Rebuilding A R33 Gts 5 Speed Yourself.

[studricho]

I've searched and search this forum and the internet, but no gold. Basically the R33 gearbox in the Torana is getting very noisy and it almost sounds like it's rattling.

I built a few gearboxes ages ago and I have done many bike engine/gearboxes, so I've decided to take this one myself. I've been quoted $500 for a bearing/gasket kit and $500 to install it.

They can't even quote me to remove the gearbox from my car cause it's not the standard engine/gearbox combo.

So basically I would like some info on a bearing/gasket kit and if anyone has done this before.

Also is there any special tool that I need for the job? Did you guys want me to post up pictures of when I do rebuild it?

[The Dan]

The bearings are only about $200-$250 (don't replace the needle rollers unless they are damaged or broken).

There is no gasket kit required...use 3 bond for the whole lot. Synchros are about $4-500 and you will need a reverse gear bush puller and a 5th gear bush puller. Both tools are not available from Nissan. They don't even know how to get them. You can try your luck though. They are about $500-$600 for the pair

If you want to cut off the gear bushes for reverse and 5th, the new bushes will set you back about $200 for the pair.

The gearbox will take no more than 3 hours to r and r if you are doing it on a hoist, 4-5 hours on the ground depending on how it was installed etc.

Rebuild can take 4-6 hours depending on how bad it is.

[Birds]

Not worth doing it yourself unless you plan on reconditioning the gearbox frequently, e.g. track car. The gearbox pros will be able to do it for close to what it will cost you by yourself (minus your swearing and frustration) in half the time

R&R of the gearbox will set you back about $300 depending on where you go, so there's good savings to be made if you can pull the thing out yourself.

[studricho]

Thanks for the info.

Bit of history. The gearbox was running without much oil in it just idling and a very short drive until we heard the noise and checked the oil level.

This is my engine bay and as you can see it's very tight in there and not being the original motor/gearbox for this car no one is really keen to take it own.

I still don't know if I can get it out without dropping the engine.

The noise from the gearbox bearing is getting worse and seems to go away the higher the gear selected. That indicates that it's from the input shaft bearing.

Gear selections are fine apart from 2nd crutch when it's still cold sometimes.

I'll take it out and see what is damaged or needs replacing. Looks like I'll be doing it next mid or next weekend.

I need to car for Mon-Wed..

The guy from town quoted me $500 for the bearing kit. Doesn't sound right.

Any online suppliers that you trust for the parts.

[dori34]

this id also like to know where to get it done in syd.

my gb is making whining sound on idle & when in gear & in revs.

[The Dan]

It really depends on other things. Is the noise there all the time but goes away (like it winds down to a stop) when you put the clutch in?

If so, then it is very possible you have worn the hard casing off the cluster and input shafts.

This usually happens with poor oil selection and high speeds or running the gearbox low on oil.

They are literally throw away at this point as the noise will always be there....even if you put new bearings in.

If it's getting noisier, the higher the gear, then I would suggest a bearing on the output shaft

If it's noisy in all gears except 4th then it will be a bearing on the cluster shaft.

It's not a simple and straight forward job all the time, you need special tools and a swear jar to make yourself rich.

I would at least get the gearbox out, strip the casing off and inspect the cluster and input shafts. If they have wear marks in the leading face of the gear, then it's cactus

And it's a nice engine bay mate, but seriously, it's an RB...I could have the gearbox off that in less than 30 minutes on a hoist. It won't take you long at all. Drop the engine crossmember down an inch or so to help with any clearance issues.

[studricho]

It really depends on other things. Is the noise there all the time but goes away (like it winds down to a stop) when you put the clutch in?

If so, then it is very possible you have worn the hard casing off the cluster and input shafts.

This usually happens with poor oil selection and high speeds or running the gearbox low on oil.

They are literally throw away at this point as the noise will always be there....even if you put new bearings in.

