M50D-R1 Rebuild coast

[Big Josh]

Hello out there,

I am going to have my manual transmission out for a couple months while I overhaul my engine and was curious how much it would cost to have it rebuilt?

I've also thought about rebuilding it myself, but not sure if I am up for it. You can get a rebuild kit for about 150 is it that much more to take it to a tranny shop and have them do the rebuild?

The tranny doesn't seem to need a rebuild-in fact it works without any problems, but it has a couple hundred hard miles on it and the previous owner did not change the fluid enough judging by what drained out when I got the truck.

I will probably just give it a good service and stick it back in, but this truck is going to become my daily driver, and if it is cost effective to install a fully rebuilt one then that's what I will do. Rather than have to do a major repair when this becomes my only vehicle.

 

[BlackBII]

If you can rebuild an engine then you can do an M50D.

You will need a press to put on the new bearings and remove the old ones, a 32mm socket, and a 55mm wrench but apart from that it comes apart really easy.

It's not difficult, but it is time consuming which means you pay a lot on labor. ~$4-500 is my guess.

Here's some pics of a teardown. Note - this doesn't show removal of the bearings/gears/syncros as I didn't need to do that on this one. I have the factory service manual and I can post pics of the process along with the specs needed for the front and rear bearing shims.

And the fun begins! Swapping the 2.3 M5od internals to the 4.0 M5od

This requires a 55mm wrench or large pipe wrench and a 32mm wrench or socket.

Finally get to use my giant 55mm wrench

This bearing comes off easy peasy with a pry bar on both sides. Be careful you don't chip the teeth. I placed some wooden door shims beneath the pry bars when I did this.

The rest of it is just simply removing parts until you end up with an empty case

This weekend I'll pull the other transmission apart and swap the internals, and then the drivetrain can all be put back together and the interior is next.

 

[Teddlet]

I was going to try to rebuild my M5 myself, but I was going to have to buy all the pullers and find someone who could press on the new bearings, so it was going to cost the same as having a shop rebuild it. (quote was for 500-800 with my supplied rebuild kit) ultimately the shop broke the
housing trying to pull it apart so I'm in the rebuild early camp now (it took me a 3 week search to find another M5OD-R1HD). You can totally do the clutch, flywheel, rear main seal, pilot and if you have the 4x4 4.0l plan on replacing the starter while the transmission is down since while I'm sure there's a way to fish it in between the front axel and the transmission housing its way more straightforward with the transmission out of the way.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[adsm08]

I was going to try to rebuild my M5 myself, but I was going to have to buy all the pullers and find someone who could press on the new bearings, so it was going to cost the same as having a shop rebuild it. (quote was for 500-800 with my supplied rebuild kit) ultimately the shop broke the
housing trying to pull it apart so I'm in the rebuild early camp now (it took me a 3 week search to find another M5OD-R1HD). You can totally do the clutch, flywheel, rear main seal, pilot and if you have the 4x4 4.0l plan on replacing the starter while the transmission is down since while I'm sure there's a way to fish it in between the front axel and the transmission housing its way more straightforward with the transmission out of the way.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Starter doesn't come out past the trans. Unbolt it, pull it back until the nose clears, turn it clockwise so the nose points out and up, and it will slide down between the diff and oil pan.

There is a certain amount of "correct angle" involved, but I have laid them up there on the diff while I worked on torque converter nuts and had the starter come back and hit me in the head, so they fit out that way pretty easy.

 

[Big Josh]

Thanks for the replies and the pictures too. I am fairly certain I can do this job myself for those prices. Correct me if I am wrong but other than the bearing press I would not need any machine shop services. I can pick up a cheap press at Harbor Freight that should do the job, and still come in under 300.

I also found a pretty good pdf shop assemble manual that has great diagrams. I will probably rebuild it myself, but for the time being, I am going to install it as is. Mainly because I think if I had all the parts and tools I could accomplish this rebuild over the weekend. Good heads-up on the 55mm wrench BlackBII; I do not have one of those. I suppose a large crescent wrench would suffice though.