5 Speed Manual Tranny Question.

[desertrat]

My 98 Supercab has over 200,000 on it so I changed the oil in the tranny and transfer case, just as a precaution. I found some aluminum in the oil. That worries me because it seems to me the only aluminum is the case and that would mean I have a bearing spinning in the case. Does anyoone know if there is anything in the tranny that is aluminum other than the case?
The tranny works and sounds fine, and normal. Any help from someone that has been inside one will be appreciated. -------desertrat

 

[AllanD]

Both bearing retainers in the case are made of aluminum, and actually it's quite normal for the bearing races to spin in the case.

They are barely loaded against the case, you see the bearings inside an
M5OD-R1 "Mazda" trans are tapered roller bearings, they are just like the cup and cone wheel bearings inside an axle (and are only slightly smaller than the carrier bearings)

I've yet to see a case with excessive radial play due to wear of the
bearing journal. The front bearing retainer will wear from the "end"
of the bearing pressed against it while it's spinning.

The real problem is the REAR bearing retainer they usually get
chewed to shit.

There's someone else here that has a transmission problem with
their input seal leaking and they insist that it's the front bearing
retainer. I told them it's the rear bearing retainer and they
apparrently don't believe me, but the fact is that the two
mainshaft bearings are in opposition to one another.
If one bearing cannot be loose.

If either retainer is bad then the shaft assembly is free to
walk back and forth.

That doesn't necissarily mean that anything else is bad...

AD