After 3 days I finally have the transmission all apart.
Here is the postmortem:
Output shaft rear bearing totally disintegrated - plastic retainer vanished, the 7 balls inside ground to some unknown shape.
The final drive is all chipped to hell, meaning the output shaft is toast too. This pair is 18/67 meaning 3.722. 5th is 40/29 = 0.725. I'll count the rest of the gears and post them up later.
1,2,5 gears sees slight gouging in the middle.
5th driven gear scraped against bearing retainer plate - a $216 and $112 part respectively
Metal pieces everywhere. Inside of transmission case sees lot of gouging and chipping.
3rd and 4th gears are relatively intact. Before the incident it didn't shift that smoothly either, but I have not seen a known good vs. known bad synchros so I don't know how far gone they are, or if they are still good.
Geartrain for reverse is for the most part intact. Shifter work also seems mostly intact.
My guess at a root cause would be the rear output shaft bearing disintegrating, causing it to shake which then send gear chips everywhere and ruining everything in sight.
I'll have some close-up pics of the input and output shafts posted later. With those pics up, can someone tell if this transmission is worth spending the 4-digit cash to rebuild?
Gear ratios after I counted the teeth:
(driven/drive=ratio)
1. 38/12=3.166
2. 40/21=1.904
3. 38/29=1.310
4. 31/35=0.885
5. 29/40=0.725
R. 39/12=3.250
Final drive: 67/18=3.722
If info I read off the net is correct, this is indeed a 98-02 C59 which should predate the bearing problems.
Ouch! Just saw the pics on TN, looks like metal slurry in there along with some pretty decent sized chunks. Anything is rebuildable - cost of that compared to just sourcing another is another matter. If the case looks OK and you get a good deal on OEM parts - might be worthwhile to rebuild it from the ground up. Other than the exterior appearance, you've basically have a brand new transaxle inside. Would likely cost twice or possibly three times as much as just sourcing another transaxle - atleast you know that everything inside is golden.
Would likely cost twice or possibly three times as much as just sourcing another transaxle
Try 10x the cost. A new unit is $3047 from dealer; the junkyard special I put in the pig is $300.
I have more pics up on TN. Fish, for evaluating the extent of mandatory parts replacement, here are the more important ones.
I have seen those BK418AWS rebuild kit go as low as $448.
Holy cow! That is some of the most damage I've seen from a street driven car. Your right, that diff is totally knackered up - I'm surprised the case stayed together with all that ground up metal getting jammed into every nook and cranny.
