Hint: When pulling junkyard transmission, double check the drain plug

[the_bard]

I'm an idiot.

 

I must've spent a good hour tromping through the junkyard on Monday, looking for a manual transmission for my 2006 Baja. I cross referenced the transmission chart, made sure the final drive was the same, blah blah blah. Looked for donor cars with obvious reasons for being in the yard other than the transmission.

 

I came across a 2001 Forester. Plaque said the engine was bad, tranny was good.

 

Now I swear I pulled the drain plug, looking for obvious chunks of metal. Common sense, right? I will admit that I looked at a few trannies as I wandered the yard, and maybe I just thought I pulled the drain plug on this one. Maybe I didn't. I swear I did, but nobody's infallible.

 

Anyway, I was going over the transmission tonight, since we broke one of the four bolts off that mount it to the crossmembers (not a big deal, ought to drill out fairly easily). Pulled the drain plug, and I found this (pic taken after I cleaned it up):

 

Now, if I could kick myself in the butt, I would be. Again, maybe I missed this plug. Maybe the chunk fell down to the plug at some point, as we were yanking the transmission around. Regardless, it's there now, and I have to deal with it.  I'm going to guess from the slight curvature of that piece that it's a cage from one of the bearings. The way the ends are bent makes me think it got chewed up from the gears, so God only knows what else is chewed up, too.

 

I'm thinking I'll be exchanging the transmission next Monday, and pulling a new one. Yard is a good two hours away, and I'm really not looking forward to driving back and spending another few hours wrenching underneath another parts car.

Edited May 29, 2013 by the_bard

[lmdew]

Yes, that blows.

 

I always like to get engines and trans from cars that were hit good.  They way you know they were on the road when they went down.

[Gloyale]

Check the dipstick.  That looks like a broken chunk of it.

[the_bard]

Nah, it's not the dipstick. Worth a shot, though, so I just went out and pulled it. It's clean, no signs of major trauma. Fill marks are there, and the end is nice and clean, not jagged.

 

There's an ever so slight curve to the long edges. It looks like it's been tempered (dear Lord, I hope not from the heat of a bad bearing ). One side has a distinctive banding following the curve of the long edge.

 

Sure looks like a cage to me. I might be able to get some good up close shots of it if'n it'll help.

 

Edit:

The tranny  was only $100 (Monday special, includes the core charge). I'm very tempted to just slap the transmission into the Baja this week and see how bad it really is. If it's noisy, I can pull it again and exchange it. Yard's got a thirty day return/exchange period. If it's not... well, I run it 'til it dies, and drive down once a month or so and check out their new arrivals. Might yank another couple transmissions, at that price. I wonder if the wife would let me make a coffee table out of the bad ones? 

Edited May 29, 2013 by the_bard

[Fairtax4me]

I've seen that peice before. I dunno exactly what it is but it comes from somewhere around the mainshaft bearing. I had one chewed up like a saw, had teeth marks all in it. The mainshaft bearing was shot to hell, trans wouldn't stay in 3rd on its own, wouldnt go into 4th and 5th at all.

Gonna guess that one has some definite wear on the MSB.

[the_bard]

Did the input/mainshaft have any play in it, Fairtax?

 

I've been able to shift the transmission through the gears and turn it manually, so this one is still engaging and spinning, at least by hand.

[the_bard]

I took a look at the center differential from my original transmission... this chunk of metal out of the first junkyard transmission sure looks a lot like that retaining clip. Thoughts?

 

[CNY_Dave]

Sure does, doesn't it.