FWD transmission question for ya dee

[Liquid_Neon]

I feel like asking about what you have done to your transmission. I think i remember you talking about maxima gears, which would be a big change from 3k = 55mph. I suppose I could have PMed you but the very small other fwd ca guys might be interested

[boost_boy]

It's involved, but not impossible. It will require hybridding either the nissan stanza or maxima's gear boxes and getting custom axles made. The result, the much needed limit slip differential and the gear ratio of a bigger/heavier more powerful car. Now, since my little engine puts out nearly 3x the power of the maxima with less weight, let's just say I go pretty fast in style . Time, money, patience and resources would be needed to effectuate this set-up. The donors: 1991-94 nissan maxima SE with locking differental and the 1990-92 nissan stanza SE with locking differential. The stanza has the longer gears as you guys can see in some of my old dyno pulls (if you can find them). Third gear yield me around 119mph (no speedo error) and let's not even go into 5th gear which delivered speeds upwards of 150+mph. So you have the gears of the maxima and/or stanza, more power and less weight which equals rediculousness. I have something wonderful coming out soon for the FWD and RWD guys on the CA platform, so you guys stay tuned. I'm a "No limit soldier" with the CA, but time owns me.

[Liquid_Neon]

So the guts from early 90's bigger box cars.. and axles. Those gears fit inside the fwd CA gear house then, and the tough part would be matching splines up since they are prolly bigger or jsut different count on the max/stanza setup.

I need to get ahold of another transmission take a look see inside of it. I dont mind it zipping around town, but first gear is almost useless and fifth gear doesnt cruise well enough on the highway :P I mean it gives me instand on-tap response and boost... but the revving drones on longer trips, ya know?

side note... fifth gear pulling sure makes a KA24DE look slow on the highway, haha!

[livelyjay]

The transmissions from either one of those cars, if I understand correctly, bolt right up to the CA18DET. I could be wrong though as Dee didn't explain it in much detail to me over the phone. The problem is the axles because as you mentioned, the splines on the diff aren't the same. So you'd need to get the axles custom made, with the Pulsar spline count on the outside, and the Stanza/Maxima spline count on the inside. That's why it's such an expensive endeavor. I think Dee told me it would cost around $1200 if he did everything on his end. He'll have to explain in more detail what "hydridding" actually means.

Since my car is going to be for auto-x, I'd need to take a close look and see what speed 2nd gear tops out at. The sweet spot I think is around 55mph top in 2nd gear. Have to talk to the S2000 guys, because on faster courses they are shifting all over the place. I'll keep my eye on this thread because I'll probably be looking into this next fall.

[boost_boy]

Hybriding means the pulsar's bellhousing, machined and use of some of the maxima's gears on the pulsar's shafts. The easiest unit to modify is the Stanza's gearbox. With some machining to the pulsar's bellhousing (differential bearing race pocket needs to duplicate the transmission you are stealing from), most of the stanza's gears and shafts will drop in. And of course you'll have to get custom axles, but once they are done, the ride is ridiculous.

[Liquid_Neon]

Explain to me realy quick then... why cant I just disect a max/stanz trans and pilfur the gears only and say to hell with the lsd? in theory it would not require custom axles and I could do this in a weekend visit to the boneyard :P

my stupid brain has yet to see either of these transmissions apart so I understand that I am prolly missing a key factor of understanding.

[livelyjay]

It could probably work. If I didn't already have a spare Mazda Protege transmission and the CA16DE, plus the EXA sitting in the garage I would swing by the yard and pick up the Stanza/Maxima trans just to find out (since I might want it any ways). We'll have to wait for Dee to answer. He need to do a knowledge dump to us so at least a few other people will have a clue about these cars

[boost_boy]

Non-LSD boxes have interchangeable parts as their shaft shizes are identical. But the differential is where the problems come in at and they are of different diameters and with different diameters, comes different teeth count, wider gearbox cases for the bigger diff, blah, blah, blah. The LSD boxes have different shafts with the maxima being the more complicated. The Stanza is the simpler to work with, but in order to make this work the way you want it to, you're going to still put in the work and the $$$s, so you may as well go for the gusto by using the LSD gearbox and spending the coins for custom axles. It's hard to sit a here and break it all down, just know it can be done. If you do not exercise caution, catastrophic results are on the horizon. It's not as simple as it sounds. There have been errors on my end as well, but if you like practicing and like putting trannies in and taking them back out over and over again, go for it.