Hijacker's Money-Ain't-No-Thing Build

[Hijacker]

The Caswell kit is what I used as well. I got similar results. It works very well. It looks like you already figured it out, but the streaking is from not saturating the solution before adding your parts. I also found that with flat parts, it helps to flip the part over or run 2 anodes.

Networked gauges are definitely the way to go! The wiring is soooo much easier.

What different on the vert a-pillar trim piece? I assume it just doesn't have the notch out of it? If so, could you use an auto-belt a-pillar gauge pod and then fill in the missing piece? IDK how you'd blend it and get the texture right, but it's an idea.

The vert shares the same a pillar trim as the Silvia and CDM 240SX. The USDM has to make room for the auto seatbelt track, so the shape of the plastic is totally different.


-The vert pillar has a triangular profile while the hard top has a more C shaped box


-Like, here's the 2 position pod I fitted to it way back in 2003. Even after significant trimming, it never looked right and has really bad gapping. I can do a lot better now than i was able to do back then. I still think the SAAS route of making pedestals for the pods to mount to will be the cleanest look. I debated making a full molded pod much akin to the Autometer pod I have now, but the defi gauges need a full 360° cup to mount to and the formed pod ends up having around 180° of engagement normally



-Back to plating though! I tore down the factory throttle body to get it prepped for plating and cleaning. I didn't want to pull the TPS, so I plated some spare bolts I had from another throttle body so i could swap them without losing the TPS alignment. I also didn't pull any of the stop screws and opted to leave them in place. The one on the cold idle spring was plated with the whole assembly, but I couldn't plate the stop for the throttle pulley. I may end up putting some paint on it to try and mimic the look and give it a bit of protection from future rust


-The coolant ports were kind of rusty and obviously the factory chromated parts were showing signs of age


-I didn't realize the throttle spring itself is actually two springs that are held together at one end. Splitting them out made it much easier to clean and plate


-To plate the coolant ports, I needed to suspend the throttle body so only the port was soaking in chemicals. I used a bunch of paint can caps to hold chemicals and do the plating


-Overall, the plating came out pretty good on the ports. I didn't do the vacuum ports


-To get the cold idle spring, I stretched it on a piece of metal so I could plate in between the coils. My final version of this rig was to bend the plate in a U shape and use copper wire to suspend the spring in two directions


-Overall, the parts came out pretty good. I ended up stripping and replating the throttle pulley. It had some rough spots that didn't take plate or chromate.


-I also did targeted soaking of the coolant ports o get them chromated. The throttle body itself was cleaned with Purple Power with Aluminum Brightener and a steel brush






-Throttle reassembled. It came out pretty good I must say!

[float_6969]

Ohh, I didn't realize they were so different! Makes sense though.

[Hijacker]

Ohh, I didn't realize they were so different! Makes sense though.

Yeah. It's a right pain in the butt that nobody makes a pod for at least the Canadian market that I could use here


-New order from Amayama came in. This one has transmission bellhousing bolts. I still need to source starter bolts as Nissan no longer has stock on one of them




-And the other thing was the brand new OE speed sensor. My transmission came with an S14 VSS, so I needed to source out an S13 unit so I can have a working gauge speedometer. But for now, it'll go on the parts shelf

[Hijacker]

I started the transmission inspection a few weeks ago







This is the transmission that came with the motor. It's obvious someone had done some minor stuff to it like the Megan Racing short shifter (ugg) and removing the tail shaft dust shield. But otherwise, it looked like it was unopened. The vent tube was missing its support bracket and the tube itself was also damaged

Now, the S14 transmission is supposed to be different from the S13 transmission in a couple of ways. The first big difference is the style of bearings. The S14 uses sealed bearings for the front and center plate bearings rather than open faced bearings. Sealed bearings have better life expectancy since they aren't as prone to having debris and foreign material get in them and destroy them.


-So the first thing I did was pop the front cover and was unpleasantly greeted with open face bearings

The next difference between an S14 and S13 transmission is the reverse gear. Nissan started using synchronizers on reverse in the second generation chassis


-So I pulled the tail housing and reverse is synchronized (reverse is the straight cut gear closest to the center plate). This led to some more questions.

I did some more tear down and inspection. The next thing that is supposed to be different between the S13 and S14 is that third gear uses a double cone synchro like second gear uses.


-Second gear is engaged here, but you can easily tell that the synchro hub uses the spring style locator pins. On dual cone synchro hubs, Nissan uses the spring style locators. One single cone hubs, they use the standard locating tabs


-Third gear is using a single cone synchro. So head scratching again.

