More transmission woes, what would you do?

[Clawhammer]

So a couple weeks ago I got the bolts fixed on my tanny, and got the new front bearing cover in and such. New ACT 6 puck, etc. A good like 900$ at the transmission shop. Since then it's still made this slight rattling which after reading around I thought it was my B&M shorty, but then it started getting worse.

As I coast through 2800-2300 RPM it starts making this terrible rattling-griding noise. Perfect above and below though.

Took it back to the shop and they diagnosed it as the roller bearing on the input shaft. They're not going to charge me for removing the transmission again because they just did. They saw the broken bearing retainer and figured that was the prob. So now...

Do I want to spend hundreds of dollars to fix this problem? Or just drive this thing till it explodes and then swap the bellhousing on a KA transmission and throw that in? I can buy KA transmission's in tampa for 50-100 bucks all day long.

What would you do? How bad could this actually be? Is it possible I could drive on this thing for years without catastrophic failure or should I get this fixed ASAP?

[motoman399]

mine does the exact same thing. i thought it was the exhaust or my rear end but it happened right when i put my 5 speed in. lol so i narrowed it down to that haha. anyways i have been driving mine for about 5000 miles now and no problems. i think im changing it out today though.

[Hijacker]

Personally, I would just swap a KA gearbox in and leave it at that. You've spent more money on that trans than I would have.

What exactly on the SR trans have you replaced? Depending on that, I would consider trying to save the SR trans.

[Clawhammer]

I've only put a new front bearing cover in. I knew I needed a new clutch and to resurface my flywheel so I had them done at the same time.

Anyway it's been 3 months and it hasn't blown up yet. I'm probably picking up a KA transmission for 60 bucks this weekend to keep on hand for if and when it does go.

[Hijacker]

Aw geez! I didn't even check the time stamps of the original post.

Good plan on picking up the back trans. You may as well go ahead and get that one rebuilt with all new bearings and whatnot to avoid potential problems in the future.

I remember you having issues with cracked front trans covers in the past, and I think I remember someone mentioning a bad input shaft bearing could lead to some wobbleyness in the input, which could break the neck.