Normally when I have a question or problem concerning my Nissan 350Z, I come to this site and just search. But honestly I don't know how to start searching for this answer, so please don't shoot me!

Basically what I'm going to ask is, can someone educate me on transmissions, where to look for transmissions, and which do you prefer? More over, the cost? And what tools to get, especially to do it myself?

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I'll be working on this with a few friends/family. I have a friend with a lift (lifts 9800 lbs) who is an old school mechanic, I have a friend who is a new school mechanic - but not extremely skilled, my father who has the same knowledge and skill as me, and my uncle who has more knowledge than me and my father combined. I'm paying them all pretty much in alcohol, food, and a good time after.

My personal skill is disgustingly limited.
The only time I replaced a clutch was on my old 2000 MR2 Toyota spyder, and I used my father and uncles aid. Sadly a Jetta decided to T-Bone me into a tree because she didn't know what double yellow lines were.

I helped replaced an alternator on a friends 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse... We used a bunch of bricks to lift his car - ghetto, but it worked. I was mostly the muscle.

And I changed the upper intake manifold of my 350Z and added 5/16" plenums by myself. Besides those skills, I'm moreless limited to regular tune-ups (belts, spark plugs, oil, air filters, brakes, etc) but I have never once taken my car to a shop.

I know the transmission is bad and I am looking to replace it all - Transmission, Clutch, and Flywheel. It grinds on third gear and it's starting to grind on fourth and fifth - I have to take my time and have my foot all the way down on the clutch to ignore the grinding.

I've found some good deals around here including clutch and flywheels, around a grand or under, but I don't know where to start looking for a Transmission. Or how much it will cost. Currently, I only have 2 grand to play with, so this isn't a project I wish to start immediately.
I know nothing about transmissions. Never even tinkered with a transmission.


I have a performance 2003 Nissan 350Z currently at 102300 Miles.

Sorry for any typo's or grammatical errors.

 

Sounds like textbook synchro failure to me. Common on 03's for sure. If you made that many miles you're doing well.

Ebay has used ones. But I suggest concept z performance. I think they'll sell you everything you need to swap to the updated cd009 transmission for something like 1850 shipped in the lower 48. That's a brand new trans. That's the best option imo.

 

Another option would be to have the transmission rebuilt.Everything should be inspected by the rebuilder and will recommend any gears that need replacement and of course replace all the normal wearing parts. And depending on what power you will be putting down, spec stage 1 or stage 2 with a lightened flywheel. Very reasonable price and reliability.

 

Does anyone sell internal parts, qew? I have researched this problem extensively for my 03 and haven't found any kinda rebuild parts or kits.

 

What hulkout said, i just bought mine from concept z performance 3 days ago and putting it in this week.
Rebuilding that trans will do you no good because it will be a guessing game until that syncro issue comes back again.

 

The guys at czp are great too. I do quite a bit of business with them simply because of the level of service they provide.

 

And OP, when i was on the phone with them they gave me a 3% coupon code but they did say that on black friday the price will be cheaper so I would call them if I were you and see what kinda deal you can get

 

Looks like you have a few options on replacing the transmission - Where are you located?

I saw this on craigslist a little while back:
http://cosprings.craigslist.org/pts/4726290266.html
I don't know how the '06 would mesh up to your engine though.

The transmission is pretty easy to get out of the car. Drop the exhaust, disconnect the drive shaft (which you want to be extremely careful) disconnect a few sensors, disconnect the slave cylinder, disconnect the shifter assembly, unbolt from the engine and unbolt the cross brace - just that easy!!! If you have the experience of your uncle and a few extra hands than you'll be fine. Buy a box of zip lock bags and label everything you takeoff, take alot of pictures of everything before, during and after the install.

If/when I have to remove my tranny again I will buy a tranny jack - you can do it without but it'll make it easier to re-install. Read up on the factory service manual, a haynes/chilton manual, and see what others have done.

$2k is a pretty good start. I would look into the JWT flywheel and clutch combo ($800), which leaves you $1200 to pickup a new transmission and misc parts.

Since you know nothing about transmissions now - take this opportunity to disassembly and tinker with the old transmission and I'm sure you'll learn quite a bit. When it's all said and done drop the only transmission off at a metal recycler and put a little coin in your pocket.

 

you can get a cd009 from z1 for a decent price... buy new and be done

 

Hulkout not sure if they do sell rebuild kits but Im sure a transmission rebuilder could probably obtain them. Reason i mentioned that is because years back i rebuilt my 91 mustang fox bodies 5 speed transmission and replaced a couple gears due to them popping out of gear while engaged. I inspected everything and replaced all wearing parts.

 

And it won't be a guessing game if you know what your doing. I'm not saying he should rebuild it himself but have it rebuilt by a professional, would save money and would be as good as new. Anyway just another option.

 

check out the price to rebuild... might shock you on how much it is

 

And more of a pita than it's worth. Nissan doesn't rebuild them. They just throw in a cd009. Afraid if you can even come up with good new parts they're gonna cost ya a pretty penny. I am going to have to do this and when I do I'm going with a new one from concept z. Spendy. But worth it. Especially if you plan on adding power

 

Yeah I guess it might be easier just to buy one.I found synchos for sale on conceptz and I know osgiken sells upgraded gears, I may rebuild it myself when mine starts acting up.

 

I have seen the is gears. I better check czp again. I Like to rebuild things and save money.

 

I looked on czp and only found synchronizer rings (baulk/balk rings). The problem in the early transmission syncronizers is the cones as I understand it. So we are still in but a cd009 as the solution.


To the OP: you may as well do the clutch while you're in there. It sounded like that was your plan. Jwt is a popular option for a clutch/flywheel combo. I have some kinda Kevlar southbend (don't remember the model) rated for 800 lb-ft of torque and after it broke in it smoothed out nicely.

 

You definitely want the cd009 transmission. I would dissuade you from any attempt to rebuild your current transmission since it is flawed in more than one way. --Spike

 

About a month later, I apologize. I would like to thank all of you for the replies. I looked over every single one and never replied! I do more researching and leeching off this site than I do actually being a part of the community

 

so what did you end up doing?

 

I'm a college student so I'm just saving up money. I only have a little over a grand right now (I have moreless upwards to 3 grand, but I'm saving that for paying off student loans) to play with and I'm going to need a lot more than that for what I have to do.

I have a new girlfriend who's father owns a shop and he said he'd do the transmission change for cheap because he likes me (although I think I'm going to just tag along with some friends and family and not rely on him, but he's a professional option).

Within the next couple of months I plan on changing the Transmission to the one stated earlier (can't remember the name) that supposedly corrected the synchro issue, I'm going to be replacing my Clutch and flywheel (Clutch is going, and if I'm down there with the tranny and clutch, might as well replace the fly wheel).

And if I have the cash at the time I plan on doing this massive project, I might even hit replacing the entire motor. Past owner did a lot to the current engine, agreeing with other people from here, it seems the past owner tuned his engine for Forced Induction but didn't sell it with the Turbo/Charger.

I plan on doing all of this sometime during the summertime as I save up money during the Spring Semester.
I'm an Freelance Engineer and I tutor CAD, and my current Student loan is nearly paid off, so I'm hoping I'll have upwards to 5-6k by the time I hit this project.