I went to Amayama and started pulling part numbers for the DE and DET transmissions. The DET part numbers came back with what I expected (sealed bearings, third gear dual cone synchro, etc). The DE part numbers were returning open bearings and single cone third gear. That's when I came to the conclusion someone had packaged a DE transmission with my DET motor at some point. After doing a bit more research, I discovered that I could upgrade the DE transmission. The bearings are a no brainer. They were definitely getting sealed. The third gear dual cone synchro was a bit more of a mystery. After doing a bit of research and things like counting splines, etc. I determined that the synchros could be swapped out. However, this would require changing out a few more things. Namely third and fourth gear dog rings (the engagement tooth count is different and third gear engages the synchro differently), the 3-4 shift sleeve and hub, the 3-4 shift fork, and the 3-4 shift rod all needed to be swapped. I touched base with a cool cat up in Canada and we chatted for a bit about this. He had the dog rings for 3 and 4 as well as NIB synchro rings for 1-4 and the 3-4 shift sleeve. Amayama was contacted for the rest of the parts. For the dog rings, I need to press off the old dog rings from my gears and press the new dog rings on.

Back to the transmission itself, though. On teardown, I found a few other problems


-Someone had ground the absolute piss out of reverse and destroyed the dog teeth. The whole gear has to be replaced. Also, the synchro is supposed to have at least a 0.7mm gap between the dog ring and itself. I was coming up closer to 0.07mm when checking clearances. So new synchro is on order


-Fifth main gear also had a chunk of a tooth missing. This looks to be a manufacturing defect. However, it needs replacing. Its synchro was also out of clearance spec. Another DE to DET difference I found is the gear ratio. This gear is a 22/37 gearset which is a 0.838 ratio. This lines up with the S14 FSM we all know and love. However, the proper DET part number for fifth returned a gearset that was 21/39 (0.759). My guess on the FSM discrepancy is that it's an EUDM thing. The EU likely runs a different gear ratio than the JDM transmission does (but don't quote me on that). Either or, my new friend in Canada had a 21/39 fifth gear from an S14. The gearset HAS to be from an S14 as the reverse synchro changes the tooth count for the dog ring and synchro on fifth gear


-The tail housing bushing looks pretty worn. I've found a few replacements, so it'll get swapped for a brandy newy one


-The first slug of parts came in. Mr. Canadian had the 1-4 synchros, third and fourth dog rings, fifth gear set, and the 3-4 shift sleeve. I also landed a NIB reverse gear from ebay. 5th and reverse synchros, new bearings, new snap rings, seals, 3-4 shift fork, and 3-4 shift rod are on order from Amayama right now


-The dog teeth are in much better shape, obviously




-The dual cone synchro




-Even with brand new synchros, it's good practice to make sure they are in tolerance. These are in spec, albeit a bit lower than I would have liked (spec is 0.024" to 0.043"). This is how you measure the inner cone and inner baulk ring. You're finding a difference in height between the rings. Always test all the way around


-Then you measure the gap between the outer baulk and the inner cone. These are well within spec


-Since I have fourth gear dog ring in hand, I was able to confirm the cone is in spec. I'll have to finish teardown to get at first


-And speaking of tear down, I already found another issue with this transmission. The 1-2 shift fork was damaged. Trying to shift it by hand was a right pain, and I think I know why now. I've already found a replacement. I'd prefer steel or iron, but I'll have to suffer with aluminum for now.

[Hijacker]

I also got around to reassembling the intake manifold










-The manifold was pretty dirty and had lots of grease stains on it. I stripped it down as far as I could go and took to some hot baths in degreaser. Ultimately, scrubbing it with a wire brush and Purple Power aluminum brightener did the ultimate trick. I also threw in some carb cleaner to help lift some of the nastier stains on the aluminum. All of the existing rubber hoses looked to be in decent shape, so I soaked them in degreaser, scrubbed them with a nylon brush, and then coated them in Formula 303 to help add some elasticity back






-I replated the idle air inlet tube. I'm really happy with how this came out


-I had to bend one of the vacuum ports back into shape. Someone had bent it up prior to my ownership and I didn't realize it was bent until I was reassembling the throttle body




-I had previously purchased two fuel rails and had intended to use the better of the two. The bottom one cleaned up really well. So well, I decided not to replate it. The top one had a lot of corrosion on it, so I decided to strip it and replate. I'm kind of "meh" with how that one turned out, but it's going to be a spare or resold, so it's whatever


-The new injectors had new Nissan O rings installed and popped into the rail. Obviously all of the hardware was replated


-The FPR also cleaned up nicely and had a new O ring installed




-I realize that I had the injectors installed upside down. I rotated them once I put the wiring harness back in place. I took the injector caps and brushed them clean on the bench and then shot them with a few coats of high temp satin clear


-The dancing frog! I still had to go and get new fuel hose at this point




-The final assembly. It all came out pretty good looking. The hardware for the upper and lower half has been replated, but I left it off the assembly until it's time to install. I also opted for a billet CNC machined adapter bracket to run my S13 throttle cable

[PapaSmurf2k3]

The dancing frog!

