Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[metroschultz]

My old tranny is at CoyoteX place.
Go get it, he's got others too.
S.

[bennelson]

Call me impulsive, but I found a Tranny at a junk yard.

$100 and it looks good.

I only got such a good price because I stopped there the other day and the guy showed me one I could have for $100. It looked all wrong. It may even have been an automatic transmission.

I stopped back in today with my adapter plate, tranny, and coupler to compare them on the transmission they had there. Yep. It was all wrong. However, 4 transmissions over was one which looked right.

It only had a tag on it saying "'92 Metro".

The adapter plate fit (minus the alignment pins, which the machinist pulled out for me on my tranny) and the coupler fit the input shaft.

I also lugged my transmission back there and compared the two. As far as I can tell, they ARE the exact same. I put junkyards transmission through the gears, and it seems to spin fine in all of them. In fact, it shifted into gears easier than mine does. I think that's a good sign.

They couldn't find this transmission in their computer system anywhere. The clerk was a woman I had seen there before, but wasn't the guy I spoke to a few days earlier, who walked by briefly and confirmed my story that he offered a certain transmission to me for $100.
When I went to check out, the woman said "$100 bucks, huh?". I readily agreed and forked over a Benjamin plus tax.

All other tranmissions I have seen kicking around for Metros have been 3-5 hundred dollars. There is another local junkyard that has a 95 or 96 Geo Metro with the transmission still in it, that the guy said I could get for $275.


Either I just got a piece of junk and wasted my time and $100, or I just got a REALLY good deal.

-Ben

[Clev]

Geez, I never realized how good we have it out West. I have a '90 Accord with 285K miles on it, and the only rust (other than light surface rust on the drums and such) is where some paint was scraped off the trunk lid. Maybe I could make a profit transporting clean Metros and other high mileage cars to the salt belt for sale. :-)

Ben, regarding your headlights, try flipping on the highbeams. If they work, or if jiggling the stalk causes the headlights to flicker, the problem is burned contacts in the turn signal stalk. I replaced two stalks in my '99 Metro in the 165,000 miles I owned it. (Both times the headlights went out at particularly scary times, but the highbeams still worked.)


Tim

[MetroMPG]

I've read that about the Metro stalks being troublesome also.

Ben: good price on the transmission. About the worst you could expect is that the 2nd gear synchro is worn. That's common.

[Johnny Mullet]

Originally Posted by Clev

Maybe I could make a profit transporting clean Metros to the salt belt for sale. :-)

Metro/Swift cars are a very rare find in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and other states with rust issues. I see maybe one a week around here and know for a fact I have the only Metro in my town.

[Tango Charlie]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Call me impulsive, but I found a Tranny at a junk yard.

$100 and it looks good.

-Ben

I could make a really poor joke in really poor taste...
but I won't.


Ben, it sounds like you're giving Darin a run for his money in the deal-finding parts-scrounging bottom-line-suppressing category!
Nice find on the transaxle!

[bennelson]

Ah yes, I just got that joke.

Good thing I tried doing a web search for "Geo Metro Transmission" rather than just "tranny".

Thank goodness for Google's Moderate Safe Search!

[bennelson]

Here are some photo updates for your pleasure!


The newly green epoxied field coils re-installed.


Junkyard transmission double-take.


Junk in the trunk. Looks like 4 batteries fit in back. Might be able to squeeze 5 back there.

[MetroMPG]

The green guts in your motor look excellent!

[MPaulHolmes]

Your motor looks new! I really should do something like that. Wow! Beautiful!