Help!! Manual Transmisison Woes

[MickeySpiers]

Obviously I'm not the only one having transmission problems, guess it's just that time... I've got a '91 4 door XLT with the Mazda 5 speed. The first transmission lasted 150,000 miles before she blew, when I bought a new one from the dealer. Spec'ed for a '99 they told me it would be fine, just needed to swap the top piece with the shifting forks to get some sensor that mine had but the '99 didn't. For almost three years and 25,000 miles the tranny worked fine, but now it sounds shot again. When the first one went, I lost every gear but 4th. Drove that thing from Moab back to Denver in 4th gear, then put the new tranny in it. This time, it sounds like there is a bolt or something rattling around inside. Quiet in fourth tho... Before I put any more money into this thing, has anyone replaced these horrid Mazda transmissions with a more substantial trans? The truck is a weekend warrior, I drive it to work Monday thru Friday, then Friday night we head to the Rockies and spend the rest of the weekend in 4-lo, avoiding wildfires. If anybody has successfully replaced the stock tranny with a beafier model that keeps the truck streetable, I'd sure love to hear about it... Or hints on how to beef up the POS that Ford put in there would be hepful too! Many thanks-

 

[mrboyle]

I know there are a few that have talked about swapping in a T-5 transmission. If you do a search under the topic "T-5 swap" you should be able to find the info on how this is done. Good luck.

 

[Jason94sport]

Won't get much help in the beefing up part of your question. I had the same questions a few months ago, & just not enough people know that much about the Mazda 5 speed to really help. The sound you describe, is exactly what mine did. It was fine in 4th too. I replaced the whole tranny with one from...

http://www.phoenixhardparts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

They have ebay auctions on the correct tranny.
Dead Link Removed

My experience was great with them.

Sounds like your hard on the drivetrain. The newer transmissions, like the 1 from the 99 you got are not as strong as the first generation ones. That might be why yours is dead at 25K miles. As for the T5 swap, it's expensive. More then twice the cost of the Mazda.