I had never heard it called that before

[Hijacker]

I finished the teardown this weekend of the S14 transmission. It's a bit of a mixed bag


-If you ever need to pull these bearings, 2' of 3/8-16" rod is more than enough to get it into a cheap Harbor Freight bearing separator



-The countershaft bearing had some trash in it. Not sure what it is as it's a hard plastic. The color resembles the speedo pinion, but my speedo pinion was undamaged. Not sure if this would have lead to a premature bearing failure, but given it was IN the bearing on both sides, I imagine it wouldn't have helped the bearing cage stay together



-This was what I expected the 5-R shift sleeve to look like given how beat up the dog teeth were on reverse. The points were completely obliterated and I imagine this thing slipped out of reverse a lot


-For comparison, the OD side of that shift sleeve was in good shape. I've already ordered a replacement


-Pressing the main shaft out of the center sandwich plate



-Fifth gear was an oddity. It doesn't match the FAST images or the FSM parts diagram. Both FAST and the Manual show the needle bearings as these split half moon bearings. Instead, I pulled full circle bearings out. Additionally, there's supposed to be a washer and roller bearing between the OD main gear and the thrust washer. However, I only had a thrust washer


-According to my new friend in Canada, some early non-turbo transmissions had a thicker thrust washer and lacked the roller bearing. Since I had planned on replacing the roller bearing, I went ahead and ordered the updated thrust washer and spacer to go along with the roller. I'll see how it compares in thickness when it gets here


-Transmission torn down and waiting on way too many parts orders





-In the meantime, I set the transmission case up to be cleaned. I had degreased it previously and wanted to scour it a bit better





-I hit it with a soda blaster and some purple power aluminum brightener. It came out okay. definitely cleaner than it was, but not as clean as I'd like. I'll probably let it stay like this as it's only going to get messy under the car


-I also painted the exposed parts of the sandwich plate with high temp cast iron paint

[Hijacker]

The next thing I needed to do was change out third gear's dog ring. I unfortunately need to replace 4th due to some damage I didn't see until I removed the gearset, so I'll only be changing out third's dog ring


-The donor gear is a second gear, but the dog rings are the same. I had to use a very narrow and thin walled puller to get under the dog rings. Third gear's old ring was easier to pull as it sticks out past the gear teeth slightly, which let the puller grasp the dog teeth flats. The rings are just pressed on, so it they can be pulled right off



-Second gear was a bit more tricky. The gear teeth are the same diameter as the dog teeth, so my puller couldn't grab them and there's only 1mm of gap between the gear and dog teeth. This donor gear was already damaged, so I decided to grind the teeth flat very carefully so it could expose the dog ring and let the puller get on it



-I confirmed that the ODs of the gear splines were the same before I started the press. The spline counts are also the same



-Third gear with it's new dog ring


-I confirmed by image that the dog ring is the correct size and pressed on properly. When pressed, it needs to be bottomed out so the splines are level with the oil grooves


-I also test fit the synchros and ensured it engaged the shift sleeve and shift hub properly

[splintercell]

Never fail with the great updates!

[Hijacker]

Never fail with the great updates!

Thanks! I'm hoping to have the transmission reassembled in a few weeks. The machine shop should be done with my motor either this week or next week. So I may have everything reassembled by christmas

[Hijacker]

The first of the Amayama orders came in for the transmission rebuild/upgrade. There's still a lot of parts left to get delivered, but I can at least take some time now to explain some of the differences in pieces that needed to be replaced for this upgrade to work.


-Order #1 of too many from Amayama. This slug of parts had the OD balk ring, OD thrust roller bearing, 3/4 shift fork and rod, OD needle bearings, 4 of the 6 shaft bearings, new oil gutter, transmission mount hardware (the motor set came with missing hardware), new lock nuts, and new harness and breather clips

Previously, I had stated I wanted to change out third gear's synchro for the DET's dual cone synchro. That necessitated changing out the shift sleeve and dog rings on third and fourth. The DET 3/4 shift sleeve is larger than the DE's, so the shift fork also needs to change. The DET 3/4 shift fork also needs a different 3/4 shift rod due to the roll pin hole being relocated. It's possible to drill that hole into a DE shift rod, but the rod was cheap enough on Amayama




-The DE shift rod is on top and the DET rod is on bottom. The detents are all identical, just the location of the roll pin hole shifts


