Recent Trany change and epiphanies. (manual tranny)

[georryan]

I just changed my tranny fluid to Royal Purple and although my synchros weren't that bad I did notice a difference on my initial drive "around the block." My review on it can be seen in the reviews section.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... 0819#40819

Well after putting my car on jack stands all the way around and doing this change I learned several things:

1) My tranny mounts are shot. I'm quite serious about this, I could poke the rubber mounts with my finger and squish them. I could also wiggle the tranny to a degree by grabbing the driveline and pushing and pulling it from right to left (up up and down since I was laying perpendicular to the car as I was under it). The rubber reminded me of a raquetball that I could poke with my finger. After I poked and proded it I came to the conclusion that soon I'll need to get some new ones.

2) Someone mentioned that if hte back of my tranny was all wet and looked like it leaked maybe it was my speedometer cable. Well that was dry on my car. Just behind it it seemed to wet, but it wasn't thick. Just kinda ramdon all around. I took a rag to parts and it came off almost dry, and brought with it pieces of dirt like large sand particles (dirt and grime is a given). There were drips of what looked like brown fluid, but it was hard to tell if it was tranny or just dirty water (maybe kicked up from my tires??). I tried smelling my fingers, but after changing the tranny fluid all you can smell is GL-5 so if it wasn't, you'd never know. So all in all I really can't tell, and am now doubting if I have any leak at all.

3) Royal Purple gear oil is.......(drum roll) PURPLE! Yep, the fluid is purple. Maybe the rest of you won't find this so amusing, but I was quite shocked to see purple fluid going into my tranny.

4) The Haynes manual for our car, and our actual handbook conflict when it comes to how much fluid is sappose to be in our transmission. I read in the Haynes manual that it needed 4.2 qts. Imagine my surprise whe all that drained out was right about or just over 3 qts. Now I had the back end of the car a little higher than the front, but only margionally, and I left the drain plug out until there was basically nothing coming out of the drain hole. The tranny extends back a ways from the drain plug so maybe some fluid stayed in there but it couldn't have been too much since the back end was slightly elevated higher than the front.

After putting in 2 qts before I measured what came out, and then finding that the amount that came out was considerably less than I bought to put in, I decided to check with the manual that came with the car. What I found is that it said to put in 3.7 qts. After I drove my car around and came back I rechecked the level and it was down to the L, so I added the rest of the third quart and it read F. I'll check it again as I go, but It looks like I've added 3 qts to the thing. That means that I potentially had .7 qts stuck up in the gearing that never wanted to come out. I can deal with that, though. I'm just glad it isn't over full anymore, but the problem is if it read overfull when I pulled out under the amount that the manual even says should be in there, then now what?? I figure I'll keep it at the F mark and call it good.

So anyways, take it for what its worth.

-Ryan

[Legacy777]

I'd say definitely replace the tranny mount, get the sti one.

The speedo cable is up in the front of the tranny...I wouldn't think it'd cause leak all the way back there. I'd say just drive it and keep an eye on things to see if you notice any leaks or drooling.

[Brat4by4]

Replacing the tranny amount with the Sti one eliminated any synchro quirks I was having.

[ciper]

Remember the front half of the transmission has no mount, get the STI engine mounts at the same time if you do.

[georryan]

How much did you guys pay for the mounts??