Car enthusiasts will usually enjoy learning how to rebuild a transmission. Any motor vehicle would not be able to run very efficiently without them, especially if you like to attend track days a lot. Wear and tear can be placed on your transmission, even if you do religiously maintain your car when it needs it. If you love your car, but don’t know the first thing about a transmission rebuild, even if your life depended on it, then it might be high time to learn.
A car transmission may seem complicated at first, but with a little know-how, it will seem natural to you. Whether automatic or manual, there isn’t exactly an easy way to describe how every part of a transmission works to a person who doesn’t know much about the topic. The make and model of your car may also mean that your transmission will be dramatically different in construction than the car next to you; it just never ends.
A Short Primer to Car Transmissions
Both automatic and manual transmissions will have many, many parts that will not make your transmission rebuild any simpler. If you find rebuilding other parts of your car to be a steep challenge, you might be better off having a professional auto repair shop do the work for you instead; it may save you more time, money, and effort.
In layman’s terms, a car transmission is the part of the car that houses the many gears inside what many people refer to as the “gearbox.” Put simply, this series of gears converts the speed and torque from the engine into the power used to get your car running on the tarmac. Other names for the gearbox are the drive train, and may include other parts like the differential and drive shafts.
The main power output of the transmission is transferred to the drive shaft, the differential, and then the wheels of the car. The differential itself will provide gear reduction, as well as allowing the wheels of the car to be driven at varying speeds. The transmission systems of most cars are attached to the engine by a crankshaft.
A manual transmission requires user intervention to switch between gears while driving. In addition to allowing more performance and fuel efficiency, they are cheaper and lighter when found on a car. Fewer moving parts are also a benefit of a manual transmission, depending on the make and model of your car.
An automatic transmission, while requiring no user interaction to change gears, may have many moving parts that will make it particularly harder to service. Hydraulics and pressure-operated transmission fluids run the system, and rely on a smoother flywheel or torque converter to change gears smoothly.
Rebuilding a Transmission
You may choose to rebuild your transmission for a variety of reasons:
- After constant use, your transmission may reach the end of its lifespan and may need a total overhaul to be reused.
- Poor compatibility between the transmission and the rest of your car may merit the need for a complete transmission rebuild.
- Racing enthusiasts may also rebuild a transmission with new parts to get more performance out of a car.
- A transmission rebuild may be a normal thing for some car enthusiasts to do; they may perform one regularly as part of a maintenance routine.
There are more reasons why a transmission will need to be rebuilt sooner or later, but the point is, you will need to determine the cause of the problem before deciding on a transmission rebuild. More often than not, a person will choose a complete rebuild to try and fix a problem, or even a complete failure in the transmission system of a car.
Here are some general tips for a transmission rebuild in a car:
- Completely remove the transmission from your car. If you don’t know what you are doing, then ask someone to help you out, or get a professional to remove it for you.
- Dismantle the transmission completely, and organize all of the shafts, gears, and other parts of the transmission for easy access and maintenance.
- Check all of the electrical systems, gears, seals, gaskets, and other parts for wear, tear, and rust. Determine any parts in particular that may have caused problems in your transmission, in addition to performing maintenance on the running parts.
- If you would much rather replace all of the parts with new ones instead, then make sure all of them are compatible with your transmission system, as well as the overall make and model of your car. Some car models may have new and updated parts that come stock with newer versions of your car, so call up your local dealership to see if it is applicable to your vehicle.
- Reassemble the transmission with all of the updates, new parts, and maintenance procedures finished. Give the entire transmission system a once-over to see if there is any part you missed. Check it twice.
- Reinstall the newly rebuilt transmission into your car. Start the car up and see if the transmission will run smoothly; change gears and rev the car up if you have to.
Again, if you don’t know the first thing about a transmission rebuild, then take your car to your nearest auto shop or car dealer and have them do it for you.