-As you can see the DET shift fork is wider, and that's why the roll pin hole gets relocated





As you can see, the DET shift fork is also larger due to the increase in size of the 3/4 Shift sleeve


-I checked the shift fork to the shift sleeve for excessive play. The service manual doesn't give any values to measure. Paul Canglialosi details in some of his build videos how to check for excessive play on T5 and Muncie 4 speeds, so I applied some of what he was teaching to the shift forks here. If anyone knows if there is a specification for shift fork and sleeve clearance, I'd love to hear it as I couldn't find any information on a spec or limit


-All forks and rods mocked up to keep them in order for storage


-I measured the OD baulk ring with the new to me OD gear and everything's in spec. Just to showcase just how worn the old synchros were, check out the gap on a new ring versus the old tired baulk ring. That ring was beyond its wear limit and actively drags the back of the dog ring now


-Another angle of the carnage on the old OD gear. I'm not so sure that the damage was a manufacturing defect. The neighboring teeth also have worn spots on the tooth corners, so it's likely this was the cause of a miss-shift




-I still don't quite understand the change in needle bearing design for OD. Maybe the half moon style works better with the thrust roller bearing while the full circle works better with the fatter thrust washer?

I've got most of the rest of the parts arriving later this week (some are due today and some are due Friday/Saturday this week) I'll be out of town for the holiday, but if things are delivered on time, I should be able to start reassembling the gearbox when I get home

[Hijacker]

-I'm nearing the end of the parts tunnel. The last major sets of parts came in over the holiday break. This set of parts had another sealed bearing, the transmission position switches, new clutch slave cylinder and bolts (the transmission didn't have one attached), all of the seals, and the last of the needle bearings.


-It also had a slug of assorted select fit snap rings. Given that the rings are no longer available on this side of the pond, it was easiest/cheapest to just order a variety of sizes from Nissan Japan and pack them into orders with other other parts


-Last of the new parts to arrive was the new main drive gear set, input shaft needle bearing, 5-R shift sleeve, and the remainder of the thrust washer setup for the OD gear. I also ordered a new shifter cup as a spare or if I need to rebuild a used factory unit to replace the crummy Megan Racing one attached to the transmission


-The updated thrust washer is MUCH smaller than the older one. This is due to it having a roller bearing washer and a spacer shim. I had previously measured the other at 11.82mm


-The old thrust washer against the updated washer.




-I also had to see the differences between the old and new input shaft and main gear. The counter gear is obviously the same, but these are matched gears which means if you replace one, you replace both. At first, I thought the only difference between them would be the dog ring, however the pocket bearing is also different


-As you can see the pocket bearing was revised at some point to use larger needles and a thicker cage. The larger pocket bearing should be a bit more stout. If for some reason you need to order the smaller bearing, it's available under part number 32272-36910


-I couldn't resist getting a picture of 99% of the parts this rebuild/upgrade is requiring. This is the result of a blown transmission colliding with the OCD need to rebuild it back to better

I deep cleaned the gears in my ultra sonic cleaner last night and coated everything I cleaned with some WD-40 while it awaits assembly. The last thing I did was get the main drive gear bearing installed on the input shaft


-Step one is to press the main bearing on and then size a snap ring. My first thought after pressing it was that I messed up because the spacer shim on the old gear wouldn't fit. So I immediately grabbed the old input shaft to compare




-As you can see there is a gap on the old gear that requires the spacer to shim up to the snap ring groove. The new gear and bearing are flush to the snap groove. The bearing was fully seated




-So I did what any internet mechanic would do, I went and looked up pictures of teardowns. I found one on youtube of an S14 DET transmission and paid attention to the input shaft bearing, and his lacked that spacer. So I felt more comfortable leaving it off. I did measure some of the distances of the bearing to the gear, and they came out the same. It's also obvious in pictures that the groove was machined lower on the updated gear


-So back to snap rings. By the service manual, you should always use new snap rings. And that's common sense, especially if the snap ring was mangled coming off of the gearsets. The one I removed from the old transmission was a 1.80mm main drive snap ring. I started with it and it was in clearance. The allowable clearance should be between 0.0 and 0.13mm. I went to my pile of brand new snap rings and landed on the 1.87mm. It was well within clearance, allowing up to my 0.051mm feeler to slide in


-Main input snap ring installed and seated

That was all I had time to get to last night. I should be able to get the bulk of the transmission reassembled tonight

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Man I hate f*** with snap rings.

[Hijacker]

Man I hate f**king with snap rings.

I ruined a pair of snap ring pliers I’ve had for 15 years on the idler snap during teardown. That one is my least favorite snap ring

[float_6969]

I'm generally stupid, and don't wear safety gear. But the first time I almost lost an eye to a snap ring (it hit me at the bottom of my eyebrow), I swore I'd never mess with them again without glasses on.

