Transmission removal/rebuild

[ElliotV]

So my throw out bearing or something is starting to make a little noise very randomly while I'm driving and I know for a fact my transmission could use a rebuild because I've pulled chunks of bearing cage out(transmission still makes no noise other than this new one). So my plan is to pull the transmission and do a clutch and rebuild it in a weekend with one of my friends. My plan is to drop it from underneath even though I know everyone says to pull it out through the top with the engine if I pull the engine I will have the truck apart for two weeks doing stuff to the engine and other things like the ac since I have to pull the radiator to remove the engine. My friend and I looked at it and if we remove the transmission crossmember and the front diff(which we can remove with out pulling the front crossmember that the front of the diff bolts too). If we remove that we should be able to slide the transmission back and then tilt it down and go forwards. My question is does anyone have any tips for rebuilding the transmission and should I try to do a rear main when I have it out? It doesn't leak right now but if I'm in there is that something that can be done. 

[ElliotV]

Also does anyone know where I can get a 5th gear syncro? The kit on rockauto looks to only have 4

[datzenmike]

Throw out bearings are only under load when the clutch pedal is being used. While driving the throw out bearing is just along for the ride. Must be something else.

 

Likely the bearing cage is from the front counter bearing coming apart. What year? the '83 or '86???

 

'83 56mm bearing........ 32219-E9000

'85 62mm bearing........ 32219-V5201

 

5th synchro................... 32604-E9801 used after '79 on 720, '81-'84 Maxima and 300zx, S12 200sx till mid '86 and Hardbody and Pathfinder till around '90. 

 

[ElliotV]

This is for my 85 truck which is supposed to have a 62 mm counter shaft bearing

[Austin]

Pulling the tranny with a 2-wheel drive is easy from the bottom! If 4x4, maybe easier from the top (that's what I did with my 83 4x4).

[ElliotV]

1 hour ago, Austin said:

Pulling the tranny with a 2-wheel drive is easy from the bottom! If 4x4, maybe easier from the top (that's what I did with my 83 4x4).

I have scoured all the discussions on this forum relating to pulling the transmission out of the 4x4 trucks and the main issue seems to often be getting the trans to come out the bottom but I have the shorter trans and when my buddy and I looked at the trucks and figured out what we would want to do we think we can get it out without pulling the engine. 

 

The main reason for doing it from the bottom is so I don't have to do other things like the timing chain and water pump as well as adding ac to this truck because if I pull the engine I am going to want to go ahead and do the ac install and right now it's not really in the books and everything listed above is just fine but why would I pull the engine and not do those things. I'm about to drop an 800 dollar rock auto order because the upper ball joints I put on 2years ago have split boots and the steering box that I just resealed decided to start leaking so now I have to spend 300 dollars on just a new steering box. The transmission is a known issue and I pulled bearing cage out of it 30k miles ago but have yet to have any major issues but it's become vocal about its wounds and I have a major trip coming up in a couple months.

[datzenmike]

Steering box leak is the seal around the sector shaft. You have to pull the pitman arm off but just drive a wood screw into the seal and turn it in and yank it out. New seal, grease it, and tap up into place with a suitable size socket.

 

If PS the two hydraulic hoses have copper crush washers, always replace.

 

 

[ElliotV]

I'm pretty sure the steering box leak is the sector shaft which is annoying because I just resealed this box. I can try putting a new seal on this weekend if I still have the seals from the kits I ordered. One shaft seal seemed to fit better? Than the other but that doesn't mean it was the right one.

 

What about the rear main seal @datzenmike, do you think I should replace it or not bother with it?

[datzenmike]

Rear main crankshaft seal???? Is it leaking???? if not don't fix what isn't broken.  

 

Back in the mid '70s I had a 510 that had been rust proofed and some of the crap they sprayed covered a couple of square inches of the radiator. I used a popcicle stick to poke it out of the fins.... until it started leaking. Spent that Saturday morning in a wrecking yard and cost me $20 in '70s money to put it back in running condition. Lesson learned... leave shit alone!!! 

[ElliotV]

47 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

Rear main crankshaft seal???? Is it leaking???? if not don't fix what isn't broken.  

 

Back in the mid '70s I had a 510 that had been rust proofed and some of the crap they sprayed covered a couple of square inches of the radiator. I used a popcicle stick to poke it out of the fins.... until it started leaking. Spent that Saturday morning in a wrecking yard and cost me $20 in '70s money to put it back in running condition. Lesson learned... leave shit alone!!! 

Ok I won't bother ordering one then, I do plan on replacing the u joints on the intermediate shaft since it's hard to get to and I am pretty sure this truck has all original u joints in it.

[NC85ST]

13 hours ago, ElliotV said:

replacing the u joints

What Mike said above, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. The u joints that are in there are probably better quality than what you would replace them with. If they’re good and tight, don’t mess with them. My ‘04 Frontier has 349,000 miles on it and it has the original u joints.

[DwayneOxford]

Cheap China rubber is EXPENSIVE.

