ok. i guess this rig is trying to tell me that it never wants to go offroad.

per russell's suggestion in my other post i pulled the cables off the throttle body and cruise control to lube them up. when i reassembled everything i found that the tranny throttle cable was stuck and wouldn't retract back in to the sleeve. try as i might it wasn't happening.

i just searched and found that i have to drop the pan, remove a bunch of linkage just to swap it out.

given what i've been thru so far, is this something i should attempt? or am i finally at a place that i need to call a shop?

or should i just swap the old transmission back in?

in the immortal words of charlie brown... "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

screw it. i didn't come this far to hire a shop. given everything else i've done on this rig i'm doing this myself, too.

why you ask? when all the other threads say this is a job for a shop? well, the 2 "reputable/trustworthy" shops around here are quoting at least $600 and at least 3 weeks to get it done. it was weird, the minute i said 1990 mitsu montero they got real quiet and said it would take two weeks just to order the parts. funny, i'm not a pro and i'll have them here in 3 days without rush shipping. wtf? anyway...

i've found some info in the trans manual regarding removal of the valve body. i also found an old thread that gives the basics of this job and says i need 3 gaskets but doesn't explain which they are. i ordered 2 valve body gaskets and a new pan gasket. are these the correct 3?

ordered the new cable as well. (i have a spare from the old trans but with 200k on it i'd rather be safe than sorry.)

fast eddy - feel free to throw in as much advice and expertise as you feel necessary.

you can change it without dropping the valvebody you will need a long skinny pair of needle nose pliers once you get the pan off takes bout 10 minutes

that's good to know. care to share any more details? never been in there before.

thx!

Will you be naming your Montero? Lucy?

maybe WOMBAT. Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time. I'm out of money, time, and damn near patience. Honestly Russell, i am soooo very close to scrapping, or driving it into the ocean that it's not even funny...

It's not a lemon, IT'S THE WHOLE DAMN TREE.

Ditto Mikie....

can't seem to find the details in the FSM. can anyone tell me where to look, or what to look for once i drop the pan? or is it just that self explanatory. maybe i'm overthinking this, but i like to be prepared. and, well, this is a transmission which means its full of voodoo & hoodoo.

There's a cam thing in there like the throttle cam, with a groove around the outside and a notch thing to put the cylindeer end of the cable into. The cable just presses into the case. Unhook the cylinder thing like unhooking a throttle cable, unthread the cable housing from the case, reverse to install.

If you can get the cable moving again try some dri-slide http://www.amazon.com/Bike-Dri-Slide-4oz-Needle-Nozzle/dp/B001F2Y25G . Stuff works great. My trans cable was sticking and I tried a bunch of penetrating oils and cable lubes only to have it stick again after a few days. With the dri-slide I lube once a month and no problems since.