Maybe they make them, but I've NEVER had a pair of snap-ring pliers I thought was good. They all seem like cheap garbage.

[Hijacker]

I'm generally stupid, and don't wear safety gear. But the first time I almost lost an eye to a snap ring (it hit me at the bottom of my eyebrow), I swore I'd never mess with them again without glasses on.

Maybe they make them, but I've NEVER had a pair of snap-ring pliers I thought was good. They all seem like cheap garbage.

I don't think a quality set exist anywhere. I may have to start wearing glasses when I'm f*** with them from here on out. I had a few fly out of the pliers but thankfully never went near my face








-I borrowed a vacuum blaster from a friend of mine and got about to blasting the casing with 80 grit bead. Definitely a far sight better than the steel brush and purple power! I taped up every possible avenue the bead could get into the case with Gorilla Tape. That way I don't have to go back and try to clean out beads and dust from the interior of the case

I also started reassembling the transmission, but ran into a work stoppage I'll discuss at the bottom of this post


-I got a fresh tub of assemblee goo. This is basically the engine assembly lube of transmissions. It'll help keep the bearings lubed for their first start and it dissolves into gear oil without problem. For the first couple hundred of miles, I plan on using some basic gear oil for break in and then swapping to a better GL-4 fluid. So this stuff will get flushed out pretty quick




-First step was to press the center bearings into the sandwich plate. Pretty straight forward. I added some blue loctite to the bearing support plate bolts before torquing them to spec in addition to their double stakes


-Then I started the assembling of the main shaft. First up is putting on second gear by starting with its needle bearing. A healthy coat of assembly lube goes on first


-Then the gear, baulk ring, and synchro hub slide on next






-When assembling the synchro hub for the ones used with dual cone baulk rings, a small metal spring clip is placed in between the engagement teeth. There are only three places the springs can go in. At three points on the shift sleeve, there are two teeth that are skinnier than the rest. The spring clips in between them. The spring will have more difficulty staying in place between two of the fatter teeth. The springs, called shift inserts, ride on flats built into the baulk rings to keep the baulk rings within a few degrees of the synchro hub


-There's a grooved edge on the shift sleeve that faces towards the dual cone synchro on both second and third gear. The service manual for the S14 shows the incorrect profile for the 3/4 shift sleeve, so I based this off observation of other S14 DET rebuilds




-First gear went on next. The locator ball for its thrust washer is held in by some assemblee goo as is the thrust washer. There are two dots on the washer that face towards the thrust surface of first gear. The service manual calls for multipurpose grease, but the assembly lube does the same job. This area will eventually get washed out by gear oil


-Pressing the gear stack into the center carrier can be tricky. I noticed that the thrust washer for first didn't like to stay adhered to first and would fall out of place. To remedy that, I held it in place with my fingers while I pressed the stack in and removed my fingers once the stack got close to the plate. The secret is not to jostle the whole assembly


-Next to press in was the counter shaft


-And then third gear was assembled onto the stack


-I also pressed the synchro hub onto third. I found it best to do this assembly with just the hub and leave the shift sleeve off until after it was back on the bench




-The 3/4 shift sleeve spacer has a taper to it. I pointed the taper so the wider end was against the shift hub (as this matched up with the wear pattern on the spacer) and then installed a new select fit snap ring




-As you can see, the groove still aims towards the dual cone synchro


-I installed the woodruff keys on the counter shaft and pressed on the 4th gear set together. Don't forget the pocket bearing! The assembly lube is good at holding it in the input shaft pocket while assembling






-The sub gear, belleville spring, and spacer go on the end of the countershaft. The belleville spring needs to be turned so it's outer edge is pressing the sub gear and the inner edge is pressing the spacer. Another select fit washer goes in place to hold it all together


-The counter shaft front bearing installed. I used a socket as a drift with a deadblow mallet and tapped it into place

[Hijacker]

Moving on to the rear side components


-My most hated snap ring holds the reverse idle gear. Thankfully it's not a select fit


-To install the reverse bearing bushing, I ended up using the straight vacuum attachment for my shop vac. It had the right diameter to seat against the thrust surface and I wasn't worried about it scratching up the bushing surface.


