3rd gear swap in a 5 speed?
 

Er, last night I discovered what it feels like to rip 3rd gear out of your car. It's what you'd expect. :-P

I was thinking, while on the way home, listening to the chucks banging around in there, maybe I could get a third gear out of another destroyed tranny, and make one reasonable 5 speed out of the two, just to have something to drive while I finish my more detailed 6 speed build. Does this seem reasonable? Does anyone in socal have a 5 speed with a possibly good 3rd gear, or the gears out of their tranny and want to sell one cheap?

Just thinking. And it figures I mailed my bike computer away that morning.
-Abe.

Do they not have any complete used ones in Craigs list. What are you doing to a six speed. can you just throw the six speed in?

Er, the 6 speed was pretty ruined, throwing $700 in mazdacomp discounted parts at it, and it should be like new - all the gears either perfect or replaced, same with the synchros. It should be an awesome tranny, all in all ~800-900 invested. I feel good about it.

Anyway, I don't want a good five speed, it's not worth to me what it would have to be worth to the guy selling it. But if it was one of those "someday I'll fix this" things, maybe someone just wants it out of their garage, what the hell?

Did it go out on a 3rd gear pull, or a 2nd to 3rd shift?

Either way, gl.

A shift, I mean, I thought I was done with it, but I'd hit a dip so I kinda double clutched? I'm sure driven with more care it would have been ok. Sucks, too, since there wasn't anything wrong with it, I was hoping to sell it.

I'm so doing an automatic swap this summer. Aint' spending ~1k on a 6 speed I DON'T want. Sucks shifting this much with the 5 speed. FWIW, I've been babying my transmission now that I'm boosted.

Oh, and yeah, you can swap parts around and make a good transmission if you have enough parts to do so.

I was kinda wondering if there were issues with which year the parts came out of - the tranny's a 99.

Either way you want lower gearing. 5 speed with 3.9 or 6 with 3.6. I think 3.3 would be ideal, but you'll spend more on that set of gears than on a tranny.

Gears should all be the same. Only differences was syncros through the years. Just put the ones from the 99' transmission.

i have a spare auto driveshaft if you want it. Just pay for shipping.

I heard they're the same as the standard, just a different part number and they have a "added weight" for some reason. But people have done the manual to auto swap and reused the driveshaft.

Automatic is the way to go on a turbo car:).

I know. Maybe I'll just throw a glide in it....

Need more torque:fawk:

Yeah. I think I'll just build an automatic and run it. Would like to tear one apart just to see how it's built, find the weak links, etc. I bet the auto would take 350whp fine if I up the head pressures, new performance bands and clutches, work the valve body, and put a huge cooler on it. Who knows, but auto turbo FTW.

Don't forget how important the converter is:). I wonder who you could get to rework it.

I don't know many people that have pushed the limits with the automatics, it would be interesting to see your results from it.

There's some company out there that does miata transmissions, but everything they do cost a lot of $$$. They do custom converters though. Probably put a 2500 in it or so. Dunno. But I've wanted an auto for a while, and now that I'm turbo, I really want an auto.

I don't get it? Even the thrill of ripping out your gears is more fun in a manual. :-)

Just drive around on cruise control for a while with a turbo and find out how little you want it.

Ever drive a car with an automatic that's turbo? Or an automatic with a fully manual valve body? One word: Fun.

Plus I'd rather rip gears and know I can do so safely, predictably, not miss a gear, etc. And i don't like shifting either. And base model, so no cruise. :bang:

im thinkin a little higher for the stall, something like 3250. I do bleaive a fully manual valve bodyed auto would be fun with these turbo miatas for drag and prowlin the streets.

Bleh. Manuals are the way to go for fun vehicles.

I'm not building a fucking drag car. Its a turbo miata.

Whatever floats your boat.

So, an automatic in a miata will make it an attempted drag car?

I had a like new automatic. It sucked in first. After that it would move.
I think the tranny is the same as the rest of the ford rangers. You should be able to look something up for them. Those trucks came with pretty beefy V6's. If they are different. You might could swap one of those over.

In stock form, I would trust the 5-speed more.
I think the auto with a trans break would be way faster at the drag strip. But IMo, there is nothing as fun as a standard. But each to there own.

I have been dragging my 5-speed and all, it is holding up great. But I also have 2 spare motors and trannys at my storage. I show a little empathy between shifts, that is it.

A tall first gear might also help in a turbo miata, since first gear is almost as useless as my third currently is. :-) Actually, I blame the alignment. :-)

But I agree, it's the wrong sort of car for that. It just... is. You should never sleep at the wheel of a car that fast, so why install a 300 lb sleeping aid?

