GT4 Zed Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 (edited) I recently got tired of my gearbox being the boss of me and ruining my enjoyment of the zed in general. For some background I got my late 2005 GT4 in late 2008 a second owner with barely 20k miles on the clock. She now seats at 100k miles of firstly daily driving and fast road, then trackdays to now an exclusive stripped track toy that is no longer daily drivable unless for some choice meets. It came with the CD0009 gearbox which was the revision of the first gearbox on the DE cars that was problematic. I believe the issue was most of the synchros where single rings and prone to failure. On the CD0009 they double the problem synchros and hence this gearbox are much sort after. Nissan further revised the CD0009 to the CD000A which triples and doubles the synchros in the weak areas. This box is very strong but pricey at £3000 and change. I considered going the breakers route but could not get comfortable with the idea of a used box which is an unknown. Secondly they seem to be pricey so I decided to research into getting my box rebuilt. There was a third option to buy the CD000A box from the U.S. But though it goes for about circa $1.7k shipping and customs will bring the price closer to an unattractive £2.5k. I was finally recommended a specialist race gearbox builder right under my nose in Worcester and because he does work by appointment only I had to beg him to do my GB. With the help of my friendly mechanic Carl we took it off under 1hr and took it to the chap. He had it stripped by next day and invited me to come and see the issues. I had always had some crunching on 6-5th changing down fast from when I got the car and 1-2nd and getting reverse was always very notched when cold. Over the years it got worse and I had to change my style to make any progress. Before this rebuild I also had intermittent crunching from 4-5th. When I got the my GB was in bits He told me what the issues with and he asked if this was what I experienced which was spot on. He actually quickly put the gears back together in seconds in front of me to show how everything works and fundamentally all GB are the same. - worn 4/5 synchro and hubset, worn 5/6syncho and hubset and water damage to the reverse synchro and hubset. The rest of the box was in very good condition. [url=http://s476.photobucket.com/user/GT4Zed/ He gave me the parts(genuine OEM) and labour breakdown and I duly tried to shop around to get the parts cheaper. I called on our usual traders, my local Nissan and looked at Ebay etc and could not beat the price. The closest was £250 off and that was importing from the states with a long wait. So I authorised the work on a Monday and agreed on collection Friday. He specialed all the parts and had them next day delivered and was done on Wednesday. I put back the FB same day and struggle with bleeding the clutch. It always takes numerous and a lengthy process to get a firm pedal until I came across a quick method to do it in 5-10mins!!!(will come to that later) Clutch was bleed on Thursday and I put fresh Motul gear 300 75w90 oil and broke in the gearbox/new clutch in the ramp with the rears lifted up. Got to drive the car over the weekend and it's just amazing!! The gears slot with 1 finger and like hot knife in butter. I'm absolutely thrilled and it's way better that my expectations. No issues cold or hot and together with my short shifter it's super quick. Now I know my gearbox is in perfect health and should last another 100k miles. It comes with 12month full parts and labour warranty and it gets cleaned in and out and painted silver or black but there was no time for mine as I'm on a deadline to get my car ready for the Ring this Friday. It cost £600 all in but should have been £700 if not for the chap who recommended me. The sad news is this chap is not terribly interested in doing our zed gearboxes as he is into big money racing sequential boxes etc and is oversubscribed but I can get my mate to setup a limited run of ~3 maybe up to 5 rebuilds if the interest was there. Pm if any interested. See my soon to posted z speed Tilton racing master cylinder kit installation with ACT 6 puck clutch and JWT HD clutch cover. The quick clutch bleed techniques described applies even to OEM set up. Edited June 24, 2015 by GT4 Zed 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Looks like you found a really good guy there. Shame there's not someone on the club who is capable of knocking these out. Really tempted to do mine, and I appreciate its a great deal but its still £6-700. Did he just fix what was broken then? or was he able to do anything to prevent it happening in the future, like what has been done on the CD009A's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boulderman1988 Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi i am extremely interested in getting this done - any chance you could reveal the mystery workshop so i can get in touch?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 (edited) Sorry not checked back this thread. @cs2000: The refurb meaner a complete replacement of any thing that is not fit for purpose so the GB ooerates like new. Pm if you are seriously considering this. @ boulderman: as stated pm if seriously interested. I can't give you details as it's by appointment only. If he chooses to do a few more refurbs you can have all his credentials before the job. There will first be an inspection before w firm quote. You can always pull out. All work comes with 12 months warranty full parts and labour. Edited July 17, 2015 by GT4 Zed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggalo Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Not a bad price for piece of mind. Have to admit, the gearbox in the Z is the worst part of the car. Mines fine through all the gears, but try and jump from 6th to 4th, or 5th to 3rd and it's like hitting a brick wall. never experienced a box like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 Not a bad price for piece of mind. Have to admit, the gearbox in the Z is the worst part of the car. Mines fine through all the gears, but try and jump from 6th to 4th, or 5th to 3rd and it's like hitting a brick wall. never experienced a box like it. Do you mean it's crunching or refusing to get it? Mine is so smooth in every which way now👠Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggalo Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Not a bad price for piece of mind. Have to admit, the gearbox in the Z is the worst part of the car. Mines fine through all the gears, but try and jump from 6th to 4th, or 5th to 3rd and it's like hitting a brick wall. never experienced a box like it. Do you mean it's crunching or refusing to get it? Mine is so smooth in every which way nowí ½í± Just refuses to go in. You have to go through the gears, which is lame as hell for a sports car. I think I'll do what you did and have it rebuilt.It's the only thing that lets down an otherwise great drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 Just reviving this for all those with GB problems. Why try to get this or that part when you can get someone .......a Specislist do all the donkey work and you get a refurbished GB with warranty for peace of mind. My experience was that there is more damage that you always think and it's not just to replace a synchro or bearing and put it together. You also have to put it right. My box works better that when new and is riffle precise. All the internal parts can be hard from specialist manufacturers as they are not Nissan specific. Some parts were uprated and some were OEM or OEM spec. There are gearbox specialist all over the country so get researching unless you want to use this shop. Turn around will be about 3-4 days drive in and out unless you ship your box. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobPhoboS Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Cheers for the heads up. I thought I was having similar problems, so would often have to go: 1-N-2 6-N-5 After having Sly pop the Torque Solutions transmission mount in, that's pretty much eradicated the problems (I still take time going into R). I imagine I have some worn parts as well but it's not had any track use (YET!!!), however I tend to do preventative work so next year I'd look into this mate 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.