-The rest of reverse installed






-Assembling the 5/R synchro hub (which is the same style of synchro hub as the SR DE and the KA's 3/4 synchro hub). This is easier for me to do in my hand, but the steps are to set up the sleeve and hub. I check the engagement for which orientation has the least amount of play and then drop the shift inserts into their channels. The hump on the insert goes towards the shift sleeve




-Then I take the retaining spring and hook the angled end against the edge of one of the inserts and then work the spring in behind the other two. Then I carefully flip it over


-Once flipped over, I hook and loop the other retaining spring, but I make sure the open ends of the springs are between two different sets of inserts. The manual will show the open ends lined up the same, but it's best practice to stagger the open ends to ensure the inserts have proper pressure applied to them and prevent one from accidentally being able to unset from a spring




-5/R synchro hub installed. The flat side of the shift sleeve goes towards reverse


-Next, I installed the fifth gear bearing bushing. I found my jack handle was the right ID to press against the edge of the bushing and tap it into place


-Then I installed fifth gear. I originally installed the needle bearings with assemblee goo, but I found that this style of needle likes to squeeze the lube out towards the baulk ring and it was causing the assembly lube to get into the synchro cone and bind up fifth gear making it hard to turn by hand. I ended up using gear oil to lube it up

And now's where I ended up with my work stoppage

So, Nissan changed the overdrive thrust washer design for transmissions built between Oct '93 and Nov '93. Guess which month this transmission was built?


-If you guessed November, you're a winner!

So what does that mean? The transmissions built in this time frame used the older, thicker thrust washer used in the 80s era of the FS571B transmissions. The 71C used in the late 80s had been swapped to the roller bearing style of thrust washer. I had already ordered all of the parts to convert the thrust washer to the roller bearing, but I didn't anticipate one thing:


-The bearing and its spacer ride on the fifth gear bearing bushing. So when I put the washer on, it was obviously not centered as expected. Centering it on the gear end showed it lining up perfectly with the OD of the bushing


-In retrospect, I should have noticed the ID of the spacer and bearing were larger than the thrust washer


-I went back to the S14 teardown video I found on youtube and did a frame by frame of the back side gears. At this point of the screen grab, the guy had removed the thrust washer and bearing, and you can clearly see the fifth gear bushing sticking out from under fifth gear.

I went to Amayama and pulled the part numbers. From '88 until Oct '93 and from Nov '93 and up, the part number used was 32349-V5002. Between Oct '93 and Nov '93, the part used was 32349-E9800. This time frame is also reflected in the thrust washer part numbers. The needle bearings and the fifth gear set itself have revisions that don't line up with this weird one month period, so I should be safe to order just the bushing and install it for the roller thrust setup

Thankfully, Nissan NA still carries V5002, so I don't have to order it from overseas. I've already ordered the bushing and my parts counter says it'll be middle to late this week before it comes in

I've already pulled the fifth gear bushing back off and am just sitting on standby for the new bushing to get here

[float_6969]

2 friggin' months. What a PITA. I'm planning on re-rebuilding my CA transmission (I paid to have it rebuilt years ago, but 4th gear makes a terrible racket on decel). I was planning on upgrading it to an S14 DET transmission while I did it. I'll have to make sure I avoid that time period when I'm looking for a donor transmission.

[Hijacker]

2 friggin' months. What a PITA. I'm planning on re-rebuilding my CA transmission (I paid to have it rebuilt years ago, but 4th gear makes a terrible racket on decel). I was planning on upgrading it to an S14 DET transmission while I did it. I'll have to make sure I avoid that time period when I'm looking for a donor transmission.

The likeliness of getting that tiny window of a transmission should be pretty low. My luck is just like that In the grand scheme, I could have just put the old thrust washer back on, but I'm being crazy OCD about it right now

[float_6969]

As you should be. You've put this much effort into it, why skimp on anything. I suspect the re-use of a bearing or shim is why mine makes noise. It was fine right after the rebuild, but after a few years, it started making noise and now it's terrible.

[Hijacker]

As you should be. You've put this much effort into it, why skimp on anything. I suspect the re-use of a bearing or shim is why mine makes noise. It was fine right after the rebuild, but after a few years, it started making noise and now it's terrible.

I got some questions for you. DM incoming

The new tailshaft bushing from Omega Machine & Tool came in. It's a phosphor bronze bushing, so it should wear better than the original steel bushing. This thing needs an oil supply from the oil gutter system to stay lubricated. The oil gutter scavenges oil slung from first gear on the mainshaft. The oil then rides down a chute towards the end of the tailshaft and exits inside the bushing through an oiling hole




-Nissan doesn't sell just the bushing as it's considered part of the transmission case and would require purchasing the entire extension housing to replace. However, aftermarket companies began making replacement bushings. The only company I could find that had stock on bushings was Omega Machine & Tool.




