Marlin rebuilt L52HD is noisey

[79coyotefrg]

[GJToyotabug]

those seals are awesome!!!! i helped sell the inner axle seals when he was in moab. man people were coming up saying they put a set in last weekend and blah blah blah about how great they work. i really must say im very picky as to what i use. and if i had a solid axle truck i would only run marlins seals!

[hilux-1983]

Drum roll please.............................. Got all of the seals, gaskets and a new(to me) t-case 2nd cover(where the fill plug is) yesterday. Then, the un-thinkable happened. My wife came out to the garage while I was in the middle of installing all of this stuff. In her most "loving"  way wanted me to take her to dinner. She's the only one working  since GM laid me off last july and she's paying for my parts for now, I stopped what I was doing and hesitantly said ok  . She then corrected what she meant. She wanted to know what I wanted for dinner and she would go and pick it since I was working soooo hard. Well, I put it all together. I had a hard time with putting in the t-case shifter cause it just didn't seem like it was in the right position. Topped off with gear oil and went for a test drive. I went from         to  . This thing runs, sounds and shifts like a dream. I do have to say though. My hat is off to Jon for taking the time and listening to my gripping and complaining, he is definately an asset to MC. Eventhough It's been a rough journey, Marlin himself went way, way out of his way to accomidate me. The phone calls, appologies and his great humbleness were far beyond my expectations of customer service. If there was any company that knows how to serve his customers it's the folks a MC. I will continue to buy parts and ask for advice from this company.

[fj-rankenstein]

oh thank goodness.....     

[freds40]

Glad to hear that things are back together and working well. Jon's out in the back shipping but I let him know. He is glad to hear it too.

[hilux-1983]

This is what I call customer service:







He really backs his workmanship and parts. He's a nice guy too!!

[GJToyotabug]

YEAAAH!!!!!! WAY TO GO MARLIN!!!!!!!

[79coyotefrg]

TOLD YA 

[REG535]

that is so cool!

[ninja turtle]

im sure youve heard this before but you look like john leguizamo.

[hilux-1983]

im sure youve heard this before but you look like john leguizamo.

Nah, he looks like me:)

[hilux-1983]

Got about 1,500 miles on the new trans, shifting and sounding great. I'm even back to towing my 16' trailer around. Thanks again Jon, Marlin and Christine.

[hilux-1983]

You'll never guess 

[crazykooter]

Are you saying its done again ?  Ive had mine for a while now and tho I do drive like an old lady most of the time its been flawless. 

[YotaNate]

Uh-oh  It can't be.......


Nate

[hilux-1983]

It's been making grinding, popping, hard to shift, and whinning noises for a while now. I just figured it was most likely in the t-case. It's been getting worse, slowly but surely. I thought, It can't be the transmission. So I made the decision to drop the t-case and go through it and hopefully find a bad set of bearings and such. Since I would be doing that, it was a good time for 4.70's too. Well, I put it all back together and bam, the 4.70's are great but.................................. the noise is definately coming from the trans in all gears. 3rd and 4th make the most noise. Oh, and yes, there is loose debris on the drain plug magnet and in the gear oil. I'll be calling the shop to see what they want me to do. At this point, I wish I had my old trans and a new set of bearings to install.  

[83MT]

Hm....wonder what the tranny shop will find inside my L52HD when they open it...could be that it's the cause of all the noises I've had, which are just like what you're describing....

Sorry to hear it!

[Sparkplug]

Mine been grinding in all gears but 4th for almost a year now. After all that, id honestly get my money back, and get a used one, or rebuild it myself

[crazykooter]

Thats really wierd how yall are having trans issues. Ive had mine in for about a yr now and at first I thought it was making an odd noise but it turned out to be nothing.  I can say ive only got 6-7k miles on it so its still young. 

[Sparkplug]

my trans is stock at 270k, its not a marlin one, was gunna get a marlin when it finally blew, but now i dunno, seems to be a lot of probs with stuff lately, more so on orders, but they do make good products, and try to make it right

[crazykooter]

my trans is stock at 270k, its not a marlin one, was gunna get a marlin when it finally blew, but now i dunno, seems to be a lot of probs with stuff lately, more so on orders, but they do make good products, and try to make it right

Honestly you cant beat the Marlin  hd transmissions. They are so over built its not funny so you can hammer on them without worries.
Also the transmissions get built by marlin himself and hes very good at it. 

