So picture dump/story time. About 3 months ago Ryan helped me replace the clutch in Jitty, my red MX-6 GT(
majhost.com Gallery - Replaced the clutch with a good used one, replaced some seals, new hardware, etc.). Everything was good for about two days on the barely-used clutch and the only notable problem was the 2nd gear syncros weren't the best. But then one evening the speedo popped out, and with little daylight left, I tried to get it back in so that it wouldn't come out on the drive home. Unfortunately a hammer is not the best tool, and the short side of the story is I forced the speedo back in at the wrong angle, and it broke the gear off of the speedometer inside the transmission when the car moved. I discovered the missing gear when I tried to figure out why it had popped out in the first place, and me and Ryan tried to flush it out with new fluid but it remained inside. There was little I could do just then besides drive home and hope for the best. Almost right away problems sprang up, like getting stuck in second for some reason, and then the next day a horrible whine started to develop in addition to popping out of 5th gear randomly (even violently popping out).
Obviously the trans was in trouble, and I had no choice but to park the car until I sorted out a new trans. Of course we all know how rare the GT's are anymore, and despite having a few spare trans on hand, almost all of them had chewed up diffs and worn out shift linkages. So I was facing a problem; should I just put in a used trans and hope for the best, or should I actually rebuild one, and if I rebuilt it, could I find one with a good diff?
Well, I had some spare new shift linkages from when I did Alita's trans, so part of the expense was already spent, and rebuild kits are still available. The only major problem was the diff, and I wasn't going to rebuild a trans unless I knew the diff was good. What else could I do?
That's right, my pokey little red $600 MX-6 with the worn out clutch(fixed), sticking brake calipers(fixed), messed up interior(eh), and blown struts(working on it!) would have a limited slip, the same as Alita.
(The stock diff is from another trans, and you can see the chewed up teeth on the spider gears.)
It took awhile to get everything in order, and to find the right trans to rebuild, but it all came together nicely, and we had the transmissions swapped with a new driver's side CV axle in about 6 hours.
Oh yeah, one more thing... I had to drive Jitty from my house to Ryan's work to do the swap, a distance of about 16 miles. Unknown to me, this had already happened:
I can only guess that the remains of the speedo gear had gotten wedged under the ring gear and very quickly spit out through the case. It made for a very effective drain to say the least, but despite this, it didn't seem to have any problems shifting on the drive over!
Lessons learned: I made a really dumb, hasty mistake, the sort that would have normally junked a car like Jitty. $1400 (for the LSD, rebuild and labor) to get a new trans is far beyond what I or anyone would have ever spent on this car. I did it though because if anything ever happens to Alita's trans, then I have an awesome spare right at hand, and because I love to have Jitty for daily driving. Of course, I would never brag about having two GT's with LSDs, but it is fun to think about
All pics here:
majhost.com Gallery - The original trans decided to poop itself, so I got a new one.
BUILT ENGINE