-The old one was pretty seized in place. I had to mangle and destroy it pretty hard core to get it to let loose from the extensions housing. I had to take some of my big roll punches and work the exposed lips at the oil return holes to get it to move. I wasn't trying to keep it in one piece as it was pretty thoroughly trashed to begin with. It looks like it was ran on low oil at some point




-New bushing was tapped into place and then finished on the press. The factory unit has a V notch to line up the bottom and make sure the oiling hole lines up, but the Omega unit didn't. I made sure it was lined up and also supported the oil gutter end properly

[PapaSmurf2k3]

yeah that old one looked gnarly as hell. Good call replacing it.

[Hijacker]

yeah that old one looked gnarly as hell. Good call replacing it.

Yeah. I waffled on replacing it. I'm glad I ultimately did








-The new OD bushing arrived! It measures 4mm longer than the one that came on the transmission (34mm vs 38mm). As you can see it pokes out just enough for both the spacer and roller bearing to ride on it








-OD bushing pressed on and the thrust washer setup installed


-The counter gear gets a roller bearing rather than a ball bearing for the DET. I packed the rollers with assembly lube




-The new lock nuts torqued and staked. To torque the main shaft lock nut, I used a 38mm adapter for an inner tie rod tool






-Oil gutter installed. I found it best to shrink the barrel a little and then press it in with a ratchet extension. Then swell the back side so it doesn't come back out


-The last main shaft bearing and speedo gear mounted with brand new snap rings


-All of the shift forks installed




-RTV applied and snugged up waiting for the RTV to partially cure before final torque


-The front snap ring installed and measured the counter shaft bearing for shimming


-The FSM has you measure from the front surface of the bearing to the surface of the bellhousing to determine what size shim you need. The "Happy zone" is 4.52mm to 4.71mm, and each shim is set up to get you between 4.52 to 4.61. I took four measurements and got an average of 4.37mm. The shim I removed miked between 0.25 and 0.3mm. I felt comfortable enough to run it knowing that I would be on average between 4.62 and 4.67mm in spacing. The shim is designed to limit countershaft walking and being out of spec can lead to premature wear on the main drive gear set




-Front oil seal packed and installed and the front cover torqued into place with a new gasket






-The transmission reassembled! New switches installed, new GKTech shifter return springs installed, all hardware was freshly plated, and any iron component was painted with high temp paint to protect it.

The last thing to do will be to take my factory shifter off my S13 transmission and install it to this transmission when I swap it. I also need to install the new Nismo transmission mount


-Before assembling the shifter forks, I took a video of testing each gear being cycled

[float_6969]

Looks awesome man. I'm actually excited to get into mine now.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Someone somewhere at some time will find this thread and be super thankful.

[m tr4nch]

glad you're still making progress on this thing! great work man! looking suuuper clean
that is awesome that you're doing your own zinc plating, everything looks like it's coming out really well.

[Hijacker]

Looks awesome man. I'm actually excited to get into mine now.

I can't wait! I'm actually itching to crack open another transmission now. LOL

Someone somewhere at some time will find this thread and be super thankful.

One of the reasons I document so heavily is for other people to get inspiration and information. Photobucket screwed up a generation of information and made my research more time consuming. I've been doing a lot of research on the factory install methods for the K's Aero parts so I can finally do the mock up on the DorkiDori reps I've had sitting around for forever. m tr4nch was cool enough to make up the brackets for the sideskirts for me like 5-6 years ago, but I've never checked out how they secure in the fender well until now. I've got some parts on the way from Nissan so I can start bolting the skirts and valances on for mock up. I'll likely have some paint mixed up for when the weather turns this spring and paint them so I can mount them

glad you're still making progress on this thing! great work man! looking suuuper clean
that is awesome that you're doing your own zinc plating, everything looks like it's coming out really well.

Thanks! The zinc plating has been an absolute blast to do and it's opened up an entire avenue of restoration. I was cleaning up the power steering pump and now I'm thinking of plating its bracket and hardware since they're a bit grime stained

[Hijacker]

I took advantage of the holiday time off to go swap transmissions. I want to break in the S14 transmission on my S13 SR. I'm STILL waiting on the machine shop to finish the head (this shop is just dirt a** slow), so while I wait I can get the transmission through a break in period attached to a known good motor. Then when I swap the motor, I can break it in on a known good transmission. It's fool proof!




