legacycentral bbs

Well I certainly had my fun with this transmission, so I'm not unhappy or mad. I'm stoked it lasted this long frankly. When I bought it from DLC it had a grind going into second(if you were trying to shift too fast) and I would grind it every other day during spirited up and down shifts.

It died on a slight uphill 2nd gear pull from like 1000 rpm or something real low like that and went bang before 3500.

FOR SALE or trade: APEXI boost controller! Turn your boost to 20psi and feel that awesome turbo RUSH!!

but seriously, good times, good times.

If you are lucky the rest of the trans is still in good shape. I bet someone has a second gear sitting around that you can install.

I may have one from an 03 WRX trans if it will fit.

That's a good point.. right now the car can't move, something in there is bound up and I can't get it in/out of gears. I'm afraid to move it and cause more damage.

ciper wrote:If you are lucky the rest of the trans is still in good shape. I bet someone has a second gear sitting around that you can install.

I may have one from an 03 WRX trans if it will fit.

It's almost definitely not worth it.

The 99+ transmissions changed engagement hubs, so he'd need the entire 03 tranny as a donor.

But then his center differential won't work. So he needs the WRX one

But then his transfer gears won't work. So he'd need a WRX rear diff.

And replaing JUST second gear isn't worth it, because 1st and 2nd are one piece on the input shaft (with reverse).

Oh, and you'd need the reverse idler too.

Drama.

I still haven't dropped the tranny, but I'm hoping it's fixable.
If second gear is gone but there is no other damage is it feasible to get another 2nd from a 91-92? Is this something I can do at home without expensive special tools?

You CAN use an older N/A 1st and 2nd gear, but it's not something you can do in your garage with hand tools. To do it right requires the right tools (one of which is a big several ton shop press).

Again, it's not as simple as opening the case, pulling out a broken second gear and putting in a new one.

You open the case, tear down the input AND output shafts, press all of the gears on, don't get confused, swap everything over to a NEW input shaft and then put a new second gear on the output shaft and reassemble. Far from the easiest job in the world.

What turbo are you running?

I also had 2nd gear drama on my OBS-T in '04. I raced some Banshees & was driving down the road like a little old lady about 4-5 days later when the gear broke.
The car ran fine with the 4 speed gearbox (I drove it like this for about 4 months while I waited for a low mile trans to pop up in my area), it just had no 2nd gear - literally.
All I did was drain the oil/gear out so that nothing got stuck in the tranny.

I eventually bought a tranny out of a 1000 mile '04 TS wreck (3.9 final drive) & slapped it in.
It has worked well so far, but I must admit I am as easy as possible shifting that thing.

I have a vf39.

I really do want a newer tranny, I will drain the oil/chunks tonight and see if I can rock it 4 speed until I find a lower miles/reasonably priced trans.

I'm really thinking about swapping the stock injectors back in and just running at 5 pounds less boost.

Did yours sound awful when it broke? Grinding and making noise until you stopped?

BAC5.2 wrote:You CAN use an older N/A 1st and 2nd gear, but it's not something you can do in your garage with hand tools. To do it right requires the right tools (one of which is a big several ton shop press).

Again, it's not as simple as opening the case, pulling out a broken second gear and putting in a new one.

You open the case, tear down the input AND output shafts, press all of the gears on, don't get confused, swap everything over to a NEW input shaft and then put a new second gear on the output shaft and reassemble. Far from the easiest job in the world.

I'm real glad I learned how to do this on the new style trannys... Saves me lots of money being able to put in my own RA gearset, and sti front diff......

Lol, why would you even consider running an RA gearset? It's just going to break again.

At one point, at the peak of "OMG MICROPOLISHED CHROME GANGSTER RA GEARSET AHHH" fanboyism, we had a 55 gallon drum full of nothing but broken shot-peened, micropolished, sonic treated, more bullshit, RA gearsets.

Found a guy on nasioc with a 2.5 RS trans, which I think is a 3.9 hydro push type. Since I have never seen a hydro push type up close I'm worried my intercooler pipe might be in the way if have to make the switch from pull to push.
Heres a pic, my pipe runs along the back on the block under the coolant tank area.

It might. Does it touch the front of the bell housing on the drivers side of the transmission? You need about 2" above the bell housing to be clear.

I am also surprised that transmission lasted as long as it has. I swapped it in in early 02, and it probably had over 100k miles on it then. Shows how strong they can be when you're not really pushing them, and how long they can last when you do.

Ok here is a better picture of the piping in question.
Without pipe:

With pipe:


And the broken tooth:

Take a picture from the clutch fork looking forward to the front of the car. I need to see the clearance between the pipe and the bell housing.

ask and you shall receive: