Vic's 5 Speed Adventure

[Victor Laury]

This last Saturday, I replaced my clutch and I installed a 5 speed. I'll share with you all the problems I encountered for your future avoidance.

A couple of months ago, I began to suspect that my clutch was slipping. I could not spin the tires. I tried adjusting the clutch a couple of times, with no improvement. Since I had no knowledge of what quality of clutch was installed by the previous owner, I assumed the PO would select the cheapest thing available. I began to prepare for my clutch job by gathering the parts. I took a spare flywheel to Top End Performance in the San Fernando Valley and they machined away several pounds off the stock unit. I ended up purchasing a "Street Performance" clutch set from them as well.

Going through the online classifieds, I found, "1980 ZX 5 Speed Transmission - Rebuilt - $200". Since I was going to pull the tranny to replace the clutch, I thought "Why the hell not?".

I'm fortunate in having a neighbor who owns an auto shop. He agreed to let me use his lift for this job, whenever his customer traffic was down. He called me Saturday morning to tell me "Today is the Day" Cool!

I load up my parts and tools and get to his shop in record time. While I'm waiting for the lift, I remove the console, upper and lower shift boot. Roll up on the lift and pull the shifter. Raise the car and get ready to remove the driveshaft.

I could not even see the drive shaft bolts. The 2-1/2'' exhaust and the rear sway bar I installed has covered the area completely. To get to them, I remove the front diff-mount cross member. BUT, I couldn't get the member out until I loosened the exhaust pipe and muffler to pull it out of the way.

Observation - Good time to replace a faulty diff mount - Mine was ok.

Wow! My driveshaft bolts were WAY loose! I think I found my "Mystery Noise". I pull the drive shaft and am reminded that it's good practice to drain the tranny before doing this! Ok Tranny drained, I start loosening the tranny.

Disconnect the battery before starting this job. Stupid me takes off the starter and I'm rewarded with a shower of sparks. Using a lift jack stand, I support the back of the engine and remove the tranny cross member. The tranny can off without too much trouble. It looked like the header would be in the way, but there was enough room to pull the tranny back and then move it over to clear.

I removed the old clutch and flywheel, it didn't look all that bad but it did look like generic pepboys garbage. Install my new stuff and oops - forgot the clutch alignment tool. Believe it or not, a broom handle came to the rescue. The end that screws into the broom is just the size of the pilot bush and the handle diameter is close enough to the clutch disk splines to work. And it did!

The 5 speed did not have a place for the "In gear" switch that the seat belt warning used. I kinda liked that warning, It got me to use my seat belt more than I have in years. The 5 speed mounted right up - no problem. I hooked everything back up, crossmembers and drive shaft. I fill the tranny with Redline MTL and then go to install the clutch slave cylinder. "What the FU*K?!" the clutch release fork is completely different! I never noticed this before! It doesn't have a hole for the adjustment rod to pass through.

I make an "Emergency Consultation" call to Les at CDM and hell calmly tells me to switch the fork with the one out of my 4 speed. Well I'm wearing out my welcome at the shop, I just poured $28.00 of synthetic gear oil in there and have buttoned it all up - There's no way I going to pull it off again today! Les tells me that maybe I could drill a hole through fork. Easier said than done. There's no drill bit in the shop healthy enough the make a dent in that hardened steel.

So I come up with one of my "Quick Fixes" that I have no doubt I'll have to REALLY fix in the future. I cut the adjustment rod. Well it works for now, I don't know how much adjustment I'll have in the future.

Well, So far I like the 5 speed, first gear is a little steep, but the shifts from 1~2, 2~3 and 3~4 are closer, quick and smooth. Overdrive 5 gear is only usable to cruise at freeway speed. I forgot to swap the speedo gears. Since I'm running 195\60 tires the 240 gear read high. The 1980 ZX had a 3.7 rear gear so now it reads low. But close enough for a good approximation.

Hope I didn't bore you all with this. Hopefully it will help the next guy or gal getting ready to do this job.

[g260]

Hey Victor,

I replaced my gearbox last weekend also. The old 5 speed was a bit tight to get out but wasn't too bad. The new one went in pretty smooth.

With the old box I had started to get a noise as I was starting to release the clutch which I was told was either the thrust race or the pilot bushing. When I pulled the old box I saw that the end of the gearbox mainshaft was a bit rough and dry which I think was the reason for the noise. Anyhow I put a light smear of moly grease on the new mainshaft and mated it up.

It all went back together really well and I bled the clutch and my last job was to fill the gearbox with oil. This was when I had trouble!! I couldn't undo the filler plug. No matter what I tried, shfting spanner, multi grips, stilsons, it would not budge!!! I thought I was up sxxt creek!!!

After sleeping on it on Sat night I went back and tried again on Sunday and still the same. I looked around my mates workshop where I was doing the work and eventually found a large chisel and hammer and took to it with those implements. Luckily, it moved very slightly and I was then able to attack it again with a pair of stilsons and get it out.

I was a case of perserverance as I had had nightmares of either having to remove the exhaust headers and/or the gearbox to fix it. I will know next time to loosen the plug before I mount up the box.

[Victor Laury]

This was when I had trouble!! I couldn't undo the filler plug.

I had this trouble before with my 4 speed. My answer? I removed the reverse light switch and filled it from there.