98 Manual Trans - Transmission Overhaul

[steveryd]

I have a 1998 ZX2 with a manual transmission and I was getting a grinding noise whenever I would turn my wheels. At first I thought that it was one of my CV axle shafts going bad, but I could not pin point the noise to come from either side. When I got my car up on jack stands I spun the shafts to see if there was any lop-sided movement and there was not. That is when I realized that it had to be in the transmission. I dropped the transmission and looked inside and the differential gears were all chewed up and metal fragments were spread through-out the transmission. One way or another I need to replace the differential gears and clean all of the metal fragments out. The other gears, syncros, and bearings look OK. My question is this, "Without putting too much money into this vehicle, should I replace anything else in the transmission while I have it out and open?”

[Davescort97]

Welcome to af.

Get a used transmission at the auto salvage. You will spend about the same amount of money replacing the chewed up parts. Very possibly more. You should be able to get a used tranny for about $350 to $500. The reason I am suggesting this is that if you miss one chunk of stray metal and it gets into your rebuild you are going to be po'd. If you go ahead and fix it put in new seals and synchronizers. I wouldn't attempt a tranny rebuild. There's too much that can go wrong. I hope you are a better mechanic than I am. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[steveryd]

Thanks for the feedback. Today I realized a possible reason why my differential gears burned up. When I took my transmission off a little under 2 years ago to replace my clutch assembly, I only filled the transmission level to the bottom of the axle shaft openings. The nut that you need to remove to fill the transmission to the proper height is slightly higher than the axle shaft insert openings. That may have been what caused my issue with the differential gears. Anyways, I found a transmission on Craigslist and he is asking $400 with 80K miles on it. I will check that out before I consider my other option of pulling one from the get-it-yourself-scrapyard for $115 (which I know there is one there because I already scouted it out). I am planning to give a lower offer than his asking price because I have no warrentee on it whereas even the yard warrentees theirs for 30 days.

[Davescort97]

Sounds like a winner.