Transmision rebuild or not?

[alauder]

I have my transmition (74 side shift) out of the car for engine work at the moment and wandered if I should tinker with it.
Before it was removed there were no problems shifting but the gear stick had a lot of front to back play. in first and third when I accelerated after changing gears the top of stick would jump foward an inch or two. I am prety sure it was not a loose linkage or bad tranny mounts but suspect that it is internal to the transmition.

Has anyone experienced this or know how much work it is to fix?

Thanks for you help. This BBS is top quality.
Andy

[JP Noonan]

Look at one of the first Pelican tech articles. It descibes what to look for on a 901 as far as wear. The syncros, dog teeth, and slides for starters. I think a package of just these parts is $300+ Pelican says something about looking at your parts and telling you if you need new ones or not (personally I trust PP, they seem pretty honest). I would say that if the gears didn't clash and you could shift into 1st with the car rolling then the tranny is O.K. The "jumping" is indicitive of bad motor mounts, and or bad shift bushings. The way you discibe it though I would lean toward bad bushings, or a very out of line linkage.

I would do this while the tranny is out.

1.Read the tech article, see if it is worth it to pull stuff apart.

2.Look into installing a new clutch.

3.Put in a new ball cup bushing (that's what I call them anyway) in the clutch fork, if it goes bad you can't adjust the clutch play and the trans has to come out again ($5.00).Put in a new front seal ($3.50).


4. New shift bushings for sure. $20+ for the whole set

5. Inspect and repack the Constant Velocity joints. They sell it in pre measured tubes for $5 or so.

6. Plug up the vent and clean the trans really good, this helps to dissapate heat to some extent, and it looks nice.

7. I'm a little paranoid, but I also clean off the mating surface to the starter, to the block, and to the ground strap with a Scotch Brite pad. I figure the cleaner the ground path to the starter the better.

[alauder]

Thanks

I'll look at the tech artical.

I replaced all the shift linkage bushings last year and had a new clutch and fly wheel installed. This problem has been developing for a while though.
I guess I'll try some other simple things and re install it to see if the problem goes away. If not I'll drive it till I start to have shifting problems.

I had a similar condition with my stick shift moving front to back about an inch. For me it was a worn (read loose) roll pin which holds the short shift lever mounted to the shift post protruding from the side of the transaxle. The pin was very difficult to drive out and it was difficult to find the right sized replacement - 1/4" by 1-1/4" if my memory is right. installing the new one also took alot of persuasion.

The short shift lever with the ball on the end rotated around the trans shifter shaft a litle and was magnified by the length of the lever arm. the new roll pin solved the problem and now I have very limitedfront t rear play in the stickshift.

------------------

[John Nguyen]

I had a similar problem last year. After changing the shift bushings, I also changed the two transmission mounts. Pelican has them, use the "sport" mounts (911), they're alittle bit more stiff than the stocks.
Hope that helps!
JN