Since I am heading outside right now, to replace my G trans with a W56B, I thought maybe I would see how knowledgeable some of us are in regards to transmissions....

Driving down the interstate, felt a slightly different vibration in shifter knob, only in 5th gear. No odd noises, so I kept driving. After an hour or so, I had to stop for fuel. As I was on the exit ramp, decelerating, I pushed the clutch in and my trans made this odd clunkity-rocks-in-a-coffee-can kind of noise. Thinking that maybe I had lost 5th gear,I proceeded to decelerate to the stop sign at the top of the ramp. As I put it into 1st gear, it tried to grind a bit, but with light pressure against the shifter, it went into 1st. When the clutch was released, it was still doing the clunkity noise... Anyway, it turns out that 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and reverse make this noise. 4th is quiet and feels great.

The noise isn't like a consistent, broken gear noise. It is intermittent and sometimes louder than other times. All the gears still WORK fine, there is just an awful clunking, squealing, banging, screeching abnormal sound coming from my trans in ALL gears except 4th... So my question is--what do y'all think it is?
I am going to pull it apart after I replace it, but I am interested in hearing some thoughts and possibilities.

And in case your wondering, I drove it 400+ miles in 4th gear, all the way to the house... I still used the other gears to get going, but 4th was it for passing and driving. Good times...

 

G52 out, W56 in, everything hooked back up. Except I have to elongate the trans tunnel hole for the t-case shifter... Yay. But I have no idea how I will cover the shifters now... I guess I have to find a cover from later model truck/Runner that had the W56 and top shift t-case in it.

I haven't disassembled the G tranny yet, but there was a good bit of silver flakes in the oil and on the mag drain plug. Tomorrow tells the tale. I'm guessing a bearing let loose.

 

Just sheet metal screw the hole(s) up and put on a new shifter. Cake.

:wabbit2:

 

Will a shifter cover from later ('86-'88ish) not work right? I guess the front of the stock cut out would prob show, right? Now to find some sheet metal... Homo Depot visit is in the works probably.

 

If you ever take a peek inside of the G52, please take some pics! I'm curious to see what happened...

 

I took the front section off, and no visible damage. Haven't fiddled with the rest of it to get it apart, but looking down into the shifter area, there are some metal pieces laying in the bottom... Maybe tomorrow I can get it apart.