94 Celica GT ST215 Transmission Advice Options

[Kevchek]

First off, my names Kevin. I’m new to the forums over here. I’ve owned my st215 swapped gt for about 2-3 years now. It was stock when I bought it, the turbo went so I slapped a ctx15b 58mm on there and drove the piss out of it until I finally threw a rod and piston out the side of the block. It sat for about a year and a half and I’m finally buying a new motor and bringing Cali back to life. I pulled the motor and trans this past weekend and decided to see how much a rebuild would cost on the s54 transmission. The trans would grind third on downshift unless I revmatched and shifted without the clutch. I figured it would only be as simple as syncros. Well that wasn’t the case, turns out everything needs replacement. I got a quote from a very reputable shop, that I’ve used for years, with a price tag of 2100$! For a transmission that was only meant to handle 200hp. I thinks that’s insane. I was looking into an e153 lsd from an Mr2. If that’s even possible how can I achieve it. Basically I’m looking for a better alternative than the piece of garbage s54. Suggestions ?

[slavie]

Also, why did the shop tell you everything needs to be replaced in your S-box? If it is still shifting in all gears, then at most you need the 3rd gear synchro and maybe the gear itself if it's worn. That's $300-$400 in parts from the dealer, less if aftermarket (though tough to get individual parts as aftermarket just sells whole kits). If you want to rebuild the whole gearbox and replace ALL synchros and bearings then yes, $2100 seems reasonable, but that's rarely needed if all the box does is grind 3rd but functions otherwise. So yea, repair vs total rebuild.

I've repaired a few of the S boxes by now and it's a pretty straight forward job to just replace the synchro.