Well the other day 3rd and fourth gear started grinding really bad out of nowhere and then 6th gear started grinding real bad as well! well, i bit the bullet and today i pulled the trans to inspect the damage! i change the fluid religiously (just did it 4 months ago) so i was baffled on how this could have happened 84K miles. well i removed the trans today and took it over to my bench and started the tear down. i drained the oil and immediatelynoticed the oil did not look right! i started by removing the back half of the case and started removing the snap rings and removed the rear gear sets and i pulled off a synchro and to my amazement, the whole assy looked perfect! But the paper lining was no where to be found. i found in the blocker housing assy some black goop which turned out to be the remnants of the paper lining. well after this i remove the entire rear
gearset and TO MY ASTONISHMENT THERE WAS RUST EVERYWHERE!!! My
trans had ingested water, and the water ripped off the lings on all blocking rings! the counter shaft and mainshaft were covered in a rusty goop! that is why my oil looked funny! It then hit me, I drove through standing water about a month ago on US-1 and i did not think anything of it!

Now for the good news! it looks like my insurance might cover it under my comprehensive policy due to the road being washed out! they are sending an adjuster tommorow! i am crossing my fingers. if they do, I am just going to use the money and get a new one from RPM!

I'll post pix of the damage later on!

 

Water is hard on friction linings. I see this all of the time on automatic transmissions. Water attacks the glue that is used to attatch the linings onto the steel plates and releases the lining. Flood vechicles always have problems before long even when the fluid is changed out. Keep this in mind if you ever go to purchase a used transmission and it has set outside for a while (salvage yard) and has been rained on. Very small openings (dipstick hole,vent tubes,etc....) will allow water to get in.

 

good tip!

 

What fluid were you running? I had the same problem with a customers car after he switched to Mobile One. I am not saying for sure that caused the problem but it was within 100 miles of the fluid change and the car only had 3k miles on it.
Good choice with the RPM trans, Rodney,Todd and the rest of the guys at RPM are the best I have ever dealt with.