How To: Remove/Install Tranny and LSD or disassemble gears

TurfBurn

Member
:
'01 Yellow MP3 #1026
Some tools you will need for the project:

Drain Pan
4 Jack Stands
Jack
Impact Wrench
Torque Wrench
Creeper (optional)
14mm - sockets and wrenches
12mm - sockets and wrenches
19mm - sockets and wrenches
1-1/4" socket (or 32mm is the same size)
17mm - sockets and wrenches
10mm - sockets and wrenches
Instant Gasket
Pickle Fork Set
Liquid Wrench (WD40 or the like)
Grease
3 quarts of manual tranny fluid of your choice. (I personally like Redline Shockproof Lightweight)
Tranny Jack or a buddy to help you (Tranny weighs 95 lbs and fits in tight)

The install time will range between 8 hours and 24 hours of labor depending on how smoothly things go.

Parts I recommend you replace when doing this: LSD bearings, tranny seals, throw out bearing

I VERY highly recommend that you label each bolt and part when you take it out. So have a permanent marker and some masking tape handy.

some necessary part numbers courtesy of Prodigy:
G15M-R Part #'s ('01-'03 Mazda Protege manual transmission)
Oil seal
F003-27-238B
Transmission locking nuts
F520-17-628
F521-17-628a
 
Last edited:
Initial Prep

One of the first steps to this is to try and get the car as high in the air as you can with jack stands. It's also important to support it with 4 jack stands when it is up so high so that it is not at an angle and possibly dangerous.

Once the car is up in the air, remove the driver's side wheel (if you didn't break the lugs loose beforehand have someone hold the brakes while you do).

Underneath on the bottom of the tranny there is a 22mm bolt that is the drain plug. Remove this and fully drain the tranny. Then set aside the fluid and replace the plug.

While the tranny is draining start removing engine compartment components.
- Take off the strut bar if you have one
- Take off the battery connections (negative then positive is what I usually do)
- Remove the battery
- Remove your air filter and any intakes or charge pipe or so forth from the throttle body all the way out.
- Remove the 4 10mm bolts that hold the battery holder in.
 

Attachments

  • battery holder.jpg
    battery holder.jpg
    93 KB · Views: 4,056
Last edited:
Next disconnect the 3 connectors that are on the tranny. The neutral switch, the reverse light switch, and the speedo sensor. The neutral and reverse light switches are on leads and should come up near the engine mount itself. One is grey and the other black I believe. The speedo is on the back top side of the tranny more or less on the tranny directly below the throttle body.

Then get each the two or three clips off of the brass looking assembly on the back left side of the tranny that are holding the wiring bundles down.

Once you have done that use a 10mm socket to loosen the bolt that holds a ground wire in place. After this all of the wire bundles and connectors should now be off of the tranny.

One of the remaining things is the clutch line which will be clipped to a holder on the front edge of the tranny. Pry the metal clip off with a screw driver and set it aside.

With the clip off, then use a socket to loosen the 2 12mm bolts that hold the clutch actuator mechanism to the side of the tranny. Once you remove the actuator either label and set aside those bolts or thread them back into the block finger tight.
 

Attachments

  • clips and brass pedastal.jpg
    clips and brass pedastal.jpg
    67.2 KB · Views: 4,155
Last edited:
Now going to the driver's side wheel wheel remove the clip holding the brake line onto the strut assembly.

Then remove the ball joint clamping bolt with a 14mm socket and a 14mm wrench. It may be rusted as well as the link/rod going into this assembly from the ball joint, so I soaked the area down well with Gunk Liquid wrench and it helped considerably!

With that bolt out, wrap your ball joint dust cover with a shop rag. Then use a pickle fork to seperate the control arm/ball joint from the wheel assembly. You may need a second pickle fork or something else to get enough movement to get the solid rod all the way out of the wheel assembly.

Once this is out I found it most convenient to remove the control arm, but I don't know as this is necessary. But to do so:

Remove the 5 17mm bolts that hold the control arm on. You may need an impact wrench to get these loose. With those out you should be able to free the control arm. Clean it up from any excess oil and road dirt if you like and set it aside.

Also at this time remove the rear brace that connects from one side of the car to the other where the control arms are. It is held on with 4 17mm bolts. Again you may need an impact wrench or breaker bar to get these loose.

Picture: Wheel assembly and the "clamping" bolt.
 

Attachments

  • ball joint assembly.jpg
    ball joint assembly.jpg
    31.9 KB · Views: 6,143
Next you should support the engine as you'll begin removing engine mounts.

I don't know as it is the best way to do things, but what I did was used a solid block (use wood or whatever is easiest, but needs to be pretty robust) and jacked that up against the oil pan enough to hold it, but not to generate any major force on the oil pan, as that my actually damage the pan.

With the engine supported. I then removed the 2 17mm nuts that hold the front engine mount onto the lower engine brace. Then I removed the 2 17mm bolts that hold the brace to the front of the car. And lastly I removed the 1 17mm nut that holds the brace on at the rear of the engine bay. I again cleaned up the brace and set it aside.


