What killed my transmission?

[eec564]

The transmission in my 300ZX appears to be bad. It drives fine, but makes one mother of a whine while moving. The noise is worse in 5th and reverse, and quieter in 3rd/2nd/1st, not too loud in 4th. It's an 88 non-turbo, with the FS5W71C, and here's everything I've done and been able to figure out.

 

When I got the car, the clutch was bad, so I put a new one in. New clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, resurfaced flywheel. I was careful to reinstall the shims between the bell housing and block in the original places, and everything was torqued properly. The transmission slid up to the block nice and easily, I didn't have to draw them together with the bolts, a nice easy fitl. I re-filled it with new 80W-90.

 

The car sat for a few months, with only 400 miles on the new setup, and then the other day I went to drive it and found after a few miles it was whining like a belt was loose. Only it only did it while moving, and quickly started to sound more metal-on-metal. Draining the fluid, I found metal shavings on the magnet, and bunch of brass once I let the oil settle. Only thing I could figure out after much searching is perhaps the GL4 from Napa wasn't up to snuff, as it was the generic gallon, since they just happened to be sold out of everything else (small store) the weekend I changed the clutch, and it ate everything brass up.

 

Before I rebuild this thing, does anyone else have any other theories about what happened? Alignment issue? Bad clutch parts? I'd hate to spend a few hundred on bearings and synchros then have it happen again?

 

Does anyone know a good place to buy a rebuild kit? Or better yet, anyone want to sell me a spare FS5W71C?

 

-Eric

[MONGO510]

Fourth gear is direct drive and there is no load on the Cluster Gear. Noise in all other gears probably indicates Bad bearings in the cluster.

 

Mongo

[fastzcars]

did you change the pilot bushing/bearing in the crank? if that is worn out the input shaft of the trans has no support and will take out your tranny.

[goodoldjam]

Wonder if he is still dealing with this 2 years later.....

[fastzcars]

Wonder if he is still dealing with this 2 years later.....

doh!!!! i didn't check the date!!! how in the heck did this thread pop back up from the dead.

[cockerstar]

Mongo had a very good bit of information to add to this thread, which easily could be read through a search. I feel that him bumping the thread adding to our archives in a constructive manner is good for the board as a whole. Fastzcars continued with accurate and constructive information. This might not help the OP, but it'll help others who are searching.

 

I'll offer up yet another possibility:

 

Some gear oils do not provide the appropriate protection for any "yellow" metals. When you're choosing you lubes do your research and make sure you're buying a product that has the appropriate additives of the correct grade. If you aren't sure, ask!

I'm running redline's 80w-90 full synthetic in my trans after doing some reading here on the boards and finding many members recommending it. It isn't cheap (~$17-20/quart, 2 quarts needed), but I wanted the added protection.

[eec564]

Oddly enough, this thread is still very relevant. I ended up changing to full-synthetic fluid and all noise went away. Then three weeks ago, all of a sudden, there was a clunk while I was parking and first and reverse don't first or reverse any more. Other gears still work, but I've got her parked while looking for a transmission that doesn't cost more than I paid for the car in the first place.