If it's getting noisier, the higher the gear, then I would suggest a bearing on the output shaft

If it's noisy in all gears except 4th then it will be a bearing on the cluster shaft.

It's not a simple and straight forward job all the time, you need special tools and a swear jar to make yourself rich.

I would at least get the gearbox out, strip the casing off and inspect the cluster and input shafts. If they have wear marks in the leading face of the gear, then it's cactus

And it's a nice engine bay mate, but seriously, it's an RB...I could have the gearbox off that in less than 30 minutes on a hoist. It won't take you long at all. Drop the engine crossmember down an inch or so to help with any clearance issues.

Thanks for your input so far.

I really hope I haven't worn the hard casing of the shafts...

The noise goes away from idle when I put in the clutch. It's a new clutch, pressure plate and thrust bearing by the way.

From what your telling me it sounds like I could be opening a can of worms with my gearbox.

When I change the gearbox oil last time they also added some addictive to the gearbox oil and that made a huge difference to the over all noise of the gearbox.

[Swiper the Fox]

this id also like to know where to get it done in syd.

my gb is making whining sound on idle & when in gear & in revs.

I use and recommend Award Diff and Gearbox in Seven Hills...OS Giken, PPG and Nissan 5 speed experts. Give Trish and Terry a call and they will look after you.

[skylinekid]

pull it out urself. get a gbox joint to rebuild it.... wen i got mine done i cryo'd all gears and new bearing etc the bloke told me its an arsehole to get 5th gear off em so yeh just a word of warning

[LJ RB30]

I have a R33 5 speed in my LJ Torana & was noisey from the start so after a while i decided to rebuild it. I have almost got my box back together. If you haven't at least got a hydraulic puller kit (plus bits to modify), a small press and handy at fabrication/modification then best bet is remove the box yourself & get it rebuilt by someone. I videoed when i pulled mine apart (cose i knew it wasn't going back together that week/month). At absolute least replace all the main ball & roller bearings (replace needle rollers under each gear ONLY if they are stuffed) & all syncro's. I can't beleive the amount of people that have boxes pulled out just to replace 1 bearing only to find it the same when its back together!!! :woot: The 5th gear bush on the cluster shaft is 1 of the tightest most difficult part to remove. As mentioned in a previous post the puller parts are not available from nissan so i made my own .

Even then only just able to remove it with the hyd puller (have heard of a gearbox joints breaking the sandwich plate, i presume by trying to press the cluster shaft out of the bush & i have no doubt it would break the lip that retains the cluster sandwhich plate bearing)

Nissan won't do much without a VIN No or month/year of manufacture , so i gave all bearing No's & syncro's to Steve at WA Drive Components (top bloke ) & he went through all their kits. He recond's the bearings are pretty much the same through the R33's. He also matched up genuine syncro's.

Minor bearing kit was $270 GKN3028 Skyline 8/93- (front seal & gasket, rear seal, nylon knob on bottom of shift, ball & roller bearings, cluster thrust bearings & needle roller for input shaft/mainshaft)

Syncro's was $450 GKN3028-SYN Skyline 8/93- .

Don't press out the rear extension housing bush either unless you can source a non genuine replacement (which is my problem at the moment), Nissan only list this with the whole rear housing .

Hope this help

[MYRB30]

Have done a few of them...Not rb25 boxes, but vl turbo, d22 navara, rd28 patrol boxes, they all are the same basic box, just minor differences.

They are a large, heavy, and clunky box. I was always amazed at how much end float the gears had. LOL.

Everything is circliped and shimed in (unlike rb20, rb30 NA boxes, which are hold by threaded nuts).

Any usually everything is DAMN tight. I was lucky enough to have access to NISSAN tools, so that puller shown above is a blessing. LOL. It can be done at home, but dont hope to get it all done in one weekend, unless everything runs smoothly.

[studricho]

Well I have the gearbox out and halve pulled apart. Now my local gearbox guy is busy as I want this up and running asap.

