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DIY 5EAT Transmission Rebuild


ClimberDHexMods

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another delay... the last two clutch packs appear to be held in by 3 T45 torx bolts. One of these 3 bolts requires a long (2.5" +) T45 bit. So another small tool to buy...

There is nothing in the FSM about these last 2 clutch packs. As if there was never a thought one might want to get at them. So I'm without a manual, and just making it up as I go at this point.

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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there only used for engine braking .. very low chances of them being worn..

 

I read that too after posting, and am now not sure whether to even bother. If the BW rebuild kit comes with those, then I can always rest assured I have a backup set. There is a 1sq" viewing hole to see the clutch pack. But of course I cannot tell anything from it. The car didn't have any problem with engine braking :lol:

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm getting a headache from this:

 

Good news: Trans case is completely stripped, and will go in the dishwasher soon. The outside of it is real dirty, and as I flip the case around, stuff falls off it and gets in my clean work environment. Going to start off with everything shiny and clean!

 

Bad news: I'm back to being very confused about where to get 100% definitely Borg Warner friction material. I bought a Transtar complete rebuild kit from a local Borg Warner distributor. Apparently the guy on the phone and I weren't communicating clear enough, so at the end of the day I'm not sure if the frictions in this kit are in fact manufactured by Borg Warner.

 

The supply chains of these transmission rebuilt kit companies is foggy. A company like Borg Warner does manufacturing of frictions. For the 5eat? Still don't know. Other companies also do their own manufacturing, example Raybestos. Then you have the distributors. Transtar. Some mfgrs also distribute. BUT some distributors mix and match from different manufacturers depending on the trans application, and some also have their own 'house brand.' So a company like Makco or Transtar will say they generally use Borg Warner material, but will perhaps use one of 5 other manufacturers if needed. I JUST WANT BORG WARNER FRICTIONS!!!

 

So if someone can absolutely confirm that they found a 5eat rebuild kit of any distributor name that uses Borg Warner clutches, I will paypal you a small sum of money that might not even be worth your while :lol:

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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Found one set of frictions in my Transtar kit to be marked Alto. Not sure about any of the other sets in the box

 

For those interested, Transtar kit 53004B is for the 5eat.

53004, 53004A, 53006, 53006A are for the Nissan RE5R05A variants. I think the "A" suffix is the differentiator for some pickup truck / SUV models.

 

Edit: turns out everything else was OEM.

Edited by ClimberD@HexMods
[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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Next mod later to do is to put the pistons on a brake lathe to take off some mm to put in more clutch disks:) and get smaller pressure plates??

This is what my teacher did when he was racing and had to rebuild his transmissions

 

I remember he showing me one brand of clutches, but one side was steel and the other side was clutch material, so you can put up to double the amount of clutches in set set.

 

just talking...

5eat downshift rev match:):wub:

Powder coated wheels: completed:)

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That's exactly how you do it. Machine down the pistons until you run out of slots for the steels to slide in. Perhaps use a regular steel instead of an uber thick pressure plate (though I haven't researched how risky of an idea that is yet...). The 4L60E and 6L80E and many more from GM and several from Ford and Chrysler can be beefed up to no end. We don't get such fancy aftermarket plug and play options though. There are thinner steels floating around out there for the Re5R05A, but those kinds of things are held as proprietary by companies like GTM and IPT. I would pursue the aftermarket steels avenue if I thought there would be any value in it. I have some aftermarket rebuild kit spec sheets, where I might be able to find thinner frictions/steels for Re5r05a variants. But that would probably still require machining. So there's no "easy" way to do it. And one could argue IPT does it as a means of compensating for inadequate transmission control. In reality that's the case for them as the IPT VB mod alone is not satisfactory for the high power 5eat guys. As it stands, I still have the potential to do a <$100 trans rebuild by pulling worn parts from my parts tranny. We'll see about that. I'm in no big hurry, as I have a 100% healthy trans in the car now. Only thing it doesn't have is a front LSD, so that's the big motivator for me to do this rebuild. That and to not abandon unfinished projects.
[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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bad idea using a regular steel for pressure plate, it'll bow out from the center. Im sure you know they make thinner pressure plates.

