So I've been having some trouble with my transmission lately. The carrier bearing gave out and was promptly replaced. But since then, taking off in 1'st has been embarrasing. She gets a really bad case of the shakes and has no power. The rest of the gears barely pull. So I decided to drop the transmission down and replace everything I could.

Heres what I found.

Carrier Bearing before replacement:


Destroyed dust boot:


Marked flywheel and pressure plate:



Cracked pilot bushing:


Which leads me to my question. I found this after cleaning it off. If I take the cover off, will that leak out the transmission fluid? It's standing level right now on a transmission jack underneath the car, would there be a risk of a spill? I don't mind draining it but would like to avoid it if possible.

 

If you pull the front bearing retainer you will probally get a little fluid, but you know it might not be a bad time to change the fluid.

 

I doubt you need to tear into the trans. You've caught the causes that I was going to suggest with your symptoms... namely, the center support bearing (carrier bearing). But if it's weak on power, I wouldn't attribute that to the trans... start checking your engine.

 

The power loss started a couple of weeks before all these transmission issues. I've calculated i'm getting about 14mpg. She has no get up and go but she eats plenty of gas. ECU isnt throwing any codes. Engine idle's nicely and it sounds as good as she ever did. What do you guys think it could be?

I'm guessing the timing is retarding grossly upon acceleration but what would cause that? I checked it with a timing light several times and it floats around 15deg.

Also, I rotated the drive shaft 180deg before the final drive and that reduced the vibration by about 95%. But while I was there I found this.





So now the hunt for a new drive shaft begins.

 

This one's a judgement call, but if it was MY DD, that tranny wouldn't go back in without gettin a looksee. That driveline has jolted the tranny hard enough to wipeout the input bushing, that takes some real nastiness. Seems to me if you've got damage on BOTH sides of the tranny, the likelihood on not having some in it seems slim, besides, it's out.... I'd be checking that inpupt shaft real close for bends, spline mutilation, etc.
Ya might get a little more feel for the situation by turning it with a hand on both ends in all the gears to see if any ugliness jumps out at you. Not thorough, but slightly better than guessing..

 

94+ Z32 manual transmissions are tough (and even the 90-93 ones are, they just don't have very good syncros)

Looking can never hurt, I'm just saying that it's rare for the transmission's guts to actually go bad, so I wouldn't disassemble anything.

 

The splines looked new and there wasn't much movement in the input shaft. I'm thinking the transmission is fine, im just surprised at the surrounding damage.

 

I will tell you this... drain your transmission (if you end up using the same one). your almost gaurenteed to spill it out the back trying to stab it back in....