Has anyone changed a manual transmission ?

[St3v30h]

have you done it your self? i lost my third gear recently and I'm wondering if there is anything i should look out for while dropping mine. i got a good price on a m/t rebuilt with less then 50,000 km. people i know tell me just to replace the syncro or the fork but i figured that i have to take the whole tranz off anyways so i figured ill just change the whole thing and have it last longer

whats your input?

i got a 2006 mazda 3 with 150950 km

i fully intend on putting up a how to with pic's for this whole process

 

[JReichle1]

It all depends on how good you are with cars and how many tools you have (Jack, Hoist, Torque wrench, Impact). It's not an easy job. That being said if you have the tools and some mechanical savvy, you can knock it out. I would recommend getting a service manual and following all the recommended torque specs on critical fasteners. While you are in there you should inspect the clutch and flywheel, might want to replace/ resurface all that at the same time...

 

[St3v30h]

i got all the tools and a car lift , just wanted to know if anyone encountered problems durning the remove/install.

 

[flatlander937]

I haven't had to do one on a basic 2.0 or 2.3 MZ3 yet, but I've replaced a lot of clutches in other stuff at work... two Mini Coopers and one Mazdaspeed 6 recently.

While anything will pretty well suck at home on jackstands, after poking around underneath my own 09 MZ3, it looks like the easiest possible transaxle I may ever pull.

You've just got to get into the mindset that it's nothing but nuts and bolts... it will become much easier when you think of it like that.

Basically you want to pull everything you can off the top of the transmission: air box, battery/box, disconnect anything on top like sensors and shift cables, if there is a wire loom running along the transmission or bellhousing area, do what you can to push it out of the way so you will be able to pull the transmission straight off later on. Leave motor mounts/transmission mounts for now unless you want to drop it on your foot.

Then you want to raise it up high enough to have room to do what you need. Pull the skid plate and driver side inner fender/splash shield. Pull the drain plug and drain the fluid out of the transmission. Now you want to pull the axle shafts... to do so you need to disconnect the tie rod ends from the knuckles, the lower control arm ball joints from the knuckles, and remove the giant nut from the end of the axle shaft. Push it through and pull back on the strut/knuckle assembly so you can slide the end of the axle clear of it. *Be careful of the brake lines and ABS sensor wires, etc etc. Disconnect or remove what you need to keep from stretching them/breaking them.

Use a pry bar to pry the axle shafts out of the transmission. You may want a hand to hold the outter end of the shaft while you pry in case it lets go suddenly... you do NOT want to scratch the seal surface where it seals at the transmission. Depending on the way the shaft is, sometimes using the prybar more-so as a punch and hammering on it works better. I frankly don't know, you just gotta get it outta there.


You may or may not need/want to pull the sway bar end links at some point if they get in the way or fight you while disconnecting the lower ball joint or something.


Unbolt the slave cylinder, and if possible sling it along with the hard line completely out of the way. If it's like the MS6 I did, there was a bolt on the top of the trans holding one end, loosened that and I was able to manipulate it out of harm's way.

Then you undo the rear motor mount, then support the engine, then remove the transmission mount and bracket(s). Lower the engine as much as possible *without damaging anything on the accessory drive... watch it while lowering the engine!!!*

Undo the bellhousing bolts and pull the transmission out of there.

I use this same model at work for supporting FWD engines when possible... works very well and at home, it would leave you a lot of free room to move underneath the car if a jack was otherwise in the way.

http://www.wayfair.com/OTC-Three-Po...PA49-IOE1080&gclid=COL809isl68CFYMKKgodIkCUyQ

Here it is supporting the MS6:

On the MS6 I had to drop the entire crossmember, but that I think is because the 6spd is freaking massive. Just eyeballing it, it appears that I could get away without doing that on my MZ3. Also the MS6 was AWD so there is a bit of extra crap in the way that had to come out first.

This is also from the MS6, but you can get an idea of all the stuff that needs pushed out of the way(wiring and coolant hoses and stuff)... there is nowhere near as much on a non-turbo 2.0 or 2.3.

Good luck!

 

[St3v30h]

thanks for the info flatlander937

 

[flatlander937]

thanks for the info flatlander937

No problem. One thing I forgot to mention(but it will become very obvious anyways) is that when it comes time to pull the transaxle out, you will likely need to lower the trans side of the engine/trans assembly some to clear the "frame" area. This is where having that FWD engine support REALLY helps... you can raise and lower it at will, and helps in lining up bolts upon reassembly. I had it set up on the MS6 to anchor towards the back of the engine, and towards the front around the intake runner so I could adjust the tilt of the engine as well. The passenger side motor mount was holding up the other end, and I never removed it.

 

[St3v30h]

i got a 2 ton engine hoist i think that should do it

 

[Donutz]

To add to Flatlander's post above...

The wire harness bracket that runs across the top of the trans is bolted to the bell housing, and is blocking one of the bell housing bolts. The bracket is held on by 2 bolts. On the front side of the trans is a grounding bracket that needs to be removed (also held on by 2 bolts), and on the top side near the back there is another bracket that needs to be removed (1 bolt). There are 3 wire harness connectors that need to be uncoupled. 2 on the top, and one in the back. You don't need to remove the starter, but it's a good idea to loosen it. It makes reinstalling the trans easier.

Another thing that is odd that I discovered... I have the Mazda online shop manual for my car. I found a bolt holding the bell housing to the block that is not in the manual. It is quite long and is located near the clutch slave. FYI if you're going by the shop manual, do not rely on the illustration, use common sense too.

You'll have bloody good fun trying to remove the ball joints. On the drivers side it's easier to remove the 3 bolts holding the control arm to the subframe. On the passenger side you wont be able to do this though. Your only option is to remove the ball joint because the ac compressor blocks one of the bolts from coming out of the lca. I suppose you could remove the ac compressor. What I did was remove the trans with the passenger side axle still in place. Then I removed the axle / half shaft, then I had the lca exposed enough to put a piece of PVC pipe on it, and whacked the lca until the ball joint popped out. This took a long time but it eventually came out. You may have better luck than I did with the ball joint.

Some small things you might want to consider replacing while you're at it; starter insulator (mine crumbled when I loosened the starter); axle lock nuts (mine were mashed); axle dust covers and axle seals.