Anonymous Waffle Posted May 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 (edited) BACK FROM THE DEAD. She is still kicking and running. I bought this truck with a odometer at 26k miles. (Definitely 126k), and currently she is sitting at 75k miles. Almost 50,000 miles. 3 whole trips to canby/powerland, many club fun runs, almost 3 years of daily driving, and then she kinda sat. I focused on a 88 turbo rx7 I rebuilt, drove, and sold. Bought a few others trucks, that I never touched and sold. Bought and currently daily my 82 diesel maxima, so this truck got use only every few months. But she's still truckin'! The l20b burns a good bit of oil now, the suspension is in dire need of attention, and recently on my way to Hayward to pickup a shorty 5 speed, I blew up the transmission. Not totally, but it sounded nasty in 1st and 2nd. Limped home, and the disassembly began. But before that, some fun pics! Took her camping An 8 foot bed let's you buy a goodwill 8 foot vintage couch! L18 and 5 speed deal i bought. That 5 speed is whats going in this now lol. Even lowered, she carried a complete Ld28... twice!! She hauled my Honda ST90 (Ct70's bigger brother) Which is still a wip. Saved my butt when I killed a tire on the maxy. Edited May 2, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle Quote Link to comment
Anonymous Waffle Posted May 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 (edited) Blown tranny time. Hopefully I can post this video of the noise. This transmission always made a howl when I lifted at high rpms, or lifting on a hill. I replaced the tranny fluid twice in the 50k miles I've had this, but this was a unknown 5 speed I threw in the truck. I never disassembled this, but it was obvious someone had before. This is what I drained.. plus a few metal pieces, which I recognized as the ball bearing cages. That damn one speed-up in the safeway parking lot lol. Got the 280zx trans out in 90 minutes. Fastest i ever dropped a transmission. Yay me! Uh oh! Either the culprit, or the aftermath. I'd say it's the culprit, the secondary shaft(?) Shim was slipped out of place, and was probably killing the bearing when heavily loaded. Thankfully, it didn't send a ball bearing flying, and didn't gum up a single syncro or gear. But I'm definitely going to tear it all apart and rebuild it. Gotta learn one way or another! Edited May 2, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 2, 2022 Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 From a first year '79 280zx. It's a mid ratio box. I have one, nice! Negative... the counter shaft bearing is a known failure point. It's under load in every gear but 4th. They begin to growl when worn out. If not replaced, and you keep driving on it, they self destruct. It's failure usually takes out the cover plate. In this case it took the shim also. Was there evidence that this transmission was apart before??? Look and you can see the shim is on top of the cover plate gasket, top left. No way it moved there, someone didn't install it properly. Quote Link to comment
Anonymous Waffle Posted May 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 2 hours ago, datzenmike said: From a first year '79 280zx. It's a mid ratio box. I have one, nice! Negative... the counter shaft bearing is a known failure point. It's under load in every gear but 4th. They begin to growl when worn out. If not replaced, and you keep driving on it, they self destruct. It's failure usually takes out the cover plate. In this case it took the shim also. Was there evidence that this transmission was apart before??? Look and you can see the shim is on top of the cover plate gasket, top left. No way it moved there, someone didn't install it properly. There's definitely evidence of someone taking this transmission apart before. There's silicone material that doesn't look factory, and I found a couple of spots where a screwdriver was used to pry the front case apart. So I'm 95% confident the shim was installed incorrectly. I saw the shim wedged inbetween the front cover and the case, and knew that had to be the culprit. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 2, 2022 Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 Then you are blameless for 'blowing it up' LOL 1 Quote Link to comment
Anonymous Waffle Posted May 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 56 minutes ago, datzenmike said: Then you are blameless for 'blowing it up' LOL I'll still take half the blame for putting 50k miles on a transmission, fully knowing it made noise. But at least it wasn't major damage. I'll at the very least take off the tail of the transmission, and check the other bearings. I'd like to do a full rebuild to have a crispy 5 speed to have as a backup. Quote Link to comment
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