The symptoms —
A bit more difficult to get into any gear, just a little. I thought this would mean shifter bushing and replaced them even though they looked fine- no real difference in shifting.
Then changed trans fluid, made no difference.
Then noticed erratic speedo !! I had a little needle bounce before and was told and read about the slotted nut. But the little bounce was minimal until now — it was erratic.
At the same time, felt a strange shift into 4th, like I didn’t push the clutch all the way.
The Diagnosis—
Read everything I could and deduced the 250 had every symptom of a loose slotted nut at the output flange of the trans.
Now what —-
Being in Chicago (for work and having brought the 250 here) I really didn’t have the resources to do this work nor did I know of a shop that could do it. I talked to member Tyler who has done this before to pick his brain and got great advice in addition to Joe Alexander’s great write ups.
I had met Mark, member name “Iconic” at the Virginia PUB and also at Chicago Pagodafest - and he is close to Chicago. I asked if he knew a shop that could do this as I was quite intimidated. Mark offered to help and offered for me to come to his home and we could use his lift!
This was a game changer.
The work—
Armed with the special tool for the slotted nut, I got the car to Mark’s home.
We lifted the car, supported the trans, removed the trans support plate, removed the trans mount, removed bolts from the flex disc, removed the bolts at the driveshaft center support, and disconnected the driveshaft at the differential. We decided to not try and disconnect the slip joint nuts as these have been known to be quite difficult, hence we removed the bolts at the differential. Mark has battled the slip joint nuts before.
Moved the driveshaft back to have access to the slotted nut.
Wow - the issue was beyond obvious - the slotted nut was sooooo loose that I could turn it by hand. Used the special tool and was quite surprised how many turns it took to tighten the slotted nut.
Now time to put it all back together- Mark did the heavy lifting here as he has a special ability to get bolts and nuts lined up and started. Really helped a lot.
So incredibly nice of Mark to not only offer his lift but to help do so much of the work. It’s quite amazing the help you can get 2100 miles from home base. This forum has these kinds of people.
Test drive - easy shifting like before, smooth speedo and no issues going into all gears nicely.
Thanks to Joe A for always stating that folks should not ignore these symptoms, thanks to Tyler for giving great advice and of course to Mark for making it happen.
We got dirty as my car is a serious and filthy driver.
