5 Speed Disassembly Question...Snap Ring?

Aaron Cake · 10-02-2011, 06:01 PM

I'm currently in the process of disassembling the 5 speed transmission to replace my ISB. However, this being my first transmission rebuild, I seem to be stuck.

I'm at step 6/7 in the factory service manual where it describes expanding the snap ring and removing the transmission housing. The instructions say "expand the 52MM snap ring on the countershaft ball bearing, and remove it from the groove using a pair of snap ring pliers". Then step 7 says "remove the transmission housing and dowel pins".

Uh, how do I remove the snap ring? I've expanded it, but it can't go anywhere. Do I then grab it, twist it up and pull it out of the housing? Or does step 6 and 7 have to happen simultaneously? Am I missing something? I can't see how it could ever come out since it is trapped within the groove formed by the bearing and housing.

Leeper · 10-02-2011, 06:50 PM

I had a pair of snap ring pliers but found it much easier to simply use a fine blade of a slotted screw driver at the same time put some pressure pulling the parts apart, seemed to work a lot easier for me at least. It took some monkeying around to figure it out and a bit of frustration.

The tough parts in my tranny repair was figuring out how to get the axles out (did not follow the manual recommending to remove the ball joints rather I simply removed the 2 19mm bolts holding on the spindle and that allowed everything to come apart far easier

#2 - the snap ring was done as mentioned
#3 - putting it back together I had the drop the tranny lightly on the ground to get everything to seat properly
#4 - Getting the axles back in. For the life of me I could not figure out why it was that it would not go back together, then it dawned on me that the axle had gotten a bit longer so I dropped it a few times straight down on cement and it popped back into socket shortening it more than enough making it easy reinstall.

All said now the repair would be VERY easy. I had the tranny out of the car in about 45 minutes once jacked up. Good luck

Aaron Cake · 10-02-2011, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leeper

I had a pair of snap ring pliers but found it much easier to simply use a fine blade of a slotted screw driver at the same time put some pressure pulling the parts apart, seemed to work a lot easier for me at least. It took some monkeying around to figure it out and a bit of frustration.

OK, but how do they come apart?

If I expand the snap ring it moves out of the bearing groove, but then has no where else to go. So when released, it goes back into the bearing groove. I must be missing something obvious here. Do the ends of the snap ring catch on something? For example, do I push them into the casing groove until they catch a lip or something? In all the work I've done with cars, I've never pulled a transmission apart before so I'm not familiar with the weird ways they seem to be assembled.

It looks like the casing can be removed while the snap ring is held open, but the casing doesn't even want to budge yet.

Quote:

The tough parts in my tranny repair was figuring out how to get the axles out (did not follow the manual recommending to remove the ball joints rather I simply removed the 2 19mm bolts holding on the spindle and that allowed everything to come apart far easier

Heh, me too. I took one look at the limited access to the ball joint bolt and said "Screw this".

The only issue with my big shock bolts was that they were all rusted in place. It took some serious work with a 500 FT-LB impact to get them off and they just barely made it. I'll need to replace them during assembly.

Quote:

All said now the repair would be VERY easy. I had the tranny out of the car in about 45 minutes once jacked up. Good luck

I refuse to admit how long it took me to remove the transmission from the Insight. I'll say that I can have an RX-7 transmission in and out within an hour though.

Bloody front wheel drive...

Leeper · 10-02-2011, 08:54 PM

The snap ring is the last thing you deal with. Once everything is done and the tranny ready to split, I put some pressure on the tranny to separate then took a small screw driver (you could also use a pic if needed instead )to get the snap ring to open enough to free the shaft which will then allow the tranny to separate. Without that ring removed the cases will not split. Snap ring pliers couldn't get into such a tight space, I had two screw drivers prying them apart which then allowed the shaft to slide out.

My spindle bolts actually came apart pretty easily surprisingly. Even though my car was from Chicago so it has rust exposure, those bolts came off easily... I might have tapped it with a heavy mallet to break stuff loose, can't remember.

I did all of my work, installed the tranny thinking all was good. While still on the jack stands I started the car to check out my work and found that the tranny would not shift properly as a shift linkage was not right. This required me to take everything apart again, thankfully once I had done it taking it apart went VERY fast (maybe 40-45 minutes to have the whole tranny back on the floor to figure out what was wrong (this included taking out the axles and everything except raising the car once again.)

Bring it down to San Diego, I'll help you along... the weather is perfect here

**jeff652** · 10-02-2011, 11:17 PM

the easy way to release the snap ring is to get a set of needle nose pliers, put the tip of the pliers in between the two ends of the snap ring and pull the pliers open. This will spread the ring enough to allow the countershaft to drop. You should have all the bolts off of the case but should not need to pry the case to get this to work. Make sure the clutch housing side of the trans is down so that gravity is helping as opposed to hurting the process.

You do not need to remove the snap ring from the trans housing. I reuse them 100% of the time. No need to replace it.

Cheers

Aaron Cake · 10-03-2011, 02:13 PM

Ah, the last two replies clear it up. The snap ring gets expanded while the housing is being lifted off. That makes perfect sense and is what I figured. The instructions in the FSM are to ambiguous and make it seem like two operations. Maybe the newer revision says "simultaneously....".

Should have the transmission apart tonight then. The flywheel was dropped off to be machined moments ago. Hopefully won't take much longer than tonight to disassemble and clean the transmission parts.

The input shaft has about 2.5MM of play on it side to side, so my ISB is done.

At the same time I'm doing the ISB the car is also getting a new clutch (and associated bearings) as well as new pads/rotors/shoes/drums all the way around. Plus new underbody panels.