Rebuild FS5W71B?

[mnementh666]

So my truck has an '81 ZX 5spd in it, and I believe the input shaft bearing is shot. Major noise on decel, and in neutral with foot off the clutch, can hear it rattling.

So I'm thinking of picking up another one, and attempting a rebuild myself. Or installing a junkyard tranny and rebuilding this one. The bearing/seal kit only runs about $125-ish, and the syncros appear to be about $80-100.

Issue being: I've never rebuilt a tranny. Anyone ever done this? Is it beyond a backyard mechanic? I've rebuilt and assembled motors, but never this.

Is it worthwhile to just have a shop do the work? I'd think probably $200-300ish for someone to do it, but I haven't checked into it yet.

I think it'd be interesting, but I don't want to trash a tranny due to my own inexperience.

[datzenmike]

Here's an FS5W71B that I took apart in a junk yard with only a 12mm ratchet and a pair of snap ring pliers. The input shaft (with clutch disk splines)/input bearing and main drive gear is off because the counter gear is broken off. Because of this it came off with the front case half. You can see what's left of the counter shaft front bearing race on it's front end.

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q251/datzenmike/transNAPSZ5spdbroken.jpg[/img]"]

 

Heres what it should look like with the front case half off:

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q251/datzenmike/transFS5W71Cmainandcountershaft.jpg[/img]"]

 

Above, the shaft in the upper right is the input shaft, (containing the spline the clutch disk fits on) the input bearing and main drive gear

 

Below, the bottom ball bearing has to be removed with a puller first and the top input shaft will lift right out with its bearing and drive gear attached. Now it can be put in a mount and have it's bearing pressed off and a new one pressed on. When lifting the input shaft shaft out watch for the needle bearings inside, don't loose them. You should be able to get this far and have the input shaft sent out to have the bearing pulled and a new one pressed on.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q251/datzenmike/FS5W71CMainandcountershaftfrontbear.jpg[/img]"]

[mnementh666]

Thanks for that Mike. The pics help out a lot.

Looks like removing the gears and the synchros might be more than I care to take on, but getting the bearings replaced should be easy enough.

Thanks again.