Topic: w56 transmission rebuild results: grabby

[tmoney]

just threw down a bunch of $$ to have a shop rebuild the manual trans in my 87 runner, after deciding it wasnt a job i wanted to tackle, and i didnt want to put in a used trans and have that go in 20k.

before its suggested, yeah i know i shouldve gotten a marlin instead... i couldnt be without my truck for the time it wouldve taken based on their lead time...dammit.. 

i'm not so sure i had the right shop do the job...

i knew the bearings were going, they convinced me to replace some forks, gears, and i also had them do the clutch while they were in there, the whole thing set me back $2k.

bearing noise is gone, but now after the rebuilt, it does not feel, "smooth" between gears.

with the clutch fully depressed, about halfway through the motion of shifting from the neutral position of the stick up into a gear position, there is a noticable, (usually somewhat slight) hang-up about halfway up as it slides into gear. if i feather it up into a gear, it begins to grind. its fine as long as you just shift in forceful continuous motion from neutral, but still is a somewhat irritating grabbing vs a nice smooth shift.

should i just live with it, or is this grabbiness a faulty rebuild, and potentially future headaches?

The shop warrantees their work supposedly, so i'm considering trying to get them to make attempt #2 at rebuilding a nice smooth shifter.

thoughts?

[DTB]

2k? you could buy a whole donor truck for that much! oh man

[MiniSimp]

the whole thing set me back $2k.

Are you serious? Really? Guess you should have done your research....

[79coyotefrg]

You  >    < Tranny shop


yes   make them fix it,  sounds like they  replaced the input bearing,(usually the first bearing to go)  and  didnt replace the synchros  at all  or  did a reallt bad job of it

did the tranny just totally die  all of a sudden  ??

[tmoney [OP]]

did the tranny just totally die  all of a sudden  ??

it wasnt sudden exactly, but I drove cross country from VT-WA towing my worldy possesions in a 4000lb trailer... in order to make it over some of the mtn passes i had to wind it up to 5200 rpm in 1st gear on the highway... beat up on her pretty good. in hindsite, not the brightest idea, but couldnt leave my cherry bmw r65 behind right?   

when i got to seattle, the trans was pretty bad. 

without room to park a parts rig, time to wait for a MC, and the thing threatening pretty hard to give it up, I rolled the dice on the trans shop.  the $2k also included $300 for a new clutch, so $1700, of which $700 was labor, and $1k parts... I dont have the receipt handy and dont remember everything they put in off the top of my head... but i kept the box full of the parts they took out of her, so i can look more closely at what they did, and the state of what they took out.

The grabbiness is in all gears, particularly 1-2-3.  I havent dug into a trans before so i dont have a firm grasp on what exactly they may've F-d up. 

Does anyone elses trans have a noticeable "grab" halfway getting into gears, or is it smooth and minimal resistance in your hand from Neutral all the way into the fully engaged in-gear point? I mean it DOES shift functionally fine, just annoyingly grabby from what i'm used to. I'm not 100% sure that theres anything of real concern besides pissing me off that its not buttery smooth after I threw a bunch of $ at it.               

1987 4runner
165k, reman 22RE 5Speed with 15k
Custom softtop, bedliner, new paint
K/N cold air, Thorley Tri-Y, Flowmaster
IFS, 4" Lift, 4.88s
33x10.5x15 BFG ATs           

[emsvitil]

After I rebuilt my W56, the shifting was notchier for awhile.

I think partly it was new synchros and partly shifting technique.....

By shifting technique I mean that as the transmission aged the shifter linkage gets sloppier and sloppier (the plastic cup it rests in) and you get sloppier and sloppier, but it shifts just fine.    Replace the shifter cup and a rebuild, and you need to be more precise, but after years of sloppy shifting, you're not precise enough and the shifting is notching.

After awhile, the shifter gets a little less precise, you get more precise, and everything is fine again.

[*ROKTOY*]

I got a Marlin trans and it is quite notchey in second and third. I was told it was because of the new syncro's, and it will take thousands of miles for the syncro's to break in.

[tmoney [OP]]

I got a Marlin trans and it is quite notchey in second and third. I was told it was because of the new syncro's, and it will take thousands of miles for the syncro's to break in.

cool, thanks man. that makes me feel (a little) better about it.  still gonna take it to another (unbiased) shop to get another opinion on if its a "normal" notchiness i've got, or if its more chunky than it should be...