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transmission work at the Forbes' place

66K views 69 replies 24 participants last post by  freightdogfred 
#1 ·
Randy and I did the two service actions on my transmission today. The one for the shift catch pins, and the one for the 5th and reverse gear locking pin bushings. 5 new bushings total, 5 new sealing caps, 3 new springs and 3 new pins. I wish I would have bought a new locking pin for 5th gear; mine is clearly worn unevenly. If you're doing this work, buy new locking pins for reverse and 5th gear. FWIW, the service bulletin says you need the repair kit 23.11.7.542.726, but in reality you need two of them; there's only one bushing per kit and you need two. Also need all the right tools, which I bought (4 drifts and a small slide hammer).

In stock form, all of the shift catch pins slide in the machined bore in the transmission case. I guess it's no wonder that they can develop problems with sticking in the bore; different materials with different expansion rates, and the bore doesn't really get wetted. The two forward ones were both quite dry, the rearmost one was a little wetter. The repair kit comes with 3 bushings (look to be lined with a PTFE mix), 3 new catch pins, 3 new springs, and 3 new sealiing caps.

Everything went without a hitch. Auxiliary parts needed: all exhaust fasteners to remove the midsection, and the gaskets at the header end since they're graphite and mine were pretty much toast (at 31,000 miles). Looking at them, I'm surprised more people don't develop exhaust leaks at this point. Whatever slight binder is in those appears to melt a bit over time. I didn't take pictures, you'll have to take my word for it. :)
 
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#42 ·
I'm curious about the double-ended drifts; when you hammer on them, don't you damage the end? Maybe use a lead (knock-off) hammer?
 
#43 ·
How'd your 5th and reverse pins look? Either one of them visibly deformed like one of mine? At the time I had wished I had bought new ones. Next time (at clutch replacement).

Yes, the plastic caps want to spring out. We just held them in while installing the snap rings.
 
#45 ·
How'd your 5th and reverse pins look? Either one of them visibly deformed like one of mine? At the time I had wished I had bought new ones. Next time (at clutch replacement).
Pins did not look deformed and I did replace them.

5th gear pin did have an odd wear pattern - i'll try and post a pic.
 
#44 ·
The double ended drifts worked fine. I used a plastic malet with no problems. Though I did deform the end of one of them when I picked up a metal hammer by accident. Luckly it was the end to put the metal caps in so I can just file it back to shape.

I suspect if I ever was to get another set made up I would make them single ended. I was not expecting to had to use so much force to drive the parts in.
 
#46 ·
BMW Slide Hammer Tool

I plan to do the shift catch pin job in the next week or so and was wondering if anyone would be willing to rent out their bmw slide hammer tool or all the tools for that matter? I dont have a problem buying the other tools new from the dealer but the slide tool is nearly $80 now and I dont know if it is absolutely necessary for the job. Just looking to cut the costs a bit.

Thanks! Jeff
 
#47 ·
Just completed the catch pin job. I was able to order all the parts and 1 tool from my local dealer. The 23 3 110 tool for installing the bushings was not available anywhere in the world. So when I went to pickup the parts at the dealer I brought the transmission with me and asked if I could borrow the shops bushing tool. No problem they said (it had never even been removed from the plastic bag) and 5 min later I had the new bushings installed.

To get the sealing caps off I punched a hole in each of them, screwed in a long screw, attached vice grips to screw and pulled. Out they came with no issues!

Thanks for the great writeup Randy and DWM. Could not have done it without it!

If anyone is interested, I have the sealing cap drift tool available for sale for $30 bucks shipped.:thumbup:

-Jeff
 
#48 ·
Did you also do the bushings on the side (under the blu-green caps) or just the ones on the top?

Nice time to to ask, huh? :angel:
 
#50 ·
Hey Randy,
In you experience, how often/how soon do the shift pins stick? Is this a "case by case" maintenance or a "periodic/scheduled" maintenance for transmissions? i.e. does this happen eventually in every BMW?

