rao

iTrader: (18)

Not a lot of new material here, thanks to everyone else who posted rebuild threads. I figured more pictures are better so here you go:

My transmission has been around the block a few times – bought it with about 86k miles on it and had RPM Transmission rebuild it in 2006. Since then it has been in three different BMWs and has seen plenty of fairly hard use. It has been in my 540 for 3 years and about 50k miles– the transmission probably has 100k + miles on it, most of it over 500 rwhp and at least 100 passes at the drag strip (although never with slicks or drag radials). It performed well and never had any type of failure, but it did start to make more noise. It sort of crept up on me since I drive it every day – all of the sudden one day it was very loud and had a fair amount of gear whine. It was loud enough that I figured should bite the bullet and do a rebuild before it did break, the thought being that the bearings were worn (they were not replaced in the original RPM rebuild). I did a rebuild replacing all of the bearings, the blockers, billet keys, etc. I also set up all of the end play clearances at 0.000” and the preload at 0.002”or as close as I could get.

Now that it is back in the car, the transmission is a lot quieter and it works very well – I hope not be back inside of the transmission for at least another 5+ years.

Transmission removed from car:



GTO Shifter:



It turns out that the bearings were fairly worn. The rest of the transmission was in very good shape.
The input shaft had a lot of lateral play and the pilot bushing had a lot of wear.

Pilot bushing wear:



Transmission disassembled and parts cleaned:



I decided to paint the case silver.

Painting the case:





The flywheel and pressure plate were in great shape and looked virtually brand new – not bad for 50k miles. I did replace the clutch disk as long as I was in the neighborhood.

Old Clutch Disk Thickness:



New Clutch Disk Thickness:



Ready for Assembly:



Pressing on New Bearings:



Tool for Measuring End Play:



Measuring Main Shaft End Play:



Measuring Counter Shaft End Play:





Measuring Counter Shaft Extension End Play:




Main Shaft and Counter Shaft:



Shift Rails:











Extension Housing Gears:



Extension Housing:



Shifter Cup:



Transmission Complete:



New Hydraulic Line:



Throw Out Bearing Installed:



Ready to Install Transmission:



Back on the Road:

Schitzo

iTrader: (6)

Awesome work Rob

douglee25

Nice job! Good pics.

Doug

wrd1972

iTrader: (12)

If you look at the pic called "main shaft and counter shaft", there is evidence of wear from the common 5/6 cluster gear problem. The shaft has the brownish look that results from the 5/6 cluster gear fluttering on the shaft wheich eventually leads to the dreaded 5/6 gear 75MPH vibration. The splines seem to be intact which is good because if the appear worn, the problem is definitely there, just cant tell from the pic. The remedy for this problem is a repaired or new mainshaft and a very tight fitting 5/6 cluster gear.

Hopefully when you went to install the 5/6 gear during your rebuild, it took a generous amount of effort to push the 5/6 gear on the mainshaft. If it went on very easily with little press fit, 5/6 gear vibes are in your future and it would have to come apart again. Hopefully you will be fine. Nice pics BTW.

rao

iTrader: (18)

Great point.

The splines were in good shape and the gear went on with some effort. There were no vibration at speed in 5/6 gear and there still aren't Hopefully it will stay that way.

rao

iTrader: (18)

Everything was good for 5,000 miles, except that the transmission still was making too much noise drove me crazy and I should have realized what was causing the noise, which I now know. There was wear between 4th gear and the countershaft. All of the power always travels through 4th gear because this is how power is transmitted to the countershaft. This wear caused there to be way too much space between the gears. All of this showed itself as I was cruising through a side street at 20 mph one Friday evening. All of the sudden the transmission starting making a VERY LOUD knocking noise, like the FBI was visiting your house at 3 am then the car would not go into any gear except for 4th. Limped the car home, dropped the transmission in record time and found this :


Chunks!



What's left of 4th gear



Countershaft



It was going to be at least $1,000 in parts to fix the transmission so I evaluted the options (get a T56 Magnum, which would require some shifter fabrication, auto swap , T56 with Magnum internals, pricey! or a "viperized" T56) went with the "viperized" T56. I still had to buy the replacement parts, but now I have a Viper mainshaft so the transmission will comfortable hold 750 whp. I also have an Oil sprayer which I can hookup to keep 4th gear well oiled during acceleration - it can be starved when the nose lifts up.

Got the transmission and it is as quiet as a library and shifts shifts smoothly.

All of the gears were cryogenic treated and micro-polished




The Viper output shaft is a lot larger, here you can see the difference in size between the slip yoke that I had (1310) and the Viper sized one (1350)



Slip yoke installed





Driveshaft installed



The bottom line is if your T56 makes a lot of noise - GET IT FIXED!!!!

hawk584

iTrader: (1)

I learned that the hard way

douglee25

Nice job!

Doug

redefined

Wow, lots of parts, looks awesome! Good job!

mapleridge

thread revival. I bought a t56 yesterday for an e38 L59 swap. I am weighing the options on building the transmission. Tick performance really has the best deal it seems including the labor but I am in Canada and I'd like to learn how to rebuild it myself. They sell a parts kit but its only level 2 up to 550wtq. I wonder what gets them the extra 200lbs wtq in the stage 3.

rao

iTrader: (18)

The Viper mainshaft adds the additional capacity. Tick sells the parts needed for that upgrade.

mapleridge

even with the viper shaft they only rate the diy kit at 550wtq. I think it might be the cryogenic treatment that they do in house that adds to the strength.