Dang you Pat.

You started a major thread drift.

I'm now worried about falling asleep when I get my car running.

Just a wee bit. I answered Abe's question already, so I figured I'd do him a favor and make the thread interesting. :)

Abe- You've never drove a built auto apparently.

learn how to shift?


:giggle::giggle:

Dear old dad's chevy was... pretty quick on it's auto. But it was a DRAG car.

My miata, at least, is a fun car that will also give most ricers a run for their money in a straight line.

Like the shortshifter I have... it doesn't make it any faster, but it feels damned good. :-)

And actually, my father's pulling out his auto to put in a stick. He's positive it'll slow him down, but you might as well enjoy what you drive. :-)


Speaking of enjoyment: Remember, when rolling your car by hand, be sure to shift from 1st to 3rd or the car won't roll effortlessly.

Pardon the thread drift, but...

Think there's anything wrong with taking out the loose bits, and still driving the car on the "4" speed?

I'm worried maybe about the shifter fork going bad places without a gear there.

the gear assembly acts as spacers on the internal drive shaft, with out the gears there, you'd loose other gears, 1st and 5th I think. your best bet would be to clean out the broken teeth, cause they'll eventually start taking out other gears, take the broken 3rd gear to a machinist and have him turn down the o.d. smooth. have you noticed any more vibration with the broken gear?

Well, I drove it very little, and 3rd just acts like it's not there. If there's vibration, it's MINOR.

Huh. I could pull the gear off and try to turn it, but the idea here is to not further inflate the budget on this. :-) I'll certainly check it for humps, take off what I can. Thanks for pointing it out.

Can't you just take out the chunks and not shift into 3rd? 5.0 mustangs where bad about loosing 2nd or 3rd. Until we could get a good tranny, we just drove them without shifting into the bad gear. We didn't even take the chunks out. Sometimes you where lucky, sometimes your not.

That's what I was going to try. My two options seem to be:
1) Pull out chunks, reinstall and drive
2) Ride the motorcycle for the next couple weeks

Huh, I got a set of "solid" diff mounts here, I wonder if I should throw them in while I'm at it. Hooking up in a straight would be nice, don't do that much anymore, I think it's all the camber.

Think those and maybe a diff brace would fix me up?

why would taking the chunks out increase your budget? shit ton of time involved, especially since I'd pull the whole engine/tranny assembly myself, then dig into the tranny, but at least its free.

Sorry, I spoke poorly. Bringing the gear to a machinist to have him take the teeth off would get pricey, certainly on the order of a new gear.

I have a friend with a bad countershaft gear, so I'm going to try to make one good tranny out of the pair. But I'm in a rush on my car, so I might just clean out the chips and put it back together.

i used to drive a fox that belonged to the shop i work at, it was a 408w with a 300 shot and the car weighed 2550. we just kept a spare t5 laying around and swapped em every couple months cause every now and then when i would bang third if it hooked up it would rip the gear apart. i drove that thing all over the place with no 3rd and i didnt take the chunks out, i even raced the car with no 3rd shifting from 2nd to 4th. if you absolutly need to use the car u should be fine taking out the chunks and not going to third.

Right now the only thing is it seems pretty tempting to put a magnet on a stick and try to get the pieces out that way. One tooth came out on the drain plug. Easier than pulling it out.

maybe flush it a couple of times? saves getting the tranny out altogether

Wow, so, the starter bolts hated me. I mean, they really had a bug up their ass. I could say those two last bolts took about as long as putting the tranny back in, getting it bolted up, and doing the driveshaft. The PPF wasn't cooperating either. C'est la vie.

And for my trouble?

The car seems to be fine. I got PILES of teeth out - I think I got everything loose bigger than a half a BB out, certainly 95% of it. But there's maybe 4 nubs of fractional teeth on both shafts, so when driving along (if the car is moving) there's a random but constant whacking. Maybe the bits will break off over time. Hard to say. It seems to drive ok but I sure feel conspicuous. Guess I'll just drive it. Pics to follow

I would take Hustler up on the auto driveshaft. I bought my 1.8 diff from him and he gave me that auto driveshaft ( Not knowing there was any difference) and it didn't work. I can't remember which one was shorter, and they have different splines too. Although I'm not sure what year car the driveshaft was out of.

Attachment 209222

If you want a bigger pic just ask, I'm too lazy right now.

Bigger pictures of splines please! I cut splines/gears for a living and would love to have some up close pictures, if possible!