I've just bought a Fairlady Z 1991 model. Driving it from Glasgow to Slough (near Heathrow Airport) I was doing 140 Km/h (Jap import) when the box made a howling noise for about three or four seconds, and then seemed to be okay again. However, I looked at the rev counter and found I was doing about 5000 rpm at that speed (about 95 mph?). I didn't think this was right, so I stopped at Windermere services, and found, when I tried to park the car, that I had no reverse gear, and when shifting into reverse, there was a horrible noise from the box; forward gears seemed to work though. From then on, it was a long ride home in ana RAC recovery truck!!!! I won't go into details as to how much grief getting the car off the flat bed caused, but suffice to say, it was a very long day!!!!!! I've since ordered a secondhand box from Nippon Spares in Stratford East London, and over the next couple of weekends will fit it. My question is:-

 

Before fitting the replacement box, what do I need to check? The box comes with a torque converter, and is completely drained of fluid. I will check and replace the filter in the sump, but is there anything else I can check before I fit the trans to my car? Oh, by the way, how much fluid do I need to fill from empty?

I had exactly the same problem, got home at 1am, went to back the car into the garage and had no reverse. Had to get my Dad out of bed and the two of us couldn't push the lardy beast up the incline so we used an engine hoist attached to part of the garage holding the roof up to winch it in. Luckily the roof didn't collapse.

 

When putting the box back in add an external oil cooler so this doesn't happen again. It can be fitted just behind the front bumper slightly to the drivers side of centre

 

 

 

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Hi Rob - sorry can't help with the tech question but since you're in Slough (commiserations) you might like to see this

http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/ubbforum/Forum4/HTML/000054.html

 

I'm sure that one or other of the massively brained tech gurus who might be coming would have some info. Welcome to the madhouse, anyway!