 

Link for compatible with RE5R05A? I'm sure we could get our own cut, but would rather a linky

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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Moving this discussion from 5EAT Pride thread over to here:

 

But can the stock ones be bought separately?

 

Some frictions/steels can be bought individually via Subaru, but some are only sold pre-packaged in a new drum. When you pull apart the trans you are really pulling apart assembled drums (for the most part) and then once the drums are out you can pull the snap ring, clutches and piston/spring, etc. from each to get at the good stuff. I guess Subaru doesn't want their entry-level techs playing with fragile lip seals and clutch gap tolerances, so just sell them a plug & play drum as needed.

 

http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/us_b13/type_26/automatic_transmission/

 

Anything that can be broken can be replaced.

 

Front brake, reverse brake, center diff clutches. Those 3 sets can be purchased OEM replacement without all the extra crap. But anything you might actually wear out, like the Input clutch or Direct clutch, you would want to go aftermarket. That's what I'll do, buy individual bits as needed, but not before depleting my oem reserves in that junked 5eat I bought off ebay.

Edited by ClimberD@HexMods
[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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I'm getting a headache from this:

 

Good news: Trans case is completely stripped, and will go in the dishwasher soon. The outside of it is real dirty, and as I flip the case around, stuff falls off it and gets in my clean work environment. Going to start off with everything shiny and clean!

 

Bad news: I'm back to being very confused about where to get 100% definitely Borg Warner friction material. I bought a Transtar complete rebuild kit from a local Borg Warner distributor. Apparently the guy on the phone and I weren't communicating clear enough, so at the end of the day I'm not sure if the frictions in this kit are in fact manufactured by Borg Warner.

 

The supply chains of these transmission rebuilt kit companies is foggy. A company like Borg Warner does manufacturing of frictions. For the 5eat? Still don't know. Other companies also do their own manufacturing, example Raybestos. Then you have the distributors. Transtar. Some mfgrs also distribute. BUT some distributors mix and match from different manufacturers depending on the trans application, and some also have their own 'house brand.' So a company like Makco or Transtar will say they generally use Borg Warner material, but will perhaps use one of 5 other manufacturers if needed. I JUST WANT BORG WARNER FRICTIONS!!!

 

So if someone can absolutely confirm that they found a 5eat rebuild kit of any distributor name that uses Borg Warner clutches, I will paypal you a small sum of money that might not even be worth your while :lol:

 

 

Back in the day, the parts bins were sorted by the distributer's internal part # for the friction, steel, snap ring, etc. So you could have a bin for reverse frictions for let’s say a 5EAT and it would have frictions from ALTO, BW, and Raybestos all in the same bin. When the parts were picked for assembling kits or for an individual order for a shop, the brand was supposed to be matched for the particular part. (But that wasn’t always the case due to stock, overstock, or the picker just didn't care) Then for the next part on the list, the frictions might be a different brand due to that was in stock at the time in the bin. (Or the reason mentioned above)We had some rebuild kits that were BW and Raybestos specific since some shops were loyal to certain manufacturers. I'm certain that I saw plenty of kits that had mixed BW for one clutch pack and ALTO/Raybestos for the next in the rebuild kit. Better off calling Transtar direct and finding out if they still make BW only kits. (As I said, they used to back in the late 90's but you had to ask for it. These kits were assembled by disgruntled low wage workers back then and still are now I don't doubt...)

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Subscribed as I have 4 subie eats on my bench currently in need of help. Two of which are layed up sure to worn frictions, one with a blown front diff and the last is a totaled heap with just 6k miles on its clock after getting a $3500 performance build. A read all 111 pages of the 5 eat pride thread and look durand to see ing the fruits of your labor with this endeavor. Props to your ambition and good luck!