Cheers,
Gibber
 
#51 ·
Neither of my cars ever exibited the symptoms, so I can't say. I just had (both) my cars done because I could; thank you BMW warranty :angel:
 
#54 ·
This thread is very good and informative, and I had it bookmarked for when my clutch finally dies and the tranny is out for clutch job to do this service as well.
But it seems that the pictures had disappeared. Does anyone have them? Or could the original poster re-post them?

Thank you
 
#58 ·
Hi mate.

I had a workshop drop my tranny and follow your guide to change all the stuff needed to the sticky 5th/reverse and the 3 kits for normal gears.

I dident supervise the work myself but I really confronted and asked the shop in details about everything and how they did it/ details etc.

the problem is that my gearstick/lever? now "hangs" permanently to the right side (the 5th gear side) after the "fix" instead of returning perfect to center. However I do feel a slight better gearchange moving through the gears.

So my question is:

Can there be something else wrong? The mechanics claim they did it exactly after the guide and turned the shaft the correct way etc. I read something about your "rod"/shaft being "out-of-shape" deformed or what you call it. Could this cause it? Can you see it with the eye? He also claimed it slided perfect in and out of the bore. ? The car is from 2002 and has never had it fixed. However the only problem it had/has is the return 5th gear center. Not reverse or anything else.

I am frustrated as I dont see anytime soon again dropping the tranny and just spend a fortune on it. The problem was LESS before the "fix"... There it would here in the hot weather mostly return but not always and not when cold. But now its sticky permanently. Everytime you pull it out of any gear it sticks to the side VERY annoying.

Thanks

Lasse
 
#59 ·
They failed to do the install correctly. They either swapped the 5th/reverse pins or damanged the pin/sleaves as they installed them.

This is specifically meant to fix the gear leaver haning over to 5th.
 
#61 ·
With some help from this thread and Randy, I did this job on my father's coupe a while back and made a guide for it. Perhaps you can check it against the parts that the shop charged you to replace, and see if they did the whole job.

How to: Service your transmission shift pins.

The problem that you are describing is a result of the 5th gear pin sticking in its bushing. There is really nothing in there that could be bent. To bend any of those components, you would need to have destroyed an awful lot of weaker, related components.
To add to the above, it's possible that they mixed up the two (2) springs; the heavier "red" one goes in the top bore. The other possibility is they may have gouged the aluminum bore or the xmsn and didn't smooth it out before driving in the new bushing. This would leave an irregular bore that the pin could get stuck in.

I ALWAYS make it a point to test the detents and return BEFORE putting the xmsn back in the car. This would've been obvious at that point, and should've been corrected.

As to the question about the pin wear, I sometimes "see" a funny-squiggley wear pattern on the pin coming out of the top bore, but it has never been detected to actually be uneven when checked with a micrometer. In other words, I do not think that is the problem in your case;, most probable is the scored bore scenario.
 
#60 ·
With some help from this thread and Randy, I did this job on my father's coupe a while back and made a guide for it. Perhaps you can check it against the parts that the shop charged you to replace, and see if they did the whole job.

How to: Service your transmission shift pins.

The problem that you are describing is a result of the 5th gear pin sticking in its bushing. There is really nothing in there that could be bent. To bend any of those components, you would need to have destroyed an awful lot of weaker, related components.
 
#63 ·
The other option is that they did not have the correct drifts, so when installing the bushings they damaged them.
 
#64 ·
Tool Availability

Any one know if the tools are still available at the dealer for this service?
 
#65 ·
I wish I knew that you needed them, Bob. I sold my set after I finished mine.

There should be a few sets floating around. It's doubtful that anyone, other than Randy (or me) needs them for more than one job.
 
#67 ·
Follow the "How to Service your Transmission Shift Pins" link in the sig for Vinci in post #65
 
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