tried again to pull off the bell housing on a spare tranny i have lying around and it still will not release off the damn snap ring. im doing this myself, but ive got the snap ring wedged using the end of a file so its as far separated as possible. theres about 3/4" gap separating the two halves of the tranny all around, and i can rattle and wiggle the whole top, but the bearing that the snap ring is surrounded by still doesnt move. ive got my feet pressing down on the tranny and trying to get some grip around the bell housing to pull up, which is hard to find some grip, and shaking the hell out of it hoping it to come loose. ive also put it in neutral if that matters, does it?

is there any way to destroy that snap ring? i cannot get a cutting tool on a dremel in there. this is a spare tranny, im just using this as a practice for the first time, and the tranny insides are totally trashed. theres metal flakes all over, so some bearing went toast. i am willing to destroy it to get inside for a look, but only as a last resort, and only if its even possible to achieve the simple goal of separating the damn tranny.

please, any tips, experience, or moral support is appreciated.

 

The snap ring is inside a groove in a big circular pocket inside the tranny. There is a small access hole that you can see the ends of the snap ring through. You have a file in the access hole opening the snap ring as much as possible.

Take a couple large screwdrivers and wedge them into the crack between the two halves of the tranny. This will make it so you don't have to lift up as much.

the snap ring sounds like it has slid into the access hole more than it should have. Try pushing it back into the tranny as much as you can so it can so it will go as far into the groove as possible.

If I had a digital camera I would show you what I am talking about. I hope the words draw some sort of picture in your mind.

I just destroyed a bearing a few days ago because the snap ring was too far into the access hole. Mine did it during assembly and hung up on the bearing and braoke the bearing.

 

i don't want to come off like a dick but have you tried a snap ring plier?

 

yeah, but its not firm enough to keep the pliers separating the ring. thats why i used the file. anyway, i know realize that the housing should not be able to be fully separated over 1/2" with the snap ring in place, so the whole countershaft is obviously messed up. im gonna try to focus separating the snap ring from the bearing, instead of the whole casing.

 

got it apart, finally. once i knew the housing was not supposed to be separated as much as i had, i knew something was wrong and it would take special effort. ended up putting a wrench in the gap and stepping on it to jiggle the housing, then tapping on the bearing with a rubber mallet and dowel, and using my pliers to keep the ring separated, it finally came undone. yay...

so now that i have a look inside, i can tell the driver side diff bearing is trash, when i lifted the diff, all the ***** fell out, and the plastic speedo gear is in pieces all over the tranny. theres so much crap (metal shavings, flakes) in there. ill take a pic of something...

special thanks to jli for the help.

 

Yes please take some pics of what you find and the work you do to it. I plan on rebuilding (if not replacing as much as i can) an Si tranny before i put it on my D-series build.

Good luck

Vince

 

perhaps youd like to read thru this link. very good pictures and descriptions. altho not a L3.
http://www.performanceforum.co....html

 

some pics of the nastiness that went on in this tranny. couldnt find my roommates digital cam, so i had to shoot with my miniDV.



just SOME of the crap that settled to the bottom of the tranny...


driver side bearing went to crap and separated. you can see some of the pieces left of the speedo gear.


notice one of the shifter forks has a nice chunk busted off. outer race of the diff bearing still stuck in the housing. some more solid crap hiding in the deeper crevices.


i should take a pic of the synchros, i think they actually still good.


Modified by Tyson at 4:38 PM 4/22/2004

 

DAMN. That's gross. Too bad about the tranny. Mine looked great when I pulled it apart. Good luck with that.