Mike:
I have a mild and respectful disagreement regarding the mileage capability of
the roadster 4 speed tranny, based upon my own (albeit, limited) experience.
I had slightly over 140,000 miles on my original (new) tranny, when I rebuilt
the counter shaft assy, based upon it failing the "wiggle" test (it did move
slightly, maybe, 10-20 thousandths).
When disassembled, the countershaft, itself, showed less than half the wear
than the countershaft of my other tranny which had started breaking teeth in
3rd. I drove it quite a while, just skipping that gear, until I had a chance
to rebuild my original.
Still think that Aaron's squeal is likely caused by a failure of the clutch
release bearing coupled with a misadjustment - lack of clearance (which may
well have caused the failure of the release bearing). That may be all he needs
to replace, but I agree that it certainly is an appropriate time to give his
countershaft a "wiggle test".
Dave
'68 1600
Kailua-Kona
datsunmike wrote:
> On the 4 speeds you need to check the countershaft, the counter shaft needle
> bearings and the countershaft gear as they go bad within 50,000 miles or
> less and if the bearings go it can chew up the shaft and the gear and if
> you're real unlucky it'll wipe out the entire tranny. Datsun copied the MG
> trannies and they have this weakness also. The 5 speeds use ball bearings
> and they last a lot longer.
>
> I have disassembled many 4 speeds and they all needed new bearings and
> shafts and several needed new gears too.
>
> As a matter of routine maintenance I always replace the shaft and bearings
> whether they needed it or not.
>
> I would also look at the synchros and possibly replace those also. A synchro
> can be good one day and go bad the next - I know as it happened to me.
>
> Sorry to give you bad news but these trannies are old and they almost all
> have a good amount of mileage on them.
>
> It's better to do it now when the tranny is out rather than have to pull
> everything out again.
>
> BTW, I live in NYC so someone else will need to give you a recommendation.
> There are a lot of Roadster owners by you and maybe you can throw an 'engine
> pulling' party.
>
> The trannies are not hard to rebuild but you need some good tools,
> creativity and patience, and maybe borrow another used tranny to be used as
> a guide when reassembling it. I spent about $250 in parts to rebuild mine
> (or I should say Ivin's) and it took me about 20 hours or so, most of which
> was spent cleaning everything as metal and grunge collects everywhere.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aaron Spesard" <banzai311@hotmail.com>
> To: <datsunmike@nyc.rr.com>
> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 1:52 AM
> Subject: Re: HELP. Clutch Squeal?
>
> > Excellent. Thanks for the responses. sigh. Anybody in Portland, or a know
> of
> > a good shop in Portland, OR that'll replace the clutch, bearing, etc....
> >
> > thanks,
> > aaron
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