B15 tranny nightmare has a happy ending!!
Last year I decided up to step to a B15/P11 tranny for my disco potato equipped B13. I searched for a while and was only successful in locating B15 transmissions for under $1,000. So, I pulled the trigger and bought a B15 from the classifieds. Owner told me he purchased the tranny from car-parts.com and had not installed it before getting out of the game. I knew I was taking a gamble buying a used $825 tranny from someone who said they never installed it, However, It was pretty close to home and I had never heard of any problems with used B15 transmissions before.
I picked up the tranny and proceeded to drop it in. As soon as I got the car on the ground and idled away from my garage, this is where the fun began. One second after shifting into second, the shifter popped into neutral. I'm like, WTF is going on here?!!!! Second gear pop-out!!! Has this ever happened before? Shifted to third and grind. On to fourth and more grinding. For the love of Pete, what is inside this tranny...pinball machine parts?!!!!!! Did I forget to put gear oil in this b**ch?!!!!! Limped it back to the garage after considering slamming into every tree along the way! How was I going to tell my wife we just pissed away $825 for a hunk of worthless aluminum? Back to the computer for more research I guess.
I pulled the tranny apart using Coalition SE L write-up. Thank you very much!!! I knew a friend of a friend with a tranny shop. I pulled the stacks out and headed over his way. He calls with a $1200 bill. He told me 2nd gear is gone, 3rd gear is gone, hub selectors here and synchro there,... Holy sh*t that stuff adds up quickly when people add their labor to the mix. I picked up my parts and headed home. What to do..what to do?? I log onto Courtesy Parts and add up the parts needed to get the tranny back together. $700 at a minimum for the parts I needed. Who knows what else could be wrong with these stacks when they actually pull everything apart? Screw that I say. I'm not going to add $700 worth of parts to a tranny with who knows how many miles on all the other parts. This is not an option!!!
I found a website Nissan parts catalog. This site lists all of the Nissan part numbers for all Nissan car and trucks. This allowed me to search for similar parts between transmissions. Some more searching on this site and I think I had come up with a plan. I would buy a junkyard tranny from a 1.8 (cheap and plentiful) B15 (RS5F70A). Everything inside the transmission is the same except the main shaft. 5th gear ratios and final drive assembly/gear ratio (RS5F70A has 4.176 final ratio while the RS5F70V has a 4.437 ratio). I didn't need the final drive assembly as it's a non-lsd unit. I already have the correct main shaft inside my broken piece of sh*t transmission, so that won't be an issue. Plus, the 5th gear ratio is actually a tad bit better than the LSD unit, so I guess I win there.
I paid $300 for entire 2004 B15 1.8 tranny with 40k miles on it. The plan was, press all the gears off the A main shaft onto the V main shaft and see what happens. Well, it worked. Me and my Harbor Freight press and a few hours in the garage made for a successful first attempt at transmission work. With the A gears on the V shaft, along with the entire A input shaft (just as I received it from the junkyard), the two new low mile stacks went into my V case and have given me 2,000 uneventful miles so far. My only regret is not doing a little more research before hand. It appears that 4.176 ring gear from my B13 would fit onto the B15 LSD. Both LSD (92 B13 and 2001 B15 SE) units have the same exact part number according to nissan4u.com. The ring gear part numbers are different, but I think the two should work together just fine.
How would his help? We all know the B15 has the non-turbo friendly final drive. The B13 has the more favorable ratio. I think I could have pulled both stacks out of the 1.8 'A' transmission and placed them straight into the V case, along with the B13 ring gear, to effectively make it a P11 tranny. I have the B15 A input shaft sitting right next to my B13 ring gear and they line up pretty nicely. Does anyone see any flaws in this logic?
So, if you happen to have an LSD B15 tranny that blows up for some reason. Simply buy a 1.8 B15 tranny and drop in the parts. Much, much cheaper than going the rebuild route that's for sure!!!!
James
I picked up the tranny and proceeded to drop it in. As soon as I got the car on the ground and idled away from my garage, this is where the fun began. One second after shifting into second, the shifter popped into neutral. I'm like, WTF is going on here?!!!! Second gear pop-out!!! Has this ever happened before? Shifted to third and grind. On to fourth and more grinding. For the love of Pete, what is inside this tranny...pinball machine parts?!!!!!! Did I forget to put gear oil in this b**ch?!!!!! Limped it back to the garage after considering slamming into every tree along the way! How was I going to tell my wife we just pissed away $825 for a hunk of worthless aluminum? Back to the computer for more research I guess.
I pulled the tranny apart using Coalition SE L write-up. Thank you very much!!! I knew a friend of a friend with a tranny shop. I pulled the stacks out and headed over his way. He calls with a $1200 bill. He told me 2nd gear is gone, 3rd gear is gone, hub selectors here and synchro there,... Holy sh*t that stuff adds up quickly when people add their labor to the mix. I picked up my parts and headed home. What to do..what to do?? I log onto Courtesy Parts and add up the parts needed to get the tranny back together. $700 at a minimum for the parts I needed. Who knows what else could be wrong with these stacks when they actually pull everything apart? Screw that I say. I'm not going to add $700 worth of parts to a tranny with who knows how many miles on all the other parts. This is not an option!!!
I found a website Nissan parts catalog. This site lists all of the Nissan part numbers for all Nissan car and trucks. This allowed me to search for similar parts between transmissions. Some more searching on this site and I think I had come up with a plan. I would buy a junkyard tranny from a 1.8 (cheap and plentiful) B15 (RS5F70A). Everything inside the transmission is the same except the main shaft. 5th gear ratios and final drive assembly/gear ratio (RS5F70A has 4.176 final ratio while the RS5F70V has a 4.437 ratio). I didn't need the final drive assembly as it's a non-lsd unit. I already have the correct main shaft inside my broken piece of sh*t transmission, so that won't be an issue. Plus, the 5th gear ratio is actually a tad bit better than the LSD unit, so I guess I win there.
I paid $300 for entire 2004 B15 1.8 tranny with 40k miles on it. The plan was, press all the gears off the A main shaft onto the V main shaft and see what happens. Well, it worked. Me and my Harbor Freight press and a few hours in the garage made for a successful first attempt at transmission work. With the A gears on the V shaft, along with the entire A input shaft (just as I received it from the junkyard), the two new low mile stacks went into my V case and have given me 2,000 uneventful miles so far. My only regret is not doing a little more research before hand. It appears that 4.176 ring gear from my B13 would fit onto the B15 LSD. Both LSD (92 B13 and 2001 B15 SE) units have the same exact part number according to nissan4u.com. The ring gear part numbers are different, but I think the two should work together just fine.
How would his help? We all know the B15 has the non-turbo friendly final drive. The B13 has the more favorable ratio. I think I could have pulled both stacks out of the 1.8 'A' transmission and placed them straight into the V case, along with the B13 ring gear, to effectively make it a P11 tranny. I have the B15 A input shaft sitting right next to my B13 ring gear and they line up pretty nicely. Does anyone see any flaws in this logic?
So, if you happen to have an LSD B15 tranny that blows up for some reason. Simply buy a 1.8 B15 tranny and drop in the parts. Much, much cheaper than going the rebuild route that's for sure!!!!
James
Last edited by jamcru
on 2011-04-23
at 02-47-57.
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Originally Posted by Cliff 
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