Swapping 94 trans into 93 - what do I have to change?

sleeper

sleeper

Former LOD President
Trans in my 93 let go yesterday. I have a spare that I got a while back, and it's from a 94. It needs a tcc solenoid and a speedo gear, but is there anything else I need to change to make the 94 trans work in the 93? Not sure if any shift solenoids are different or anything.
 
I think they would be identical twins. I would use a new MLPS and make sure it is aligned properly.
 
That trans was taken out of my green Mark.

The reason you need your original TCC solenoid and Speed sensor is because I took them for my car.:D

I think I took the MLPS too.

I think I put a 97 speed sensor in there just to plug the hole to keep it from dripping.

You'll need to change the filter (if it's still in there) and of course, change what fluid is left. I used Dextron/Mercon III, as I was afraid to change the type, because I wasn't sure about the history of the trans.

It ran and shifted fine in the green Mark, the only reason I changed it out was because I thought it had some slop in it. I still have the slop with the replacement 97 trans, so I think it's my diff that was the original problem.
 
I'll reuse my mlps, speed sensor, and tcc solenoid. Of course I'll change the fluid and filter too.

I've been using valvoline maxlife ATF. It's compatible with merc 3 and 5 and is supposedly as good as either. I still have 5-6 quarts from my motor swap. I should have gone with the new trans then, I think it's been less than 1500 miles!

Hopefully the motor holds up. I still have to limp it home from my girlfriends work, I was on the way to meet her to go up north for the weekend when it lost 3 and 4. So I went maybe 8 miles by downshifting into second, running up to 6500 rpm, shifting into neutral, and coasting for a while. I think I'll take surface streets home!

Thanks again for the trans bill, I knew I'd need it sooner or later!
 
Bill says it does have the upgraded accumulators. It's a reman 94, came out of his car at 186k miles on it. No idea how many miles on it, he said he bought the car with 146k. So hopefully it's good for a while.

I need to stop spending money on this car, hopefully it goes a while with no more repairs! It saves me $75 in gas for every 1000 miles I put on it, so I figure it has to go 40k miles to pay for itself.
 
Worked on it for about 3 hours by myself last night, trans is ready to pull. Just need to get the bellhousing bolts out and remove the crossmember. That'll have to wait until I get home from Texas, though. I think I can finish it in an afternoon with a helper. It gets easier when you've done it a few times!
 
Ugh. The simplest things can be the biggest pains in the ass.

I went to swap the speed sensor. The gear fell off and dropped down in the tailshaft housing. So I took the tailshaft housing off, and broke one of the bolts. Just drilled that out and helicoiled it (my M8x1.25 helicoil kit has paid for itself 10 times over) but now I can't find a gasket at any of the local stores.

Oh well, it's machined, so yamabond it is. :headsplit
 
sleeper said:
Oh well, it's machined, so yamabond it is. :headsplit
Click to expand...

LOL. Not sure why but this reminds me of what my grandfather said to me when I was probably about four or five.

"Duct tape and baling wire can fix anything"
Earl Toulouse

Thanks
 
Be2lose said:
"Duct tape and baling wire can fix anything"
Click to expand...

Don't forget the bubble-gum! LOL :D

There are several variations of that, one of my favorites is from my in-laws coal mining background...

"Black tape and shot-fire wire can fix anything" :D

Dave, I feel your pain, it seems every time I go to do something "simple" on my car(s), it turns out to be anything but simple. :eek:
 
Of course, when I went to put it back on, I found out that the drill had walked enough that the helicoil was not lining up with the hole in the tailshaft housing. Wallered out the hole in the housing and tried to force it, broke another bolt. Got that one out with vise grips, pulled out the helicoil, then I put the tailshaft on with 2 bolts and re-drilled and re-helicoiled. Fun times. Hopefully the threebond stuff I used on the tailshaft will seal it up good. It should, it's about the same as yamabond, and yamaha specs that stuff for the crankcases on their 2-strokes.

Finally got the trans ready to go in (save for what needs to be done in the pan - I figure i'll do that after it's in) and my neighbor came over to help me install it. We got it bolted up and got the torque converter nuts on. So I did make some progress today.

Oh yeah, my favorite one is "All you need is WD-40 and duct tape. If it moves, and it's not supposed to, apply duct tape. If it doesn't move, and it's supposed to, apply WD-40."
 
Well, she runs! All 4 gears work. Goes into second a lot softer than the '93 unit did, though, which kind of sucks, but it shifts fine anyway.

Anyone ever heard of a trans making a whining noise? I'm getting a whining noise, and I don't think the trans is contributing, but it may be. The power steering pump is definitely making most of the noise, at least when i'm turning the wheel, but even with the wheel still if I rev it up I hear a whining noise. I think it's still the PS pump, but of course it just started since I changed the trans so I'm wondering a bit. Oh, and let's hope the PS pump gets better and not worse, I'm getting kind of sick of working on this damn thing. I did the motor, 1000 miles later did a trans, now it just needs to run for a while!
 
Good luck with the new transmission.

Get some Lucas power steering fluid and flush the power steering system. Worked for me. ;)
 
Glad to hear you got it going Dave.

I agree, flush the power steering, that trans made no noise before.
 
The power steering already quieted down after driving it a little bit.

I had a leak at the trans pan gasket so I decided to take a shower in ATF this morning. Dropped the pan to fix the gasket leak, doing my best to save the fluid in a clean pan (that stuff's too expensive to throw out after less than 20 miles of driving!) and of course got fluid ALL over. I found more stuff sticking to the magnet than I would have liked to see, but it's probably just stuff getting flushed out of all the trans internals by the new fluid. While I was in there I took the bottom spring out of the 1-2 accumulator. Funny, it doesn't seem to shift much harder, still seems kind of weak on the 1-2.

Oh well, I seem to have fixed the leak anyway, and I now have a functioning trans for the cost of fluid and a filter (thanks again Bill!).
 
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