Picture: Some pieces including lower and rear engine brace, control arm, and front engine mount.
 

Attachments

  • pieces.jpg
    pieces.jpg
    31.8 KB · Views: 3,920
Next I removed the driver's side engine mount. There are 2 17mm bolts and 2 17mm nuts that hold the bottom of the bracket onto the tranny. And then one 17mm bolt that goes through rubber mount portion. After removing those bolts the mount assembly should come out.

At this time if you haven't already you can go ahead and tug the half shaft out of the tranny. The wheel assembly should be free to swing about a bit so you can get enough motion to try and get your hands in and pull on the half shaft to get it out of the tranny. Be careful if you decide to try prying on anything as you don't want to damage any of the axle components.
 

Attachments

  • half shaft out.jpg
    half shaft out.jpg
    78.4 KB · Views: 3,882
Next, go under the car to the rear of the transmission and disconnect the shift linkages. There is one 14mm nut and one 12mm nut that you need to loosen. Then you can free the linkages. Again put the nuts and bolts somewhere safe.

Also, since I was using the 12 and 14mm tools at this point I removed the 12 and 14mm bolts that are along the bottom edge of the tranny on the engine side of the flange that is mating with the bell housing. I labeled these on a diagram of bolts that I was removing from the bell housing flange area and set them aside.
 

Attachments

  • loose shift linkages.jpg
    loose shift linkages.jpg
    75.2 KB · Views: 7,299
Next I disconnected the engine/tranny from the rear engine mount assembly by removing the 3 17mm bolts that go through the engine mount assembly. I also removed the 12mm bolt holding the starter on and also a 19mm bolt that is part of mounting the bell housing to the engine.

Edit after that you can remove the remaining bolts that are holding the tranny to the engine from the tranny side of things. There are 2 12mm bolts holding the starter on, 4 19mm bolts (3 are easy to see, the 4th is tucked in by the front engine mount bracket). And then one 14mm bolt I believe that is down below the front mount brace on the bottom edge of the bell housing.

With these bolts out the tranny can be removed from the car. A little wiggling will be necessary to get it to start to come loose. After that you can pull the tranny toward the side of the car as much as possible, You should then be able to get it to clear the driveshaft. Tilt the tranny down toward the front of the car (you'll still be hung up on the passenger side half shaft) and then you can try to twist the tranny toward the driver's side of the car and hopefully it will come out nicely. It can take some monkeying and more likely than not you will ruin the passenger side oil seal when you try to get it over that half shaft.
 

Attachments

  • rear mount bolts.jpg
    rear mount bolts.jpg
    67.2 KB · Views: 3,566
  • tranny side bolts.jpg
    tranny side bolts.jpg
    102.4 KB · Views: 3,857
Last edited:
Next remove the black end cap of the tranny by removing and saving all of the 10 mm bolts.

After removing that end cap you can see the reverse gearing. Get each of the locking nuts cleared to be removed with the impact wrench by using a screw driver or chisel or the like to bend the nut flange back out so that the nut can be rotated. Then hit the nuts with a 32mm (1.25") socket in bursts with the impact wrench so that you can get them off.

Then I recommend taking a number of closeup pictures of the gearing, and then pulling it off carefully and setting it out on clean paper so that you can remember the order it goes on with.

To get the shift fork off on this end you will have to use a punch to try and knock out the roll pin. Do this carefully and set aside the roll pin.
 

Attachments

  • black end cap.jpg
    black end cap.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 4,111
  • locking nuts.jpg
    locking nuts.jpg
    68.1 KB · Views: 4,266
  • gears set out.jpg
    gears set out.jpg
    53.8 KB · Views: 3,406
  • rev gears close.jpg
    rev gears close.jpg
    62 KB · Views: 3,460
  • rev gears close 2.jpg
    rev gears close 2.jpg
    60.7 KB · Views: 3,455
Last edited:
Next you'll want to remove a small ball and spring that are hidden on the tranny. You'll remove the bolt with I think a 14mm socket, and then you can get out the spring with a screw driver by pulling it up. I tipped the tranny over and got the ball out into my hand or you can use a magnetic pickup. Carefully wrap these up in tape so you don't lose them or have them roll away.

Then you can remove the two side bolts that are holding parts of the rods on the inside. They are both 12mm and are shown in one of the pictures below.
 

Attachments

  • spring and ball set.jpg
    spring and ball set.jpg
    52.3 KB · Views: 3,221
  • side bolts.jpg
    side bolts.jpg
    68.1 KB · Views: 2,902
After removing the small components you can now remove all of the 14 mm bolts that mate the gear box to the bell housing. Before doing so make note of where each of the brackets is and how it is position and so forth.

With the bolts all removed you can pull straight up on the gear box to get it to come loose. The gasket may hold on though, and I simply struck it a few times with a rubber dead blow mallet to break the seal. After that it slides apart easily.

