JoKEpLaYeR

Can't help you with a shop in San Jose.... but Walnut Creek Transmission rebuilt my W56 tranny after the 4th gear synchos went out and it has been running super smooth. A buddy of mine with a '67 mustang had his auto tranny rebuilt there and he has been really happy with it for many years now. He's pushing ALOT of power through it too.... upwards of 400hp.

pruney81

If you want something in San Jose, just look in the phone book, call until you find one you like. If not, Marlin. When I called him to order mine last year they answered right away.

Tool Pants

A year later my 5th gear was getting real noisy.

I found Auto Gears in Santa Clara by chance. 1427 Laurelwood Road. I went to a new independent Porsche shop called RennShop to check it out and because I need a new clutch in my Boxster. While I was driving around the auto repair complex I saw a truck like mine on the lift, next to the Porsche shop.

I looked inside Auto Gears and there were Toyota transmissions and rear ends and so on all over the place. I met Manjit who owns the shop with his son. He rebuilds transmissions and just about anything else on a Toyota. Manjit said he would rebuild my transmission for $300 labor, plus parts.

I went by today and my transmission is in boxes. He did such a good job cleaning stuff I thought he had to buy new gears.



He even painted the case!



Sure enough I had a bad 5th gear bearing as I suspected. Manjit also showed me that the input shaft bearing was also bad.

Here is the rebuild kit. Japanese bearings, syncros, oil seals, and gaskets. My flywheel is also going to be resurfaced. Then my transmission goes back together.

Tool Pants

Picked up the truck today from Manjit. He really knows Toyotas. My heater has not worked well in a few years and I might go back to have the heater core replaced.

This is a picture of my old parts, including the rear oil seal. Since I have 155,000 miles I asked Manjit to replace the seal since the transmission flywheel was out to be resurfaced. So now I have a rebuilt transmission, resurfaced flywheel, new shift lever seat and rear oil seal, and a new clutch kit.

$861 for labor and parts. $100 of that is the labor to pull and remove the transmission. At first I was going to pull it myself, but I'm too old to be on my back under the truck.

The bearing noise and my clutch chatter is now gone.

Mainjit showed me the 2 bad bearings. The mainshaft bearing was really bad and that is what was causing the noise. The input shaft bearing was starting to go as well -but not enough to make noise. When in 5th gear there is an extra load on the mainshaft, so that is why it was loudest in 5th. There is not actually a bearing for 5th gear. 4th gear is direct drive where the input and main shaft are locked together, and that is why I had no noise in 4th gear.

Drives like it did when I bought it 19 years ago.

Manjit told me that none of the transmissions I considered buying in the pictures above are for my truck. The intermediate plate or whatever it is called is aluminum on a W55 and the pictures show a cast iron plate.

84sr5yoty

Thanks for the update.

I'm only 30 min from San Jose, so I'll probably have Manjit rebuild mine when the time comes.

Tool Pants

I was at the Porsche shop yesterday to say hi to the owner.

Next door was Manjit working away. When I first met him he was doing a ground up restoration of a Land Cruiser, so I checked on the progress. What looked like a new looking rebuilt engine was in the vehicle.

I asked him where he buys rebuilt Toyota engines. He does not. He rebuilds them himself. Said in his past life he worked for Mercedes in Germany assembling new engines - which was easy work.

I asked Manjit if I could take pictures of his shop, and here they are. No wonder it is called Auto Gears.

If anyone stops by MS Auto Gears tell Manjit Jeff Lopez sent you. He may not remember my name so tell him I am the Boxster owner who had the clutch replaced next door by Marvin of RennShop.