Hey guys and gals, new S owner here. I bought my S (knowingly) with a broken tail shaft bearing and now is the time to fix it. After reading other threads I've decided to replace all of the secondary shaft bearings since all of the necessary parts are only an additional $70. I've purchased the parts and the labor will be about $300-$400 from my local guy - what else should I replace while we're in there? Anything for preventative maintenance so I can get two birds with one stone and avoid needing to crack it open again until a clutch replacement?

Thanks!

 

Bearings, and seals as far as I know. If the gearsets and synchros are in good shape leave them alone.

 

Of course, do a complete clutch job.

 

The secondary shaft bearing job does not require removal of the tranny FYI, which is why your labor charges aren't TERRIBLY high. (More of an FYI for others posting in this thread.) Remove shifter, remove 4 lower shifter housing bolts from under car, remove driveshaft to tranny bolts, remove companion flange nut, and then remove the tranny mount bolts. This will drop the tail end down enough to remove the secondary shaft and housing. Then you can use a press to replace the necessary bearings. I would reuse the shim that came with the tranny as a starting point, but there are a few sizes of shims you may want to purchase just to make sure you have the proper lash on the gears. Good luck!

 

Do you think this is something that can be done at home with standard tools other than the press? I turn my own wrenches for most items but wanted to leave the tranny work to the pros. That labor charge is under the table - at a normal shop my quote was $600-$1,100.

This is new info - I'm putting the job on hold now till I learn more about this and if I might be able to save a few hundred dollars.

 

Yes, for the most part its simple hand tools that are required. The only part you'll need to do anything special about is the companion flange nut which is a 36mm nut. A good size impact gun will buzz it off just fine, and it can be reinstalled the same way, just line the stake marks back up and you'll be fine. You definitely need a press and a bearing separator to do the actual bearing replacement on the secondary shaft assembly once its removed from the transmission. The outer races that are left in the tranny are a slip fit and can be pulled out with your bare hands.

Lets put it this way, I had someone dump their fluid once due to an undertorqued drain plug on the transmission. The secondary shaft bearings are the first to be starved of oil because they are fed by the oil pump so they were howelling really bad. I had a spare secondary shaft assembly so I was able to swap it over for them on site, fill the fluid back up and they were able to get home. Took approximately 30 minutes to swap them over.

 

This is amazing! Would you happen to know any guides I can refer to for this extremely specific job? I can get it done myself this weekend if this is the case.

 

I'm not sure if there are any DIY's on here, a simple search will yield you results. A Factory Service Manual will tell you how to go about removing the gears and bearings and how to replace them. Dropping the secondary shaft really is cake though. I pretty much walked you through every step of disassembly in my post above. I can only hold your hand so much before it gets....weird....

 

Ha! Well thanks very much for your time in sending it. I will try to piece together a DIY. Thanks!