Day II Disassembly

I got rid of some junk in my workshop and built a workbench. I also put up a light and got a hydraulic press. The price for everything including the press was about 200 bucks. Money well spent in my opinion. So the first step is to pull the black nose cap off.

As you can see, there are 2 bolts on the right that are 12mm head bolts and the rest are 10mm head bolts. Notice that there is one bolt missing. That is for the cooling tube bracket.

This is what the reverse gear selector looks like under that black cap. Take notice that I have already removed the circlip that holds the selector on the right rod in this picture. The roll pin and allen nut need to be removed also in order to remove the selector completely.

This is the aforementioned circlip.

This is the roll pin I was talking about. It has to be driven out using a "special tool". I'm not too worried about messing up the roll pin with the nail. Harbor Freight has a whole bag of them for 3 bucks. They also have the right size punch for a dollar. I bought both after I did this. Anyway, the allen nut to the right of the roll pin in this picture has to come out too. There is a ball behind this allen nut so be careful when disassembling that it doesn't go rolling away.

This is the last part that you need to remove in order to remove the selector. There is a circlip on the shaft pictured here that has to come off. Once you remove that circlip, you can remove the black cap underneath by simply lifting it off. Then the selector is free to be removed and can be lifted right off as a unit. BEWARE there are a lot of little parts here that can go flying.

And this is what it looks like when you remove the selector. From this picture you can see how the roll pin, detente ball and cir clips fit into the scheme of things. Notice I left the brass synchronizer ring in place to depict its orientation. Now that everything is removed, the gear and synchro ring can also be removed by simply lifting up on them. That step comes a little bit later after you get the retaining nut off the other gear.

Day 1

I recently purchased a 5 speed transmission and an engine from a junkyard.  The idea is that I am going to rebuild the junkyard transmission and put it in my 2000 Chevy Metro. Currently, the mighty Metro (A.K.A. Karl) has a bad second gear synchronizer. It is drivable, but it is a royal pain to not be able to downshift into second without some finesse. I have rebuilt dozens of engines but never a transmission, so this will be a new experience for me. I hope to learn a few things in the process. I am going to chronicle every step of the rebuild here using plenty of pictures for a couple of reasons. First of all, organized pictures will help me to remember how things go back together if I get confused. Secondly, I am hoping that this will help someone else along the way. I really hate mechanics. Most of them are opportunistic money grubbing vultures and nothing makes me more angry than having to give my hard earned money to someone like that. I am sure there are a lot of decent, honest, hard working mechanics out there but I haven't met very many of them.  I can fix just about anything on a car, but transmissions have always scared me. NOT ANY MORE. Without further ado, lets get started.....

As you can see, this thing is pretty nasty.

It looks like the input shat seal is shot. Hopefully no major bearing damage.

Looks like the axle shaft seals are toast too.

I'll try to figure this picture thing out soon. They're will definitely be larger pictures for the more detailed stuff. Next step is to find a good place in my shed to work on this thing. I gotta get rid of some JUNK!!! More to follow............