• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Transmission finally in with new Torsen and shift forks.

B

blackstang5.0

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 27, 2005
Messages
95
Location
Minneapolis MN
Well, me and KyleQ got my car running last night with the upgraded torsen diff and shift forks and a new 3rd gear syncro and new stock svt clutch. So far im impressed with the smoothness of the shift feel and how smooth the clutch feels now.

I think why my old clutch felt so hard was because the throwout bearing was probably bad. You needed to put alot of force on the bearing to make it go up and down.

But KyleQ did an awsome job helping me get my car back and running. So thanks agan Kyle for the help. Im happy now i have my daily driver back.
 
lol, i think Kyle is going to take a break from fixing broken contour tranny's after the fun he had with mine.

The car came apart just fine, but putting it back together wasnt fun because of the fact we didnt have a good place to put tools and we also lost bolts. Dont know why i didnt get zip lock bags for the bolts now but not going to make that mistake again.
 
Yea labeled ziplock bags help quite a bit. I myself tend to make patterns on cardboard that match the component I'm taking the bolts out of and then put the bolts through the cardboard with the corresponding spot it belongs on the car. That way I know exactly where the bolts go just incase. With the ziplock bag you could end up with a bunch of bolts some longer then the others and then not know which bolt goes where.

Transaxles on these cars definately suck, I think I've done 5 swaps total including my own car.

The problems really arrise if you don't have everything you need when you start. Or as you dig into it you find other broken parts and then you don't have them available. For example on my car as I took it apart I found that I needed a new bushing for the bearing on my intermediate shaft, well as it turns out they only sell it as one piece with the shaft itself. That took 3-4 days to get the part in. Then I saw that the bushings on my lower control arm were shot and needed a new one of those. Then it was an O2 sensor wire that was touching the exhaust and smoldered the wire so I needed a new one of those. Its things like that, that make the project drone on and on.
 
lol, JoeM knows that all to well. I got lucky - I was able to get mine done flawlessly sans a $15 antisway end link. No scratches on the car, no missing parts, no bloody nuckels. I wouldn't mind doing another one, or two - it is nice getting to know other CSVT owners and in the time it takes to do this, there is plenty of opertunity.

I did use cardboard layouts on my car for the trans, everything else was pretty straight forward. I have the benefit of my parents working in the dental industry so have all sorts of 4x6 inch boxes with covers laying around. For instance, when we took off a roll resistor, the whole resistor and bolts went into its own container and was set aside. Bolts that coud be put back after a component was removed (brake bolts into caliber etc) to save time and anguish. Pictures pictures and more pictures. Take lots of close up pictures of dificult things or where certain wires go. We lucked up in this case because we had my car to refrence from. And the final thing is to have a workspace that is clean and big enough! We did Kyle's swap in a tiny detached apartment garage with crap all over the floor (no offense Kyle). We spent a god awful amount of time finding tools that we shouldn't have lost in the first place. Background music helps, and not getting rained on too :laugh:

After doing quite a few of these a good engine hoist is a must - CSVT49's hoist isn't good, the feet are too narrow and tall. Kyle got one from checker (I think) that had shorter, wider legs that completly cleared the lower subframe allowing it to hang lower and allow the transmission to slide out better.
Ok - post too long. elraido- if you ever need help, I'm down. I love it up north, where ever you are, and always willing to help another SVT owner through tough times.
 
Yeah, my garage floor was very dirty. But its actually quite clean now after i got the contour out of there and cleaned the floor.

But i think the next thing im going to get is a rolling tool bench. So that was i have a place to put all my tools instead of on the car, on the floor, in diffrent areas of the garage. I more think this is what took up most of our time then looking for bolts. Tool organization does wonders.
 
Glad to hear its back out on the road :)

My car was a pain to get the Driver Side CV Shaft out but everything else on my project went fairly smoothly... I was replacing just about everything I thought i'd ever need too just to be on the safe side.
 
Yeah, i love having it back, driving the mustang daily was an assault on all the senses all the time. Needed to get a break from that.

But i love my car now, the torsen is freaking awsome. Power is always there now, i thought getting the tune to the car was great but man with the torsen in and upgraded forks the car is a dream to drive.
 
KyleQ said:
After doing quite a few of these a good engine hoist is a must - CSVT49's hoist isn't good, the feet are too narrow and tall. Kyle got one from checker (I think) that had shorter, wider legs that completly cleared the lower subframe allowing it to hang lower and allow the transmission to slide out better.
Click to expand...

What? You must have had it hooked up on the wrong end if you had problems. If you have the hoist at an angle coming in from the front passenger side you should have no problem. I had the driverside of subframe laying on the ground when I took my transaxle out. My transaxle came out smooth as silk once everything was disconnected.

Also I don't just use that hoist on Contiques. I've pulled my engine/trans out of my Camaro at least 7 times and can do so in under an hour.

In any case my hoist folds up and takes up a 1 foot by 1 foot space, which is a must when you don't have a full blown shop to work in. Those wider ones take up a bunch of space when put away.

To each his own I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top