3rd/4th gear whine, slight rattle

Hi folks,

I've been hearing a slight rattly whine under acceleration and braking in 3rd and 4th gears for the past few days. I've had a read of some other forum posts here and have decided that it's most likely the bearings in the gearbox that are the problem. Think I might have a go at fixing this myself as I have access to bearing pullers and a hydraulic press and most of the bearings will be at the ends of the shafts right(?). I'm driving an 07 VVT M13A Jimny and was wondering if anyone knows how I can identify the type of gearbox I have before I try to source bearings for it?


Many thanks and as always, any suggestions are appreciated.

Mike

You will have an R72 gearbox, same as i had. I had same problem. Bearing sets are not that expensive, but labour is huge on a job like that (usually specialist). I got my garage to send mine away and get fixed. Cost nearly £1000 all in (with a few other small jobs i got them to do).

Knowing what i know now, i would have binned it and got an earlier R7ME gearbox in (which is what i did eventually). But that requires all sorts of other stuff swapped to keep the gearing the same.

My R72 box is going spare if your interested?! 07 with 43K on it and rebuilt Jan 2016...

Hi Riccy,

Yes, the labour charges are ridiculous and that's why I wanted to avoid them, buying the parts is cost enough. Why did you swap from R72 to R7me? What was the benefit there?

Let me know what you're looking for with regards to your spare box.

I swapped mine out for the earlier box along with swapping the transfer box to a rocklobster and the diffs to earlier 3.9 ratios. Also the tyres to 235/75r15 (29").

The R72 box is generally a known baddie in the earlier VVT jimnys, so swapping to the stronger R7me box made sense (and they are much cheaper used if it does go wrong).

This was because the output (in 5th gear) of the R72 box was 1:1 and the its 1.5 on the R7ME. When i had the rocklobster box in with the R72 box it made the car accelerate like a bat out of hell, but top out at about 65mph screaming. Changing the gearbox dropped it down a bit, but the final was either swap the diffs or go to 31" tyres (diffs were cheaper!)

Dont get me wrong, its a lot of work swapping everything, but the only way to sort it for my tyre size (and its still a bit off to be honest - Will be buying 30" tyres next time!)

Will send you a PM about my R72 box

Riccy.

It'll very likely be the counter shaft bearing. About £20 for a new one. I replaced all the bearings and oil seals on the basis that I didn't want to take it all apart again. It was much easier to rebuild the box than it was to get the thing out. I did the write up thats on the the wiki that'll show you what tools you want, but you definitely want to follow the manual for detailed instructions. If you just swapped the counter shaft bearing you wouldn't need anything more specialised than a copper drift and mallet (and socket set, spanners, etc).

www.bigjimny.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Gearbox_R72_rebuild

The new bearings are metal shielded, the originals are open. I don't know if this "fixes" the weakness in this box, but it's worth knowing about.

Ah yes,

I have been reading your wiki entry. Definitely best practice to replace as much 'consumable' stuff as possible before refitting.

Did you have to fabricate any special tools for any of the bearings? I have access to a hydraulic press and bearing puller/manual press, but imagine there would be specific plates and pipes to use for pressing off.

I don't suppose you have a link for the manual at all? I only have the 99501_81A00_01E manual, but I don't think that's the one I need.

Only thing I got made up was a piece of bar with a 25mm hole drilled at least 130mm deep. For pushing the bearings and gear back on to the output shaft.

Also found a bearing splitter, like one of these very useful. www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cht225-bearing-separator/

Other than that just used various sockets I had to press stuff.

If I was doing it again I'd be getting one of these first, to get at one or two of the box to engine bolts. They were the biggest pain of the whole operation. Very tight, very inaccessible. www.lasertools.co.uk/product/4590 (cheaper versions of the same type of thing are about).

PMd you a link to the manual.

Just wanted to say thanks to Riccy who set me up with the replacement gearbox.

I've had it in for about a week now and it's almost like driving a new car.

I managed to get it fitted just before the weather turned cold too.

Interesting read, I’m about to pull the engine and gearbox out to rebuild the box as it’s loud in 2nd, 3rd and 4th!

flashg0rd0n wrote: Just wanted to say thanks to Riccy who set me up with the replacement gearbox.

I've had it in for about a week now and it's almost like driving a new car.

I managed to get it fitted just before the weather turned cold too.

You welcome

Glad it went in smoothly for you!

Well done Riccy. Flashgordon I have been through the same with my 2007 gear box. There has been some great advice given here and I'm glad you have got it sorted. I bought a new bearing kit when 3rd and 4th went on mine, the bearings were chewed up. My friend who is a VW mechanic kindly fitted the new bearings, seal kit and clutch.

I had the common issue of a leaking prop shaft on earlier VVT's, the cat would always have a slight splattering of oil, I swapped it and although it wasn't much oil IO wonder if that contributed to premature bearing failure. But, I'm not so sure now because many members seem to have had this gear box issue and haven't had any oil leaks.

Now when I change my engine oil I also replace the gearbox oil. Some may say that's excessive but its easy to do and worthwhile with our VVT gearboxes. I haven't used it but some members say the redline MT oil is superior and gives smooth shifting. Although I will stick with regular changes with cheaper oil.

www.opieoils.co.uk/p-1020-red-line-synth...mt90-75w-90-gl4.aspx

All the best.