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Evauating junkyard 5spd? tips

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92 views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Losiracer2  
I
#1 ·
I'm fully aware of the frequently seen weak areas & common sense rebuild/upgrade recommendations for the g1 manual trans, I have a little experience with these gearboxes in the past...
I'm wondering what, if anything, more experienced folks would suggest is possible to "TEST"/check , to get ANY idea about transmission "condition overall" - before going through the work of pulling one from a wrecked non-running car. It's getting to be few-and-far between to even see G1 in the junkyards, so I will take what I can get. But my ideal goal would be to find/source a "good used transmission" backup for my beater G1 - a trans that doesn't need input shaft bearing, or 3rd gear/synchro, to be immediately addressed.

-junkyards have already drained fluid by law so can't eyeball that for fakes..
-you can run the vin & check free carfax carcare app for some mechanic history, odometer history estimates..
-yes you can check (somewhat) for input shaft play once removed, but what about before pulling from the engine/car...? (Assume: non-driving, no owner/history of the car- but crashed/wrecked, so it was running)...

....can you get a feel for synchro/gear/ ISB wear or issues, AT ALL, through the gearshift lever, by "feel"? ..or similar? Can anything (like ISB wear) be felt/noticed by observing the front wheels in gear up on blocks/etc? any related tips, tricks, or thoughts? Thanks!!
 
#2 ·
Here's how I recommend evaluating a junkyard Insight transmission:

Step 1: Manipulate the input shift. It should be solid and not have any more than a tiny amount of play.

Step 2: Regardless of results from step one, the transmission should be pulled apart and properly rebuilt.

Too many people on here have tried to cheap out and replace their "needs to be rebuilt" transmission with one from a wrecking yard only to have it also quickly graduate to "needs to be rebuilt" status.
 
#3 ·
One thing that might give a little bit of info would be to jack up one front wheel and put the xmission in one gear at a time and hand move the tire back and forth and see what things sound like.

Put the xmission in neutral and spin the tire to listen for bearing noise etc in each gear.

Other than that if the motor will run try the gears with no tires on the front.
 
#4 ·
They're all going to have the common signs of wear by the time they hit the JY. You're talking about $100 worth of bearings and a few hours to modify the 1-2 syncros to get it back to where it needs to be. I would just go through it and rebuild. Its already out of the car and on the bench and since its a backup, there's no rush to get it in a car.

The only thing that should be of concern in JY transmission would be external damage from impacts to either curbs, road debris or physical damage on the case where it bolts up to the IMA that would prevent you from mounting it on your car. Check the mount hole locations, any ground strap bolt locations, etc.
 
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#5 ·
How many transmissions have you built?

Scott
 
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