Then, you can pull the magnet out from next to the drain plug and clean it off before setting it back into the it's location.

The next thing you have to do is manually "shift" the tranmission so that you can get the gearing into a position such that it allows you to remove a roll pin that holds the shifting linkages in the middle together so that you will be able to lift both the shafts up to get the differential in and out. To do that you need to push the 1-2 fork (the big one that is down low as you are looking at the tranny) down all the way into gear. Then you pull the 3-4 fork up all the way into that gear. With that in place you should have the linkages positioned like in the pictures. With them as such you can then knock out that roll pin and will then be able to lift the shafts up enough to lift out your differential and then put in your other differential.

Hopefully you prepared your new differential beforehand by putting on the speedo gear (if you don't have ABS... if you have ABS there is no speedo gear) and pressing on new roller bearings on each end of the diff.

Put the differential in. Get the shifting linkages in the middle aligned and setup like the pictures again and put the roll pin back in.

NOTE: When I did this I also had one of the new revised 1-2 shift forks. It can not be installed using the disassembly method I indicated here as you can not get the linkages lined up properly again due to a larger shoulder on the shift fork. Other disassembly that I did not attempt to figure out is required.
 

Attachments

  • linkages1.jpg
    linkages1.jpg
    74.6 KB · Views: 3,317
  • linkages2.jpg
    linkages2.jpg
    84.5 KB · Views: 2,749
  • linkages3.jpg
    linkages3.jpg
    58.2 KB · Views: 2,640
After putting the differential in and then realigning the shift linkages and putting the roll pin back in shift both the 1-2 and the 3-4 to the middle or neutral of their gear sets. Then you can then work on the gasket. Clean off all the extra oil or so forth on the sealing face, and then with a rag dipped in the extra oil rub off any remaining gasket. Get it pretty clean. Then wipe it down with a clean rag. Apply an even unbroken small bead all the way around the transmission. After doing that set the upper encloser back over the gear set and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then tighten down a few bolts to hold it in place.

Put the two small bolts you removed from the side back in (they will have to line up properly with the shift linkage and the receiver on the reverse idler gear shaft properly. Make sure you have things lined up before you put the top cover back on and bolt it down.). With those bolts back in place replace the reverse gearing on the top. Put the fork on and hand tighten new lock nuts on the gearing. The reason for doing all this and not re-assembling the tranny completely is to test the shifting.

To test shifting you can put a screw driver through the actuator rod. if you push the rod toward the tranny you will select one gear, then pulling it back out you will hit neutral then further out the next gear. Pushing it back to the middle you can twist the actuator with the screwdriver toward yourself and then push the actuator toward or away from the tranny to check those two gears. Back in the middle now twist the actuator away from yourself and check the two gears there.

Assuming all the gearing worked fine you can then put in all the 14mm edge bolts and tighten them down. Then put in the ball and spring.

Next use an impact wrench to tighten down the locking nuts in bursts on the reverse gearing. Then knock in the flanges to lock the nuts in place. Create a new gasket around the edge and put the black end cap on and tighten it down. Pull out the oil seals from the differential casing and replace them. You can tap them into place with a blunt object by gently going around the edge of them.

You should then have all the parts back on the tranny and be ready to put it in the car.
 
To put the tranny in the car you will have to very carefully work to get it up and over the driveshaft and the passenger side half shaft without damaing the oil seal on the differential casing. I used a rag to help out on that a little bit. After a lot of fiddling around and grunting you'll probably get it in place. It will not seat all the way up to the engine though more likely that not. Both times that I worked on this I could not get the half shaft to seat easily and had trouble with the driveshaft as well making it quite difficult. What i did was get it as close as possible and then used the 19mm bolt on the back side by the rear engine mount and the 19mm bolt on the front side by the front engine mount. I threaded them both in a little bit and progressively tightened them down until the tranny seated. Do this carefully so that you do not pinch, bend, or break anything.

After you get the tranny seated, just put all your bolts back in and parts back on in the reverse order.

Fill the tranny up through the front fill location which is a 23mm bolt as well. Make sure you do it with the car on the ground and level. Fill it up until a little drips out the hole and you should be all set. It took about 3 quarts even for me.

Good luck with your install!

Steve
 
Last edited:
Actually, I learned most of it doing it the first time with Little Beavis on his car. He was the brave one, I just redid the work, and documented it so I could do a write up. But let me know if you have any questions or need assistance if you ever do it as I'm happy to help or walk you through things.

later.

Steve
 
Whew. . .saves me from doing a write up. Nice work bro! Obviously you've got more time on your hands than me these days. :D

I've got your next write up! How to turn your NA protege into a MSP - FI motor!
 
Good job Steve! I know I sure as hell wasn't going to do a write up. Hahaha!

Dave
 
yes good write up steve. (headbang) :cool:


not something i will be attempting because i've already had my lsd installed. but every day i have been contemplating dropping my tranny and cracking it open to fix the 5th problems i've been having
 
Last edited:
Back