Screwed up easiest diy! (tranny fluid...removed wrong "fill plug"/car now disabled)
09-23-2013, 01:28 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Screwed up easiest diy! (tranny fluid...removed wrong "fill plug"/car now disabled)
Crap, totally screwed up my first gt3 diy. I've changed the tranny fluid in my turbo a couple times, so easy almost impossible to screw up. Well, I screwed up this time, badly.
So I go to remove the fill plug on the side of the tranny and notice its completely stripped. As in completely. With no space to drill it out, I end of using a dremel to create a notch, insert flat blade screw driver in the notch, apply some "freeze off" and after several hours the plug, or what I think is the plug, is out. I pull it off and it looks funny, as it has a little rod on the end of it that sticks into the tranny, but I didn't think much about it. I drain and fill with my hand pump, and all goes well except the tranny took 6 liters! "Wow, that's alot" I think, since I recall my turbo taking a lot less, but I chalk it up to the awesome "gt" series tranny!
Later I change the oil, add my cup lip, change the plugs and get the car back on the ground. I start her up and Ruh Roh...shifter totally floppy!!! I can select all the gears (with a little crunching and extra effort), but there is absolutely no tension or "spring" side to side, so the shifter will not "spring back" or center in nuetral...just flops to the side unless in gear. So I Pull the center console, remove the shifter assembly looking for broken/disconnected bushings and cables, but all is well. Get back under car and the cables are firmly seated in the ball joints and all is clipped in. About that time I start thinking about things and realize I pulled the wrong bolt, and that the fill plug is on the other side of the tranny!!!!
So what the heck did I remove? Turns out I removed a screwe that is attached to a compression spring and some sort of little ball (according the PET catalog). Obviosly, this assembly interacts with the shift lever that controls side to side movement of the shifter.
Has this ever happened to anyone? Anyway to repair without dropping tranny and opening it up? I realized this last night at 3:00 am so I haven't had a chance to get back under the car. I'm hoping that the spring and ball are not lost in the bowels of the box.
I think I'll be calling Matt at Guard! Maybe I'll be doing that LSD upgrade/lwfw/clutch sooner than I thought. Crap! Any advice would be great. Scott.
So I go to remove the fill plug on the side of the tranny and notice its completely stripped. As in completely. With no space to drill it out, I end of using a dremel to create a notch, insert flat blade screw driver in the notch, apply some "freeze off" and after several hours the plug, or what I think is the plug, is out. I pull it off and it looks funny, as it has a little rod on the end of it that sticks into the tranny, but I didn't think much about it. I drain and fill with my hand pump, and all goes well except the tranny took 6 liters! "Wow, that's alot" I think, since I recall my turbo taking a lot less, but I chalk it up to the awesome "gt" series tranny!
Later I change the oil, add my cup lip, change the plugs and get the car back on the ground. I start her up and Ruh Roh...shifter totally floppy!!! I can select all the gears (with a little crunching and extra effort), but there is absolutely no tension or "spring" side to side, so the shifter will not "spring back" or center in nuetral...just flops to the side unless in gear. So I Pull the center console, remove the shifter assembly looking for broken/disconnected bushings and cables, but all is well. Get back under car and the cables are firmly seated in the ball joints and all is clipped in. About that time I start thinking about things and realize I pulled the wrong bolt, and that the fill plug is on the other side of the tranny!!!!
So what the heck did I remove? Turns out I removed a screwe that is attached to a compression spring and some sort of little ball (according the PET catalog). Obviosly, this assembly interacts with the shift lever that controls side to side movement of the shifter.
Has this ever happened to anyone? Anyway to repair without dropping tranny and opening it up? I realized this last night at 3:00 am so I haven't had a chance to get back under the car. I'm hoping that the spring and ball are not lost in the bowels of the box.
I think I'll be calling Matt at Guard! Maybe I'll be doing that LSD upgrade/lwfw/clutch sooner than I thought. Crap! Any advice would be great. Scott.
09-23-2013, 03:23 PM
#3
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Just got off phone with a couple folks. Tranny most likely has to come out (small chance of re-aligning fork and shift linkage parts, but not likely). Probably no damage to anything else since I did not move the car, but won't know for sure until tranny is split. Oh well, at least I was planning to do the lwfw/clutch/RMS anyway. Praying no damage to sychros when I was working the gear lever trying to figure out what was going on. I hate it when I do stuff like this!
So, word of warning...make sure you are removing the fill plug...stay away from the passenger side of the tranny because that bolt looks an awful lot like the fill plug!
So, word of warning...make sure you are removing the fill plug...stay away from the passenger side of the tranny because that bolt looks an awful lot like the fill plug!