You can pick up a good used 5-speed from the junk yard, just don't
believe anything they tell you about the ones that have been pulled and are
sitting on a shelf.
Best way is to pull it yourself so you see the car it came from. Try to
determine why the car made it to the yard in the first place. Is it
wrecked? Is there red stuff all over the front of the engine (blown water
pump)? Does it have 250k miles on it? You want to be able to say "this car
is here because (insert anything but the trans is bad).
So you think you got a good one, shifts into all gears, rear shaft
doesn't have a wobble. Pull the drain plug and check for chunks. Some
"dust" Gold not Silver is usual. Most yard now drain the fluids but it will
still have some in it so is it burned, real thick, or anything else other
than good gear oil?
Most of the bad ones will have a bad input shaft bearing. Three bolts
will remove the cover so you can check it.
The only way to be really sure is to pop the cases and look inside, if
the bearing surfaces look like they have been sandblasted and there are
puddles of silvery gear oil, it is toast.
Crash
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