Lexmex

Sealant on the side of the transfer case.

Lexmex

My cousins' friend Daniel helping my uncle and I move the transmission into position.

Lexmex

Getting the bolts to line up.

This wasn't such a PITA, but it took some twisting and turning to get everything to fit. We actually had to turn the propeller shaft (shaft that makes the AWD system work) in order to get this area to lock in right.

Lexmex

As you may have remembered the engine was tilted downward slightly, so we used a jack on the other side to lift up the engine and then with the jack on this side, we carefully did some levelling off before the transmission swung in right.

Lexmex

Getting the bolts to slide in.

Lexmex

Tightening the bolts down, we still have some to go in this area for Saturday.

Lexmex

Here my uncle Antonio positions a crane to lift up the motor and transmission to their normal positions.

Lexmex

Later I hooked up the tranny cooler lines.

Lexmex

And with our pit bull Brian standing guard, this is how she'll sleep tonight.

We will start work again at about 8 a.m. CST tomorrow.

Lexmex

I am hoping to bring this to a close.

Since my last post, a lot has occurred. I don't have any more photos to show, but I do have a very long story to tell.

On Saturday, we had finally installed everything and after starting her up and driving her for close to an hour we had nothing but bad and jerky shifts.

The incident left me quite traumatized as in one shift we nearly had a deadly accident if it weren't for my quick reaction.

I haven't had much rest in the past 48 hours.

Sunday morning, very early, we removed the transmission again, but took some abbreviated steps over what we had done before. We then uncovered that the torque converter was the one from the RAV4 (that had been refurbished, but not upgraded like the one out of my RX300 into a high stall one).

OK, on goes the new torque converter and we reinstall everything. We put new fluid back in (we have a ton of Type IV at my uncle's place. We personally hate the stuff, but it seems to like non-Toyota and Lexus vehicles apparently (I have no reason why).

Then we started it up and ran it for about 45 minutes, and we had improved shifting. I can tell you something and offer some advice, let the fluid warm up for at least a minute in Park, but preferably at least 4 minutes before starting out. I used the same on the track and now will go from 1 minute to 4 minutes on the daily commute as well.

Well, it wasn't quite perfect as I got a P0171 (and it didn't have the pending code, so I knew it wasn't my air intake). I checked the resistance on my MAF sensor and it was out of whack, so I installed a new one my father had brought down the other week. That solved that issue. However, we still had some erratic first gear issues.

I finally thought about my bumper hole and two air intakes. That was the trick. I removed them. And then things started to fly. I didn't notice much difference in acceleration (but then again the transmission was improved).

We took it on to that highway where I hit the 112 mph is one of my youtube videos and that is when I could really sense that the almost 1000 USD I threw done for tranny modifications appeared to have paid off as the shifts were very quick and the acceleration out of the toll booth plaza was also swifter.

However, as a promise to my family, my uncle and the advice from the transmission guy Chinito, we won't be testing it on the track yet (we close the track next weekend). I want to let the transmission and engine have an easy time for now to see how it handles and when I do take it to the track, it will be on a less frequent interval than before.

Now next Saturday, and if the DHL guy delivers them right (we used Fedex for the transmission parts, but found DHL was cheaper for 57 pounds of KYB GR-2 shocks), I plan to do a DIY for the shock installation.

As you can imagine, this was a very traumatic episode for me, so I hope that having new shocks can minimized idiotic encounters with bad sections of road I face down here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.

Bobk528

This has been one of the most interesting threads on any given forum as I wait each day to read your update. I'm just curious:

1)Why does the old flywheel look like someone attempted to cut it out with a knife or blowtorch?

2) After you drive the transmission for a short awhile, say, a couple thousand miles, do you plan to remove the AT fluid pan to clean the magnets and install a new transmission filter and Type IV fluid?

3) You and your uncle did all the work and this is something that normally would be left to a professional shop. You must have saved yourself several thousand dollars by DIY. Reading each step was quite fascinating for me and I hope my RX never has any type of transmission issue. Is this a unique situation that is solely related to your track racing?

salimshah

Toro Negre, welcome back.

Salim

thomas1

Could jerky shifts be due to the clutch packs being to loose? I wish I understood how the torque converter works and how it can be modified. Great job Lex Mex. Maybe the clutch packs need to wear in a little.

Rx300Mat

Glad to see u got most of the kinks worked out and i ordered u all the right stuff! Congrats.

Lexmex

1. We don't 100% know if there was damage before the incident that caused this thread to begin, such as a fracture. However, we do know that immediately after said incident there was a noticeable amount of noise coming from this area and when my uncle and I stuck as a test the torque converter on to this piece and tried to mimick the noise, we notice the noise was coming straight from the flywheel. This leads us to believe what Chinito told us before, that after incident (or perhaps a small fracture before the incident) that my continued driving for several miles after incident probably aggravated such fracture. In fact the noise did get somewhat clunkier.

Then again, I can tell you I highly agree that this piece is very weak. I had looked very quickly around the net for something of a stronger replacement (and would have delayed installation if I did), but found nothing.

2. Yes. I am doing this about every year (new filter, change out magnets, clean pan). Next time this will come up will be in July.

3. I'd be lying if I said there was 0% chance of that. However, the fast launches I do off the light do cause considerable stress on the transmission, particularly the tranmission pump, which while it looks like a sturdy piece, in actuality Chinito said he has seen stronger pumps for vehicles of this size, but he really needed the piece from the United States along with the flywheel, as such pieces did not have comparable substitutes here.