Junkyard Tranny.... now what?

[fordfest78]

Ok,

So Friday morning I should be picking up my junkyard 5 speed. I am not familiar with these trannys at all "yet". But what I want to know is.. what is the common procedure by you fanatics here on transmission prep? Is there a cover of some sort I can remove to drain the old gunk out? How or can I clean/flush the thing out? Is there any seals, parts, pieces, whatever I should repair before I slap her on in?

What fluid do you guys fill your tranny with? I know it calls for mercon of some sort but are you guys using a good synthetic ATF or what? I really need a run down of what to do to clean/prep/prepair this junk yard trans. I used the search but no joy

Help a festy family member out!

[KingFish]

Replace the output shaft seals on both sides and probably both mounts. Are you going from auto to manual or man to man?

[worfdog]

be sure to put a piece of wooden dowel about the same diameter as the axle in the differential to keep the side gears from falling loose or you may have a problem with thew side gears coming out of place.

[festivaWES]

x2 change the output shfat seals. I'd just install the tranny fill with fluid, run it a couple days to a week and change the fluid out. Hit her with some degreaser and throw in a new clutch kit and resurface that flywheel. Easy task.

[fordfest78]

Replace the output shaft seals on both sides and probably both mounts. Are you going from auto to manual or man to man?

Manual to Manual...


Any recommendations on a good fluid? Royal purple and Amsoil is about 10 - 11 bucks a quart!! I was thinking of using Mobil Synthetic trans fluid to save some cash!

[FestYboy]

mercon V that's all you need

[phantorn]

I use BG syncro shift

[festivaWES]

I had some motul mercon V in my festy, it was way more than 10-11 a quart

[scitzz]

I use gear oil, never trusted using ATF, seems so thin, but they say the atf gets in the tight spaces better, but I have somewhat over 350k on a 5 spd with 80w/90w in it. I put ATF in my escort recently, as recomended, but it grinds going into rev just a lil bit sometimes, and I am going to gear oil in that as well this weekend...

[jglutz]

I use what ever is cheapest....change it every year...never a problem

[IL4Festiva]

Quaker state Mercon ATF, works good for me

[kned33]

Several years back, I bought a festy tranny out of a junk yard. Their policy is that they would not take it back if I put in a different fluid than was already in there. Since it had atf in it thats what I put in it. It might be a good idea to do the same until you know if you have a good tranny or not.

[scitzz]

I use what ever is cheapest....change it every year...never a problem

Dead nutz on...

[fordfest78]

I was undecided on this decision as well guys. I was checking the additives and such I have available for me and the different ATF's. I settled on a full synthetic mercon fluid, but I wanted something a little more. I gave a call over to lucas oil to see what they recommend. Tech support guy told me 20% ratio of Lucas synthetic oil stabilizer would work perfect to smooth things out. So I'll be putting 1 quart Lucas synthetic oil stabilizer in and 4+ quarts of a good mobil synthetic ATF. I'll let ya know how it turns out!

[jglutz]

^^That's not a bad idea....It's you car....maybe thou, before you dump in the good stuff...you might want to put a few miles on with some cheap stuff or even transmission flush just to clean it out.