OK guys, our shop is doing a Level 2 rebuild on a members tranny (who I am not gonna mention, he can chime in if he wants) Reason I am posting this is, for among other reasons, you CAN use too much silicone if you are electing to do the rebuild yourself, so be careful.
I am NOT gonna say that using too much silicone was the root of the problem here, but it sure did mess things up, and did not help any, I can tell you that, and wanted you guys to look at these pics to take a look at the contamination.

Now, this bearing here, sure, got damaged by poor install (or when disassembling) but look at teh "black stuff" in and around the bearing, it is silicone (and some of it is part of a broke fork pad)



Another shot, same bearing:




Look at the internal magnets, and the crap that is attached...you have got keys, springs, silicone, etc..



Another shot of magnets:




Silicone on shifter rail:




yeah, check this out...this is silicone that is floating around the synchro




And this is what we pulled out of the tranny (the long string of silicone was INSIDE the tranny, NOT on the facing, but inside it, where it was just being run through everything)





Again, guys, I am posting for a couple different reasons:
1)Don't use that much silicone
2)Make sure the shop you choose to rebuild your tranny knows what they are doing, and not some shop that says they can do it and save you a few bucks.
This tranny was rebuilt by a shop (NOT someone on this fourm) that "specialized" in T56 rebuilds.
Do your homework guys when you choose a shop, OK? Don't go for the "cheapest", as it WILL end up costing you MORE, as this case right here. Tranny had less than 5K miles on the rebuild from what my customer has told us.

 

Holy broken parts..

Yea that Bearing is fucked..brand new or not that Cage won't hold out.

 

^^ I completely agree, You get what you pay for and if you pay full price, you should have done more research, otherwise you knew what you were getting.

To be honest, I expect to send my unit, when it needs rebuilding out to a sponsor shop.

 

I commend you for respecting the privacy of the customer and showing grace by not bashing the "shop" that performed the first rebuild. However, I hope the customer will do us all a favor by disclosing the "shop" that did this to save the rest of us the headache. I'm in the market for a rebuild myself (hence, the reason I am perusing this forum). This is the major reason I'm considering doing the work myself. I can do the work, but I'd rather not have to.

 

I'd shoot them a PM if/when you find a name.

I too am interested on the shop...

 

Actually the bent cage would probably not hurt anything on that cluster gear bearing. The cage simply provides means to keep the rollers in place thus the reason you see a lot of companies using plastic cages now days. Its very common for the fork pad material and silicone to get wadded up in the front cluster gear bearing. Rarely does it damage it. Most of the time you can dig out the material with a pick and use a air nozzle with some solvent to clean the bearing afterwards or you can just change it.

As for the silicone on the shift rail or excessively used to glue it up, that too will not hurt anything. In automatics, its a different story because the silicone will get into the valve body.

Neither issue had anything to do with the keys or wires getting chewed up.

 

This was one of my favorites:



I found that over time, the RTV would break off into the fluid, and get pulverized by the gears. The pieces were so small that they would imbed in the friction ring material, causing shifting problems. The larger pieces get caught in the bearings, causing one or more rollers to seize, and the synchro keys causing them to stick. Overall I've seen nothing but problems with over-sealing the T56s.

 

Nice !

Would you like a T-56 to go with your RTV.


And I thought I was bad.


.

 

How bout a side of broken parts?

 

I have a few of those lying around.

.

 

ahhh minus the silcone thats a familiar sight to behold...... broken t56 springs and keys... up graded to the billet ones havent had a problem yet!

 

Billet keys in the 3-4 slider assembly is money well spent.

 

The problem with that front bearing now is it "hangs" up, does not rotate freely or cleanly, it drags.
And the thing with all teh silicone, is if you could have felt it trying to get it into gear, was very difficult, as some of the silicone had found it's way into the sliders and synchro's.

The keys probaly broke on their own (as we all know that the stock keys are problematic), and was just a side culprit along with the poor rebuild.

After looking at tranny I THINK:

Was poorly setup, agressive driving broke the stock keys, etc...and you have this extra silicone floating around the tranny not helping matters.

The silicone on teh shifter rail in THAT location, no, did no harm. What I did there was point out how crazy they got with teh silicone. You get silicone on a shifter rail, you are using toooooooo much.


About the owner/customer and shop that did teh rebuild...I had told my customer before hand that I was not going to divulge his info (and will not) out of respect for him, and the shop that did the rebuild, nor did I ask the name of it, or did he give it to me. I do know that my customer has read this thread, and if he feels like he wants to share the name of the shop, he will either PM those that are looking for it, or not. Again, not much to worry about, as I believe the tranny was built local to him (West TX) and they are NOT at this time, or EVER for that matter, been a sponsor on this fourm, from what he told me.

 

I bet that dude didn't leak though did it???? In fact, you probably had hell breaking it a part

 

The transmission is mine. Since I've had the car its giving me nothing but trouble. The shop I took it to was called "Dayz Performance". The weird thing is they did play the part off that they knew what they were doing very good. They had a few pro street cars sitting in their shop. At that time they charged me around 1100. But not to rebuild just to fix whatever it was that was giving me problems. (3rd and 4th would grind). Took them about a week to fix it. Remember they had first said it would take a 2 days 3 the max. I took it on a monday and didn't get it back until the following monday. Finally! I had it "fixed". I took it for a spin. Had it for about half the day. Then I noticed something went wrong. starting feeling weird. And it started grinding into gear if you tried shifting while higher than 2000rpms. Here we go again. Took it back the next morning. They took another 4 days to give it back! This time they said they had it right. As I drove off It still felt very much like sh**. And once again anything over 2000rpms would grind. And this time they somehow broke my speedo. Had no idea how fast I was going. I took it right back! This time I was about ready to torch the place! They said it was my shifter. At the time I had a B&M ripper. Already had it when I bought the car. So they convinced me they just needed to adjust somethings or put the stock one back on. After we argued for a while. I was only able to get 600 back. Wont trust another local shop. Thats why now when I need anything I always check on ls1tech before I go on.

About Morris Motorsports. I have nothing but good things to say. Derrick has been very helpful to say the least. He updates before I can even ask for one. Sends pictures.. And he knows his stuff. He is highly recommended to work with. I got a monster stage 3 clutch and lightweight flywheel from him as well.

I had a 00 a4 z28 and sold it to buy the SS. Sometimes I wish I never did just because of the headache this tranny has given me. Cant wait till everything is working finally! I have a N20 kit that I had on my z28 that Id really like to try with this car..

 

I hate shitty work from people who don't know what they are doing.

 

You can pay once and do it right or you can pay twice and do it again......

 

This one isn't too bad to do your self..I'm at the point to shim the Mainshaft..I just don't have a Dial Indicator kit.. I have the Gauge, just nothing to mount it with to check the Bearing clearance.

 

I have seen the rtv applied two ways. which do you recommend. A small bead all the way around or a very thin layer smeared onto the surface.
a old mopar trans guy old me to smear it because the bead could move and cause air pockets that would leak

 

Ain't no lie there!!! HAHAHA! I just about had to break out my air chisel!!!!