[hilux-1983]

I tried to call them yesterday but was on hold for about 10 mins and gave up. I'll give them a call again today. This is NOT A PLOY to make marlin look bad at all. This is a forum for discussing issues such as this. Just wanted to make that clear.  I'll post updates as I get them. Any updates 83MT? Have you gotten a trans yet Sparkplug?

[83MT]

No updates. Right now my truck is still my DD but after two years replacing about everying on it...now it's still not reliable because something I already replaced is going out again...I'm buying a backup car. I'm a bit frustrated that after all the time/money/energy I've spent,  I still can't even drive myself out of town. So I want to be able to put the truck in the garage for a while so it doesn't frustrate me so much. Having it as a DD just isn't going to work, at this point I'm going to get rid of it if I don't have a backup vehicle but I know I'd hate myself later if I did that. I'm hopefully picking something up this weekend. I'm hoping to wait until I've got another vehicle before pulling the tranny. So as of right now it's still in the truck.

Good luck! I'll be very interested to hear what they say when they open it up...(mine and yours)

[crazykooter]

Mine has been a daily driver for about 2 yrs as well and in the beginning my main issue was my engine which got replaced then its been fine but I too have replaced just about everything under the hood and the trans.  I love my truck but driving all the time without ac and the fact its very noisy on the freeway just bugs me.  Then again there is sacrifices to having a dd/trail rig.  Once you get the trans done your almost there. 

[jimbo74]

josh, toss in some a/c.... should be pretty simple to piece together parts, they had stock a/c back then

[crazykooter]

I have a complete 1st gen truck ac but if I decide to fix up the 79 its going in there.  Plus I do have 87 ac setup from a 4runner I could use but im running out of time it will wait.

[79coyotefrg]

i'm not sure whats happened with your L52HD  but ive been towing and crawling with mine 5 or 6 years and no problems at all.  I had a noise come up a few weeks ago but it was a dry u joint

and when i say tow, i mean TOW

[crazykooter]

All I can say coyote------toyota pickup doesnt equal ford super duty.  Poor truck !!!!   
Tho I have a receiver on the front of my truck and I use it to move the trailers around the yard here. When they have cars or trucks on them its brutal on the front of my truck but it does move them. Well sorta.  Some times my rear wheels come off the ground and it just doesnt seem to want to move after that.  I dont get it.
But more on topic your right.  When Marlin built mine he basically told me that this trans was indestructible.  Which means to me I could wheel hard with it.  Not tow a semi.

[79coyotefrg]

LOL  funny you say "tow a semi"   

ok it was a school bus but it was behind a small wrecker and the bus had flats on all 4 rear tires

i only towed it about a mile


the 4runner is my son in laws and i had to haul it 40 miles.  keep in mind i only got up to 55 on the long open stretches of highway and was in a very rural area.  I wouldnt try and haul 5000 pounds thru town.   well not without trailer brakes anyway.

[crazykooter]

Remember when I said my transmission has been working perfect ?
UMMMMMM I was 5 miles away from the turn off to get into the high lakes area last night.  I was heading up 32 and hills are mean.  I downshifted into 3rd once and it was fine. Then got to the next hill and had to downshift again. It downshifted perfect but as soon as I released the clutch I heard CLACK CLACK CLACK !!!!!!! At 1st I thought engine but it didnt sound like it so I knew it was the trans.  I managed to limp it to a safe place on turn out and pulled the fill plug.  There was one little piece of metal but I couldnt tell much from it.  So I pulled the drain plug and found a end piece of a gear which was about 1/2" long.  I dont know what gear it was to but oddly enough it only clacked in 1 2 3 and 5 so I was able to get it home.  Long drive let me tell ya.  I have no idea what I am gonna do but maybe Marlin can help me fix the thing.  Since these L52HD's have G54 gears in them I cant just get another L52 to fix it.  Even more odd is the tooth that I got out of it shows no major signs of wear.  I am gonna look at it closer today and see if I can tell if it was cracked and just finally gave out.