[Seven Two Oh No]

@ElliotV I can confirm that you can pull the trans from the bottom in the 85 4x4, but it will fight you. I did it multiple times and did not need to jack up the truck sitting on a set of 235/75/15s. I removed the front cross member and just let the diff rotate down so the rear flange was resting on the ground, but you'd have a lot more room to maneuver the trans if you removed the diff it entirely. Removing the trans is a matter of angling and rotating as you wrestle it down. Note that when you reinstall the front cross member, the mounting pin holes may not line up so you'll need to wedge something behind the outboard side of the cross member to force the holes into alignment. Let me know if you hit this snag and I can show you how I dealt with it.

 

For the rebuild, there's a good write up in the old Dime Quarterly with step by step instructions on rebuilding - check out Vol. 11 Issues 2 and 3 here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vg5gUButsNeoYHv737nzCO32lgiMwh_a. There's also series of videos on Youtube showing the complete disassembly and reassembly of a 71B that helped during my first rebuild. First video is here, and you can find the rest on that page - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTdf7ncLy0A.

 

This was the rebuild kit I used last time for my 85 - https://transpartswarehouse.com/bk133ws-nissan-truck-trans-fs5w71c-2wd-5-sp-transmission-rebuild-kit-84-6-86.html.

[Austin]

23 minutes ago, Seven Two Oh No said:

@ElliotV I can confirm that you can pull the trans from the bottom in the 85 4x4, but it will fight you. I did it multiple times and did not need to jack up the truck sitting on a set of 235/75/15s. I removed the front cross member and just let the diff rotate down so the rear flange was resting on the ground, but you'd have a lot more room to maneuver the trans if you removed the diff it entirely. Removing the trans is a matter of angling and rotating as you wrestle it down. Note that when you reinstall the front cross member, the mounting pin holes may not line up so you'll need to wedge something behind the outboard side of the cross member to force the holes into alignment. Let me know if you hit this snag and I can show you how I dealt with it.

 

For the rebuild, there's a good write up in the old Dime Quarterly with step by step instructions on rebuilding - check out Vol. 11 Issues 2 and 3 here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vg5gUButsNeoYHv737nzCO32lgiMwh_a. There's also series of videos on Youtube showing the complete disassembly and reassembly of a 71B that helped during my first rebuild. First video is here, and you can find the rest on that page - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTdf7ncLy0A.

 

This was the rebuild kit I used last time for my 85 - https://transpartswarehouse.com/bk133ws-nissan-truck-trans-fs5w71c-2wd-5-sp-transmission-rebuild-kit-84-6-86.html.

Great info, THANKS!

[ElliotV]

@Seven Two Oh No ok I'll probably still keep some extra u joints in the truck for the my trip to Moab since all of them are the same size u joint. My buddy has a car lift that we can use and I think between the two of us we can just lower it out of the truck.

[ElliotV]

Well I had some time this weekend where my body didn't decide to quit on me and managed to replace the sector shaft seal, the one that was in it was halfway pushed out and when I pulled it out the od was smaller than the other two I had, I pulled the pitman arm off my old box and looked at the seal that was in it since I had two styles and went with the one that appeared to match my old box and now it's not leaking knock on wood.

 

Since I got that sealed up I went ahead and placed the rock auto order and just need to find a weekend I can pull the trans and rebuild it then reinstall it. Does anyone think it can be done in 2.5 days with plenty of caffeine and minimal sleep?

[datzenmike]

The oil for the steering box is the same GL-4 as for the manual transmission.

[ElliotV]

its a powersteering truck so I use the power steering fluid recomended by nissan

[ElliotV]

Well I ended up deciding to pull the trans out of one of my trucks. I'm pretty sure the reason this truck was parked is because someone drove it into a lake. There's weird like algae everywhere and sand in a bunch of weird places and I was told it was parked because the computer went bad for the efi and it's sitting on the floor of the truck with a bunch of water damage. Transmission was also full of water so we will see what it looks like when I finish getting it out and apart. Ended up working on it from about 1 till 7 today with a hour and a half long dinner so I don't think this is too bad considering how much all the bolts fought me and I ended up having to drop the transfer case since I couldn't rotate the intermediate shaft. 

[ElliotV]

[ElliotV]

Well got it out. Apparently even though this is a 86 truck it has the small countershaft bearing. 

[ElliotV]

Well I pulled apart a spare long trans I had and the 5th gear is broke. But it has the large countershaft bearing. Issue is that the short trans I have is not willing to come apart and is completely full of sand and rust. Anyone think it's worth trying to get apart still or should I just try to do the one in my truck in a weekend?

[NC85ST]

Did you find that transmission at the bottom of a lake?! That’s incredible! Even looks like someone had it open before.

[Draker]

18 hours ago, ElliotV said:

Well I pulled apart a spare long trans I had and the 5th gear is broke. But it has the large countershaft bearing. Issue is that the short trans I have is not willing to come apart and is completely full of sand and rust. Anyone think it's worth trying to get apart still or should I just try to do the one in my truck in a weekend?

 

I don't think this one is saveable based on the look of that gear. Not even sure how that much shit gets into a transmission.

[DwayneOxford]

21 hours ago, ElliotV said:

Well I pulled apart a spare long trans I had and the 5th gear is broke. But it has the large countershaft bearing. Issue is that the short trans I have is not willing to come apart and is completely full of sand and rust. Anyone think it's worth trying to get apart still or should I just try to do the one in my truck in a weekend?

I'd just put a new one in the one in your truck.