While i'm pulling this this thing i might as well post up some pics of removal and overhaul.

A little history, when i got this car it was evident tranny had been removed at some point, shifter bushings were missing as well as a couple tranny bolts, syncros from 1st to second have always been sketchy even after bushing replacement.

This trans did not detonate luckily so lets see if we can breathe some life back in it.

Symptoms today were on a 4 hour round trip drive 20 mins from home there was a loud bang then grinding if not accelerating. Based on scores on drivers side axle It would be a fair guess the drivers side output shaft bearing failed.

Pics up in a bit.

 

Ok 8:50 post and start of job and here it is roughly 2 hours later, yes I used air tools

So we have removal and partial diagnostics done, enough to know we have some decisions to make.

Here's the car as it sit's right now.



Here we have the Mtx trans cracked apart for inspection.




And then I found 2 chipped gears which is the problem I heard but there is usually a source that caused the problem and here is the culprit.



Intitial analysis, Bearing failed, one of the rollers dropped in between the sun gear and another gear that I forget technical name for, Jammed and chipped both gears.

As far as standards go this is almost a worst case scenario, the sun gear is usually one of the most expensive parts in a Mtx trans so at this point it may be cheaper to grab used gears and or a junkyard transmission.

Sun gear.


Other gear that remains nameless for now.

 

So the verdict is in, the center gear is an entire assembly with a cost of $1000.00.

Junkyard tranny is only logical solution at this point.

Here's a blowup diagram with circled parts that failed.

 

After complete dissasembly I have diagnosed the exact cause seeing as i found the remaining 2 roller bearings still intact.

More than likely a chain reaction of events.

So here's the final drive and planetaries. There is a pin that goes in that hole.



That pin is seen here, it's actually much longer than this, about an inch longer normally.



So it snapped in here, possibly due to worn bearing + 3500-4000rpm launches for 1/4 mile runs, as we can see that started some scoring, this managed to spin and spit the pin out which bounced around for awhile then finally lodged in some gears which resulted in chipped gears.





Final diagnosis is this was likely caused by the loose nut behind the wheel.

Looking into an srt4 Mtx now that needs 3rd gear syncros and is already upgraded with a qual life limited slip diff.

 

Sorry to hear about your tyranny.

Props on the pics though. I enjoyed looking through this thread.

 

Found a bandaid fix for the time being, 32k orig mtx trans out of a 2002 for $300. I will have to baby it till proper measures are taken.

Unfortunately I have to drive down to Atlantic city for an event for Advanced Micro devices till sunday then drive back to R.I. and jump on a plane to Taiwan for another Advanced Micro Devices event until the 14th.

Will update when i'm back.

 

Why do you have to baby it? It's a replacement transmission, isn't it?

 

Well quite honestly it's a bandaid.

Obviously launching one of these cars properly in 1/4 mile conditions is going to cause havoc and it's quite obvious the diff pins set pin can not handle the stress. Not to mention a plastic housing for that bearing isn't what I would want to be counting on. Reminds me of the autos with the one way bearing ( sprag ) in a plastic housing that always melts and i have to replace when i have rebuilt ATX chrysler transmissions.

Makes no sense to do the same thing over again, get car on road for now while obtaining a race proven trans and repairing it and in the end you have a spare trans to get you by should the other trans fail.

 

Seems my luck continues,

Installed the 32K trans, took it for a test drive, at about 55 on accel and faster there is a bad vibration. Thats not good, I noticed when removing this trans the passenger side of car was hit HARD at some point in its short life, no wonder it was junked ( probably never drove straight after repaired ), anyway in back of my mind I knew it was the output shaft bearing but lets just verify it. Installed a new axle, still play in pass side and vibration on accel after 55 but goes away when letting off the gas.

Bottom line, output shaft bearing, looks like you guys get to see a minor overhaul anyway. Ordered parts for about $160 for an overhaul kit with all bearings, seals, gaskets which the place I got trans from met me halfway on parts.......Had we been able to get just the bearing itself they would have paid for the part in full. Unfortunately they only sell a entire kit.

Meanwhile since this is going to get old really quick as I don't feel like pulling transmissions on a weekly basis I sourced out a 2004 srt-4 LSD trans for $400 today with bad 3rd gear syncros.

I started dissasembly on that and so far all the gears look great, the bearings were solid, no play so it looks like it's just syncros as the seller stated. More to come on that swap later.

 

Ripped the 32k trans apart today for overhaul but parts are over a day late now............

Also found other issues besides bearings.

Looks like we have established a pattern now. Same thing that happened in other trans is happening in this one......diff set pin snapped, diff pin is spinning and scoring planetaries.

32k trans spider assembly. Sorry cell cam sucks.

Look similar to one of the above posts from the other transmission?







Bottom line factory diff ( spider assembly ) is a turd, anyone serious about running one of these cars hard should seriously think about doing a t-850 swap or replacing diff with a qualife first before performing any other modifications......