1999 Z24 5-speed manual...
For a couple of weeks, occasionally my left wheel would make a popping noise and jerk slightly when I was in a gradual left curve between 10-40 mph. I went in, got a sticker and had them check everything out, they said it all looked good. I assumed it to be the steering rack.
Well Friday something let go. It started popping and shaking violently whenever my wheel was turned at all-in either direction. The engine would rev up, but the car wouldn't accelerate-like the tranny was slipping-but then it would engage with a loud pop and take off for a second only to slip again and catch again and so on. It would only do this when I was turning and accelerating; perfectly normal going straight. Well, It started doing it leaving my driveway so I went around the block and put it in the garage.
Saturday morning, we dropped the tranny. CV's are all perfect. Split the tranny case just enough to see the magnet in the bottom, and found a bunch of metal shards and teeth. Tranny is going in tomorrow to see if it can be rebuilt.
I guess my question is this...Has anyone had their tranny/dif rebuilt? How much did it cost? These transmissions are impossible to find, the junkyards around here all told me good luck, and when they do have them they get $650 w/ no warranty.
Anyone ever have this problem?
Isuzu trannys are noted for their week spider gears. Mine went 'bout the same way. Someone somewhere here sells hardened gears. I didn't have the time or resources to rebuid, so I traded in for a new one. A rebuild with the hardened gears should last a LOT longer.
Nicholas Morgan wrote:Anyone ever have this problem?
I did, new transmission, differential, and clutch, installed for $2000. Full warranty, new parts
Just the transmission is $2000 around here. I can't see putting in a new $2000 transmission if it is only going to last me another 80K miles.
Anyone know where I can find the hardened spider gears? I will here back from the tranny shop by the end of the week if it can be rebuilt or not. I would rather swap in stronger parts.
Had the spider gears shred themselves last year in my '99 Z. Cost me $700 to get the spider gears and clutch replaced.
Jackass, did you drop the tranny yourself, or did that price include dropping it?
Does anyone know where I can get the Japanese spec isuzu spiders? They are machined instead of the cast junk that is in the US spec tranny.
Thanks for the help everyone.
If the gear shrapnel got in the rest of the tranny, damage is done all around. Probably in for a new tranny. I think mine lasted ~150K miles, about 8 years. I ran mine hard, but was smooth in clutch action. I had a lot of wheel hop, which is where the main damage was most likely done in mine. Hop mostly gone with upgraded engine mounts; top of #1 cylinder and torque rod.
They did it all...it does help that my neighbor used to work for the tranny shop.
However, even without his connections it shouldn't have gone too much over $1000 for what they did. The shop towed my car, pulled the tranny, verified no gears other than the spider gears were toast, replaced my clutch, and put it back in. The hardest part of all was them locating replacement spider gears. It took them almost 3 weeks to find some. Every supplier they called told them they don't exist and they will have to buy an entire differential unit instead.
However, if you did manage to trash the other gears and need a full rebuild, expect to spend at least $2k at a shop. As for where to get the machined gears...I think it is the '91-'93 Storm/Impulse GSi. Search the tranny forum and you will find the exact details.
Also, I think the reason I didn't damage the rest of the gears is because my car only went about 500 feet when the broke. I was about 1 mile from my house, pulled out of a restaurant, made some funny noises and was driving funny so I just parked it and walked home.
Once it let go, I only drove around the block and into my garage. The tranny is at the shop now, they are going to open it up tomorrow to let me know how it is. They seemed to be optimistic about just replacing the spider gears.
I can't believe this thing only went 80k, I don't even drive it that hard. I'm not sure about blowing too much money on replacing it with another POS tranny that can't handle the stock HP.
Thanks for the help, guys. I will keep you posted.
You drove it for a couple of weeks once it let go. That is what the popping noise was and the jerking. The gears were already broken and binding up on each other.
It isn't the HP that breaks the gears anyways. It is spinning tires and wheel hop that destroys them. They are a weak design in general that GM should have never used....then again, I figure mine gave me 120k miles and 7 years so I can't be too upset. It was the first major maint that ever was done on my car.
Damn Kevin this thread is almost 2 years old. Hahahahaha
Nuthing like digging up old bones I guess!
He e-mailed me with a response, though.
He says that he ended up doing the Geo Storm Spider gear swap...
Quote:
The shop couldn't do anything for me. The best they could reccomend was $1500-parts only- to get a reman tranny from the dealer.