Thanks for all your tips and I'll let you know how I go..Cheers Paul.

I don't think this will be a walk in the park either.

[studricho]

Here's some pictures of my efforts since Sunday..

I've found the bearing that holds the cluster shaft in the bell housing to have issues, but luckily I've got to it in time and it hasn't spun in the bell housing or mark the cluster shaft.

It feels like the bearings in the in middle are also stuffed, so I will cart this to my local gear box guy so he can fix it.

I've done as much as I could without tooling up for a one off job. I also cleaned all the parts and labeled sandwich bags that contain all the parts.

Now the waiting game will be begin...

[The Dan]

That's the first 15 minutes taken care of.

[studricho]

That's the first 15 minutes taken care of.

Actually it was a bit longer due to my first time on this box and a seized dowl pin.

I went and looked at the gearbox today and there's a few bearings that are noisy/clunky so hopefully that is the noise.

He also suggested to replace the synco's and one fork while he was at it. Makes sense while the box is out and at least I will have peace of mind that it's all good.

I should get it back by the end of the week.

[08r3308]

car looks great mate , like that engine was always meant to be in that car

[bigmikespec]

Awesome work man giving it a go yourself, keep the thread updated as to what work was done to it!

[studricho]

Awesome work man giving it a go yourself, keep the thread updated as to what work was done to it!

I actually piked out of rebuilding myself due to the fact that they (gearbox place) would strip it down, inspected and rebuild for about $400. For me it would take twice as long, buy a press (around $350), bearing plates to press of the bush and I would still be asking whether I should change this or that...

The gearbox shop called me today and he confirmed that a few bearings are goneski, so all new bearings, sycro's and one fork.

All up it will be about $1,500 for my reco box. I did save myself some money taking out the gearbox and I got to see inside the box.

[Birds]

Not worth doing it yourself unless you plan on reconditioning the gearbox frequently, e.g. track car. The gearbox pros will be able to do it for close to what it will cost you by yourself (minus your swearing and frustration) in half the time

R&R of the gearbox will set you back about $300 depending on where you go, so there's good savings to be made if you can pull the thing out yourself.

I'm all for curiosity and most DIY repairs, but like 3lit3 said, that really was the first 15 minutes that a pro gearbox place would have spent looking at it, busted dowel or not. It's a good thing you didn't start pulling apart the cluster because there's nothing more annoying for us than a gearbox turning up in a cardboard box with a 'can you fix this pile of pieces for me' look on the customer's face

[studricho]

I'm all for curiosity and most DIY repairs, but like 3lit3 said, that really was the first 15 minutes that a pro gearbox place would have spent looking at it, busted dowel or not. It's a good thing you didn't start pulling apart the cluster because there's nothing more annoying for us than a gearbox turning up in a cardboard box with a 'can you fix this pile of pieces for me' look on the customer's face

Very true that. I'm actually a mechanic by trade and I rebuild bikes engine often. 4 cylinder 4 strokes that rev to 19,000 rpm so I really need to pay attention to detail.

The guy at the shop had a bit of a laugh when I turned up with all the parts that I had removed in snap lock bags individually labeled.

It's a bit off a ocd thing at times and makes every job easier.

I've learned over the years that you don't know when you'll get back to that project, so best to make it simple for yourself.

The good news the boys at drive line gears at wollongong stayed back friday night (long weekend) and managed to get the gearbox back to me.

Me and a few mates got it all back in and going. it feels like I'm driving a different car even though I'm taking it easy for the first 100klms I can already tell that I've found my noise issues.

All new bearings, syncro's, seals, oil and a shift fork has made a world of difference. Now I can play with the car much further as this issues has been holding me back from getting other things done and I look forward to running it on the dyno/quarter mile.

Thanks goes to all the guys that have posted on this thread as your help has been greatly appreciated and I hope that this thread serves to help others in the future.

See you guys on the road.