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Installing a 5-Speed the Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish Way (which is to say, I'm an idiot)

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Epilogue

As it has been well-demonstrated, I'm an idiot. The little tick-tick-tick sound was due to my forgetting to remove the band around the guibo. Unfortunately, the low dull rumbling appears to be due to my not having smacked the transmission tunnel with the hammer in exactly the right spot. The slave cylinder is just touching the body. I'm not going to drop the box just so I can smack it; I'm hoping that I can either get a pry bar in there and lever the sheet metal over a little bit (of course I'l
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

First Test-Drive

Not bad. The first thing to check for is... is the transmission I bought and just spent successive nights and weekends installing a piece of junk? Does it spontaneously lock up, as one Getrag 245 did to me? Does it make rumbling grinding sounds? Does it shift smoothly through all gears? Aside from a very slight catch on second gear, this one feels fine. Next... does the clutch work okay? I try and suss this out as much as I can, as soon as the transmission is installed, before I bolt up the dr
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

2

More Taunting From The Guibo / Driveshaft Alignment From Hell -- The Face Of The Guibo May Not Be Flat

The longer T-slot bolts arrived, and allowed me to stack four washers (0.26") above the center support bearing and still put a big washer and lock washer underneath the nut to make sure it stayed tight. With the long bolts and the washers allowing me to adjust the CSB down, and with the holes in the CSB elongated to the point that the right side of the CSB is literally against the body of the car, the guibo and driveshaft flange align fairly well. I had one eye-opening experience when I lay ben
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

3

The Driveshaft / Guibo Alignment From Hell (Or, It Just Doesn't Matter...)

It's ironic, but the guibo -- also called a "flex disc" -- isn't really built to withstand a whole hell of a lot of flexing. It's built to withstand short-duration flexing, like when the car hits a bump and the engine rocks on its mounts. But it's not a universal joint. It's not designed to run in a flexed position. It's designed so that the back of the guibo should be perfectly parallel -- and flush -- with the front of the driveshaft flange. If it's not parallel -- if, say, the back of the tra
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

6

In And Out

Yeah, 55 years old, and I still have the mind of an 8th grader. If you're doing a 5-speed swap, you probably don't need me to tell you how to remove and install a transmission, but there are a few tricks. Removal is simple enough. The Getrag 232 4-speed is small and light enough that you can just basically guide it onto your chest. On installation, however, the 245 is heavier. I never had luck with simply man-handling it into position. You can try to maneuver the trani into place with a floor
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

Thoughts On The Rear Support Bracket And The Driveshaft

Below are my opinionated but hopefully useful thoughts on selecting a rear support bracket and shortening the driveshaft. The Rear Crossmember There are basically four ways to support the rear of the 5-speed: 1) Weld or drill-and-bolt on a new set of factory tabs, 2) drill-and-bolt on a commercially-available rear brace, 3) use a no-weld no-drill-and-bolt U-shaped bracket, or 4) roll your own. As per Ben Thongsai's bible (http://www.bimmers.com/02/upgrades/transmission.html), you can buy the
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

The Budget Installation

Recently, in the main forum, a poster asked the question "can you do a 5-speed installation cheaply?" This is now my fourth. In my first installation, 20 years ago, I told Jim Rowe at The Metric Mechanic to just send me everything I needed, which was the antithesis of cheap, but the other three have been performed while trying to hold the cost down. This has meant: --sourcing and installing transmissions entirely on the basis of low cost, with no provenance or guarantee --buying non-pedigreed
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

Filling The Gaps

I had the Getrag 245, the shortened shaft, the shortened shifter and platform, the long clutch line, and a long speedometer cable. I found an old U-shaped bracket I had in the parts bin, a knock-off of the 2002Haus one that I'd bought years back after I'd met Rob Torres at 2002Haus and bought the real thing. I was fortunate to find a new-in-box 323i clutch release (throwout) bearing on eBay for $40 shipped. I ordered a new clutch slave and clutch release arm. As per posts in the main forum, I o
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

And So It Begins

Actually, it began quite a while ago. I've been posting tidbits to the main forum. Last night, someone politely said "dude, this stuff really belongs in a blog instead of a new post every night." He's right. So let me rewind the tape. I've had about 25 2002s, but because I had a one-car garage for nearly 20 years, and that garage held my 3.0CSi, I was 2002-less for those 20 years. When my new garage got built in 2005, the sheetrock literally wasn't up on the wall before I started to buy 02s ag
thehackmechanic

thehackmechanic

0

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