I ended up getting a tranny from an SOHC Geo Storm, and I swapped out the spiders. I don't know how much you know about these trannys, but the Geo used virtually the same isuzu tranny as the Chevy & Pontiacs. However, the geo spec tranny uses machined, hardened spiders in the diff, where the "american" spec uses crap stamped metal. If I would have bought the reman tranny, I'd have the same crap that I started with. However, the bolt patterns on the bell housings are different, so you can't simply swap the tranny. Also, the diff in the geo has a different speed sensor ring, so you have to remove the diff and swap out just the spiders, not just swap out the diffs.
Anyways, I got the complete geo tranny for $250; it took me a weekend to drop my tranny, tear each of the two down, and swap out the spiders. Of course, I put a new clutch kit in at the same time. I ended up driving the care for another year/ 20,000 miles, then decided to buy a G6 GT. I let a friend borrow the Z24 for a while, then I sold it for $3,000. The car drove excellent after my swap, and to the best of my knowledge is still a daily driver today.
The tear down/rebuild was not easy; at one point, a number of small pins that lock/unlock the ability of the shifting forks to slide, fell out of the shafts and onto my work bench. It took me a few hours to realize that one of the pins was slightly longer, and had to be in the correct location in order for everything to slide properly.
Never-the-less, I completed the project in my garage in a weekend with a "what do I have to lose" attitude.
I eventually posted a few more times on other members' posts about this topic, if you keep searching you should find those too.
-NickThe shop couldn't do anything for me. The best they could reccomend was $1500-parts only- to get a reman tranny from the dealer.
I ended up getting a tranny from an SOHC Geo Storm, and I swapped out the spiders. I don't know how much you know about these trannys, but the Geo used virtually the same isuzu tranny as the Chevy & Pontiacs. However, the geo spec tranny uses machined, hardened spiders in the diff, where the "american" spec uses crap stamped metal. If I would have bought the reman tranny, I'd have the same crap that I started with. However, the bolt patterns on the bell housings are different, so you can't simply swap the tranny. Also, the diff in the geo has a different speed sensor ring, so you have to remove the diff and swap out just the spiders, not just swap out the diffs.
Anyways, I got the complete geo tranny for $250; it took me a weekend to drop my tranny, tear each of the two down, and swap out the spiders. Of course, I put a new clutch kit in at the same time. I ended up driving the care for another year/ 20,000 miles, then decided to buy a G6 GT. I let a friend borrow the Z24 for a while, then I sold it for $3,000. The car drove excellent after my swap, and to the best of my knowledge is still a daily driver today.
The tear down/rebuild was not easy; at one point, a number of small pins that lock/unlock the ability of the shifting forks to slide, fell out of the shafts and onto my work bench. It took me a few hours to realize that one of the pins was slightly longer, and had to be in the correct location in order for everything to slide properly.
Never-the-less, I completed the project in my garage in a weekend with a "what do I have to lose" attitude.
I eventually posted a few more times on other members' posts about this topic, if you keep searching you should find those too.
-Nick
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, April 08, 2008 6:49 PM
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Sorry to bring this back to life again...
But I've been having almost the same problem for a while now.
Back in last October I had to have a new motor put in.
Every thing went fine till about February, when I had to floor it in 2nd to avoid getting side swiped by a dump truck,
Something made a loud POP under the hood(drivers side) and it was fine after that for a while...
about 3 weeks later I started having a 'popping' sound, when the clutch slipped(or I thought/think).
this last weekend I changed the spark plugs, got new plug wires, got a new battery, did the "big 3" and the motor runs better than it ever has.
But.. I'm having this problem;
"...The engine would rev up, but the car wouldn't accelerate-like the tranny was slipping-but then it would engage with a loud pop and take off for a second only to slip again and catch again and so on..."
But for me it does it every so often between 1st and 3rd gear.(not just turning like his did)
Its not a every time thing, but it does it quite often enough to keep me on my toes to pop the clutch and let it out again till it stops.
Am I having the same issue here?
Its a 1998 2200 5-speed cavalier, the car has over 140,*** miles on it, the motor has around 13,*** miles.
or do I just have a worn out clutch?
..what does a "slipping" clutch sound like?
I know when I got the motor swapped, they said the clutch had about 50% left on it.
Its been almost 8 months since I had the swap, and for about 2 months I had to learn how to drive a manual(first time..)
<img src="http://www.majhost.com/gallery/HCAJosh/crap/shooshined.jpg">
- putting the pieces back together -