-The old S13 transmission came out pretty easily. It's seen cleaner days for sure. This is the first time in 21 years the transmission's been out of the car






-I really did not like that Megan Racing short shifter, so I pulled the factory shift plate off the S13 transmission, disassembled it, taped it up, and then hit it with the bead blaster. I put the new shifter cup in it as well since it was already apart. Not pictured was a GKTech bronze shifter bushing. I wanted to remove as much slop as possible from the factory unit

Putting the transmission back in was much more difficult than I remember doing on these cars. Normally, I would loosen the engine mounts and then jack the nose of the motor up to get the angle to clear the transmission tunnel bump outs, but I could NOT get that clearance and was always like a half inch off from getting the transmission in place. I ended up lowering the front crossmember and having to pry the motor forward with a block of wood to get the clearance necessary to shove the transmission in place

Then tragedy struck


-I got the transmission in place and I was able to get some lower bolts started but the upper bolts felt like they were a mile away from starting. Then I found out why: the locating dowel on the S14 had popped out with the transmission and I didn't mentally pick up on that. So when putting the S14 transmission in, the locating dowel butted up to the one on the S13 block. Back out came the motor. I tried to remove the dowel without a total removal, but it was stuck in from all of the pressing that I put it under from the bellhouse bolt tightening


-I ended up having to drill it out. I miked the diameter of the hole and compared it to the good one to make sure I hadn't opened it up too much. Both holes are 4.0mm +/-0.2. The good hole is about 15mm deep and I drilled this one down to about 10mm. The dowel in the block sticks out about 5-8mm, so I knew I had plenty of room. I also managed to retain the chamfered edge of the hole


-Back in she went, and this time much easier. I got everything reinstalled and torqued back down to spec. The slave cylinder is leaking a little, so I'll need to swap it for my new unit and order a rebuild kit for the old one


-If you remember from way back when I bought the S14 setup 10 years ago, the seller threw in a no namebrand steel one piece driveshaft for an S13. I think this is an old ISR driveshaft. It has spicer yolks and universals, so I'm gonna run it. I put it up in the tunnel and then put the old center carrier housing back in just to have bolts fill the holes and act as a safety catch

Finding GL4 transmission fluids is getting tough. In the box stores, I was able to find a Valvoline brand GL4, but it didn't list what weight it was. A user on Bob Is the Oil Guy had said they reached out to Valvoline back in 2013 and was told it was equivalent to 75W-90. I'm only running this during break in and will swap for Redline MT-90 or Royal Purple Max Gear. I could run GL5 but I'm gonna run GL4 if I can get it. The thing with GL5 is that it has some sulfur content to withstand the higher pressures and according to Paul Cangliosi who spoke with industry SMEs, the sulfur content can attack the brass of synchro rings IF the oil starts to boil off (click the link for what he says about GL5 oils) but all it does is tarnish the rings and doesn't decrease their performance. Now he doesn't go on to talk about life expectancy of the baulk ring, but I would imagine that if the metal's been tarnished that it would have an impact on its ultimate life expectancy, but I would think that aggressive driving would do far more damage than a little surface tarnish

So how does it drive? Pretty darned well. The shifts are smooth as expected with as many parts were replaced, but reverse confuses me. I'm used the S13's engagement style. You can feel it chunk into gear as it engages reverse. The S14 is constant mesh with a synchro, so I'm never quite certain if I'm in gear until I let out the clutch. Reverse is definitely quieter with the S14 setup than it was with the S13. The new GKtech shifter springs and bronze bushing really make the factory shifter feel a lot more direct. And in fairness, I've always loved the feel of the factory shifter, so it just feels better™

The next couple of projects I have will be to get the DorkiDori aero parts out of my garage loft and build the S14 SR20. I want to get the aero parts fitted so I can prep them for paint in the spring time. And obviously I'm at the mercy of my machine shop's speed for the engine

[PapaSmurf2k3]

What DorkiDori parts do you have again?
Congrats on the good result with the trans!

[Hijacker]

What DorkiDori parts do you have again?
Congrats on the good result with the transmission!

His V1 aero bumper, V1 sideskirts, and V1 coupe valences







m tr4nch made some skirt brackets for me eons ago. I had taken some measurements of the rockers for the upper bracket and sent him a spare lower bracket someone had donated to me




-The factory mounting methods for the skirt are shown in this FAST image. The last thing I needed to sort was the rear retainer. Thankfully, splintercell was able to send me images of how the skirt is held on his Qs





-This is the S14 equivalent to that U nut bracket. These aren't my images, I shamelessly grabbed them from another site. I do weirdly enough have one sitting in my bolt bin (from where I got it I do not know but probably whoever sent me the skirt bottom brackets)

The last thing to sort was the valance hardware. I did a bit of asking around on the S-chassis facebook group and between people saying "just put a screw in it dip sh1t", I did get some confirmation that factory uses a plastic grommet installed in the factory bumper cover rather than just tossing a screw in it and hoping it doesn't pull out the thin plastic of the cover. I've already got some screws and grommets from Nissan, so it'll just be a matter of marking the bumper cover, and shaping a hole to put the grommet into

I've had the DD stuff lying around for years. That bumper was from his pre-order run. It's really good quality