its like cheesewiz) and resealed the entire thing (after replaceing the funnel thingy).

I was very happy that none of the rubber oil seals were leaking at all. At this exact moment im waiting the hour before retorqueing the bolts before i replace the tranny in the car.

I have also taken an entire photo diary of the removal process (without pulling the wheel hubs off) that im gonna post at some point tommorow.

there is somthing odd that i noticedd about this thing though...

Near the clutch slave cyl i saw on the tranny case what i originaly thought was trany oil, but now im wondering... since there is noplace for the trwansmission to leak at that point in the case, is my stupid slave leaking... im gonna watch is closely (i have another one already, but im not sure if its any better since it came with this trany (left there by the removal process).. we will see..

ALSO, i noticed that after i swapped thiis trany in, added a new clutch on a resurfaced the flywheel, that the clutch pedal seems really weak and pulses (fast like abs) when im depress and let it out. during the work tonight i noticed that the fluid is low (at the min line with the slave raised up and stuck out of the way for the removal so its not like its been running any time recently, and the car is raissed up in the front about 1.5-2 feet if any of that matters )