M32 Trans Teardown

[Preloader]

Says 56 teeth. Hmmmm. BRB.

 

[Preloader]

Mine has 59.

But I may as well contact him and ask if he has any leads.

Thanks for the link.

 

[mitdr774]

I really did not want to be correct on my guess. This does bother me quite a bit. I recall a thread about bronze replacement tips, but I can not seem to find it right now.

 

[$ub$onic]

I don't know about you but every time I count a gear I always loose track. Your 3 teeth off. You could have miss counted . Just saying

Your welcome

 

[firstorbit84]

This thread is like crowd-source engineering/troubleshooting.

Where's our resident customer service rep? Can she please show this thread to the engineers who diagnose problems from multiple warranty claims?

It just started getting colder here in Jax, and on a cold morning the other day I started to notice the 3rd gear grind while driving pretty easy.

 

[$ub$onic]

This problem is why I'm having a hard time justifying spending the money on a m32 swap.

The f17 may be weaker but at least it's pretty reliable

 

[mitdr774]

The F17 probably has the same crappy plastic tips. GM has know about this being an issue for probably pushing a decade. It is the same as the sway bar end link issues. the manufactures know and dont care.



I wonder if we can get a vendor to make bronze tips?? This is a T56 kit, but i think these would be more reliable than plastic.

 

[Preloader]

Mmmmm. do want. How exactly are they fastened to the fork tips. The plastic ones appear to be hot pressed on. I wouldn't even feel comfortable putting new plastic ones on. i'd prefer to replace the whole fork at this point.

 

[mitdr774]

I dont know how they are fastened. I assume they are just held in by alignment pins and the fact that they have no room to fall away from the fork. From what I recall the ones that someone did for the F23 were brazed on. I cant find the thread about it though.

 

[Chevrolet Customer Care]

Hello All,

I can reach out to my internal resources. Please clarify if I am misunderstanding your concern. You guys are experiencing a grind noise with the third gear.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[Preloader]

Now we're talking. Brass or bronze could definitely be brazed to steel. I would feel damn confident with that option.

I'm uncertain if the failed tip fell off or split apart. I found half of it hiding in between 1st and 2nd. And the other half was digested through the worm teeth and is now in 1,000 little pieces.

 

[Preloader]

Hello All,

I can reach out to my internal resources. Please clarify if I am misunderstanding your concern. You guys are experiencing a grind noise with the third gear.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Care

2nd gear is the popular problem. I doubt there is a single GM dealership in the country that hasn't had a Sonic owner with an M32 transmission show up asking about the 2nd gear grind. Chevy must be aware of it.

The 3rd gear grind is less common, but has happened to a couple of us.

By all means, see if you can dig up an official response from the mothership.

 

[mitdr774]

The F23 ones split and fell off from what I recall. I wonder if this is also part of the cause of the F17 1-2 shift grind?? The tips might be flexible enough that they give on a hard shift and it causes a partial engagement. I wonder if the European market M32s have plastic tips as well?

I wonder if a vendor would be interested in offering replacement forks with new tips brazed on.

 

[Preloader]

The F23 ones split and fell off from what I recall. I wonder if this is also part of the cause of the F17 1-2 shift grind?? The tips might be flexible enough that they give on a hard shift and it causes a partial engagement. I wonder if the European market M32s have plastic tips as well?

I wonder if a vendor would be interested in offering replacement forks with new tips brazed on.

Fark that. Don't we have our very own blacksmith. Where you at Swordsmith?

And yes, I feel that the cheap tips may be involved in the 2nd gear grind. 2nd being the smallest gear you'll shift into at high revs, alignment of the synch collar is CRITICAL.

 

[mitdr774]

I wish I could talk to some of the GM engineers at the Tech Center and explain some issues and ideas on the forum, but I am not allowed to talk to the customer while working. I think that some of the GM people need to pay more attention to the forums.

 

[Preloader]

I dropped a line over on the Vaux forum. We'll se if they have made any progress on this issue.

Feel free to follow along.

M32 query

 

[laborsmith]

I wish I could talk to some of the GM engineers at the Tech Center and explain some issues and ideas on the forum, but I am not allowed to talk to the customer while working. I think that some of the GM people need to pay more attention to the forums.

Second that motion.

Laborsmith

 

[Preloader]

I wish I could talk to some of the GM engineers at the Tech Center and explain some issues and ideas on the forum, but I am not allowed to talk to the customer while working. I think that some of the GM people need to pay more attention to the forums.

I'm sure there is some sneaky way to get one of them the message.
In prison it's called "fly a kite".

 

[sx sonic]

I wish I could talk to some of the GM engineers at the Tech Center and explain some issues and ideas on the forum, but I am not allowed to talk to the customer while working. I think that some of the GM people need to pay more attention to the forums.

I'm sure, depending on who you talked to you'd get the following response.
- Don't know nuttin about it.
-Can't figure out the cause
-Found the issue but can't get a proper replacement approved.
- Gawd dam bleepedy bleep bleeping bean counters won't bleeping let us fix this bleeping simple problem.
Or
-I can count to potato!


Honestly GM could do wonders for itself in terms of warranty cost and brand loyalty by avoiding "bean counter" decisions like this and the current sway bar links. Known crap designs.

But what do I know. It's probably way more cost effective to save a couple $$$ on the assembly line and eat the countless hours of diag+ labor time and trans replacements (throw sway bar links in there too.

Can't forget the time the engineers spending on tech cases trying to find a repair method or tracking the source of the issue. Oh and ofcourse the potential buyers that are scared off from these potential issues and buyers that will not return to GM because of a failure to remedy the issue clears throat: Klystron).

Maybe It's just me.
BTW if the source of the issue was a $10 part and 100,000 M32s were shipped it would only take 1,334 trans replacements for GM to break even on specing a better part. In otherwords if only 1.3% of the trans had issues requiring replacement GM would come out ahead dollar wise. That's assuming a trans replacement cost GM $750 for parts and labor. If your including loaner cost, case technician involvement, and field engineer time then $750 looks really, really conservative for trans replacement cost; and completely disregarding future purchases that may be associated with such an issue

 

[Crazzyboy]

Oh how I love teardown threads with pics. The comments and discussion here are very very interesting