 

Edit to trans cost. My bad.

Edited by YourConfused
Can't spell
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Who did the $4500 build, and how did it die?

 

It was built by the mastermind at ecutune. It acted sour the the first time it moved my car out of the drive way. 25 feet and I know something is wrong. The warranty consisted of ' if you break it in half you now have two halves' and it only lasted my daily driver 6k miles. Talk about pour customer service! Just work and home trips. Nothing crazy. Its internals shelled around the same time the front diff blew out. It actually let go in my work parking lot of all places. Lol

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It was built by the mastermind at ecutune. It acted sour the the first time it moved my car out of the drive way. 25 feet and I know something is wrong. The warranty consisted of ' if you break it in half you now have two halves' and it only lasted my daily driver 6k miles. Talk about pour customer service! Just work and home trips. Nothing crazy. Its internals shelled around the same time the front diff blew out. It actually let go in my work parking lot of all places. Lol

 

I guess if something did jam up the transfer gear to the front pinion, the front diff could break to relieve the tension. I don't know how you can screw up a trans so badly, but if it's not yours then maybe some people half-ass it.

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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I guess if something did jam up the transfer gear to the front pinion, the front diff could break to relieve the tension. I don't know how you can screw up a trans so badly, but if it's not yours then maybe some people half-ass it.

 

Well after I finished being pissed off I realized that ultimately it was my fault for being lazy and letting someone else build the tranny for me. Since the car is no longer my daily driver I am just going to be taking my time and will rebuild several of the trannies at once. That way I can blame nobody but myself if something goes south. Lol

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I'm debating between trying to be cheap and avoid buying a new comprehensive seals/gaskets kit, or just buying the case gaskets individually to put the different cases together at the end. The seals are just o-rings. If the o-rings are not damaged, should I still replace them or are they fine for reuse? Last thing I want is to put this thing back together and find out the issue was a bad seal all along that reduced the pressure on some clutch pack, causing inferior engagement/holding.
[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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The old "better safe than sorry" would seem to apply to that question. O-rings have a shelf- and service-life. Depending how long they "sat" before install, they may only have a marginal service-life. If I was tearing into the guts of transmission that relied on o-rings to seal and provide pressurized flow, I'd fresh-seal it throughout before buttoning it back up. The cost of your time to R&R a second time would easily justify the cost in my mind.
- Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum -
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I like that answer. I thought about it some more and placed an order for a seals/gaskets/etc only kit. I didn't find anything really wrong with most of the clutches, so I need to cover other bases.

 

There is a Re5R05a frictions only kit on ebay for real cheap, so I'm tempted to buy that and see what if anything swaps over, or just to measure thicknesses for more data. But without steels, it may just be a waste of money. Probably going to pass on it.

[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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So I did a little more research. Between the RE5R05A and Subaru 5eat, the following frictions and steels are the same:

Input Frictions

Input Steels

Direct Frictions

High-Low-Reverse Frictions

High-Low-Reverse Steels

Reverse Frictions

Reverse Steels

 

Also the 3 molded pistons are the same for Input, Direct, High-Low-Reverse

Check balls are also the same

 

Just note the RE5R05A gets an extra layer of friction/steel here and there, but the aforementioned are otherwise interchangeable.

 

Also I found some heat spots on a HL&R steel, so that burning means new steels for HL&R. The more I dick around with this transmission, the more I want to beef it up. Everything is already apart. The machine shop guy I've been talking with regarding center diff bushings could turn my clutch pistons for me.

 

Lastly, I might take my frictions and steels to a proper transmission shop and for a $20 see if someone can tell me what needs to be replaced. I just don't have the eye to tell what's normal, and pics won't tell the story properly, though I will take some.

Edited by ClimberD@HexMods
[CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER]
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