Anyone care to share the appropriate pages from the ZX manual on how to reassemble the five speed?

I did it by eyeball four years ago, and it was great. Then the 5th gear nut backed off. After tightening it back down, I couldn't get the car in gear (binding on the mainshaft). After loosening it a smidge, it won't stay in second on decel. After retightening it, it's binding on the mainshaft. I have omitted several tighten/loosen stages... but it wasn't right, no matter what I did.

Eventually I gave up and put in a junk monkey motion 4spd. Well, it finally bit the dust, so I need to get my 5spd fixed before the next track day.

I have all new synchros, bearings, etc. I'm betting I lost a key/ball bearing somewhere. I really would like to gix this myself, and not resort to opening my wallet for a shop.

Do you have the manual from Car Fiche? You can also check out Blue's Tech Tips. He has a great section on it.

I got the fiche, thanks. The tech tips are helpful, and a great link.

What I'm really looking for, though, is step-by-step reassembly instructions. I know I have something subtle incorrect, and I'll be damned if I know what it is.

Thanks for the links!!

You're welcome. I really can't think of anything more step by step than the fiche though. It's helped me alot on my 5-speed. Sorry I couldn't give you anything better.

A-ha!

http://carfiche.com/manuals020/cars/82_datsun_280zx.zip

The entire FSM. Sweetness.

I couldn't get your link above to work, if you didn't get it all, Pm me an email address that will accept a 2mb file, and I'll send you something that will help.

Will

The manual is probably TnA right now. That's the address for it when it becomes available again.

Linky is still working on my end. Holepunched and bindered. I'll tear into that damn thing this weekend or next.

So far the standings are:

Trans: 8

Kyle: 0

but we'll see about changing that.

Hello again!

Trans: 8

Kyle: 1

It's not back in the car (need to get a couple parts), but the problem was obvious when I pulled the front case off: When the mainshaft nut backed off, it let some slop develop in the roller sleeve for 1st, which let the 1-2 synchro slide back and forth on the mainshaft (a definite nono). Slop was probably .030 or more... allowable endplay in second gear (the smallest spec) was .0047 to .0075. So, in other words, I had SEVEN TIMES as much slop as allowable.

And it appears that the sleeve for first is VERY tight on the mainshaft, so when I tightened the mainshaft nut in my several attempts a halfassed repairs it didn't move; instead, the additional load was applied to the 5th gear synchro, which I have a sneaky suspicion was fit together incorrectly.

All in all, a VERY successful day of babysitting (stayed home with my one year old while wife and four year old took off for the day). Got the garage straightened out so I had a place to work, took the beastly trans apart, found the problem, and now have it 90% back together.

Got several feelings from this:

1) I'm the man, and can fix just about anything

2) when I put my mind to it, otherwise I'm a wuss and things don't get done properly

3) which is really pretty stupid since I wasted a lot of time halfassing.