Curiosity Rover Composites on GigaPan

'Sorry to hear about your tranny going out!

FWIW: I actually took a course in automatic transmission rebuilding at a junior college once. It is always easier to swap out a transmission than it is to rebuild one. If your transmission is longitudinal (front to back) then it is fairly easy to remove but it is so large and heavy that special tools may be required. If your transmission is a transverse (Left to right; a transaxle, actually.) then it is small enough to handle but you will have to remove a bunch of stuff (Read: “Take half the engine apart.”) just to get to it.

If you can find someone who re-sells older transmissions and installs them then this is your least expensive option. If you buy a new one then it is going to cost you at least an arm if not a leg too.

Nice Gigapans! Thank you & thumbs up!

Cheers CQ

Many moons ago when I had the little hooligan 2 strokers stripping the gearbox down was a sinch - but they are so small and simple in comparison to a modern car gearbox / transmission -

Me and a friend replaced the clutch just over a year ago, no mean feat on the drive outside the house & for a couple of basic diy mechanics like me and my friend! lol...


The car has the small transaxle box, but there's a subframe and Mcpherson strut assembly to strip to get the anti roll strut brace assembly out enough to remove the whole subframe / wishbone assembly... then there's the turbo gubbins running across the top so this lot has to come out to gain access enough to get the the top bell housing and finally release the clutch / pressure plate and hydraulic thrust bearing and crack the box + bell housing off in one go.... Still bloody heavy mind, I had jelly arms by the end! This I really dont want to do again... ever!!

The cars old now too, 2002 and it's served me well, even with all its faults. I have had it for 5 years and put just over 100,000 miles onto the old girl - sitting at 248,564 miles - Just about get you to the moon those miles! I will miss the 303ft pound of torque the Ghia X was blessed with... It surprised many an idiot! he he he

I've actually bought an American Brand car, a Chevy' however its roots are firmly in Korea & France after a little research!

It sounds like you have had some good hands-on experience and you know what you're talking about. That's good.

My last vehicle was a 1995 Chevy G-20 van with a 4.3l V-6. The reverse went out in the tranny and everything else fell to pieces but the engine was good until the end. (It finally got totalled in the middle of the night by a drunk lady running into it and bending the frame on her way home from a bar. After that I even drove it around the corner on only three wheels. "It takes a kickin' and keeps on ticking.")

That being said, most corporations are international in scope now and very little manufacturing actually goes on in America. So buying Chevy is now pretty much a crap-shoot when it comes to quality.Good luck!

Far too much experience with this car, it's been a love hate relationship, it loves to make me hate it with the odd good day in between!

I had to get my head around not only the mechanical side, but also the OBDII side of programming the thing too - I had many an injector failure - thanks to Ford and Delphi ramping the common rail pressure and tollerances way higher than they should have really - It leaves no room for a tiny drop in pressure or fuel feed - being the first model in Europe to have the common rail diesel set up running at 260 Bar along the Rail!! Easily enough to find any weak point & take your fingers off! But quick enough to compete with the German equivelant (ie; VW Passat / BMW 2 series but at half the price OTR) I bought an ELM unit and used some clever Russian made software to save a fortune in repair & diagnostic etc... Sometime the damn thing would just drop its calibration codes and run like a sack of spuds... 2 mins and a few hex codes later right as rain again... Damn thing!! lol

I do like the simplicity of the petrol unit over turbo diesel - even if the power delivery feels like your ringing its neck! he he he - Petrol is simple in comparison to the new derv lumps.

Back OT lol

Here's a rather noisy Sol 2104 Left Mastcam Mosaic @ 200%

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209563

While my present vehicle has an OBDC II, my Chevy G-20 had an OBDC I. I could read the engine codes using only a paper clip. They were pretty simple too. But I am glad it died because it loved to make me hate it too; nothing but repairs....except for the engine.

PS
I like your Gigapans!

MSL Curiosity Rover - Sol 1434 - M100 / Right Mastcam [Pds] Enlarged w/filters

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209589

MSL Curiosity Rover - Sol 1434 - Right Mastcam (M100) Mosaic 2 [Pds] Enlarged w/filters

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209590

MSL Curiosity Rover - Sol 1003 Right Mastcam Composite [Pds @ 300%]

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209583

MSL Curiosity Rover - Sol 164 Right Mastcam Composite @ 300%

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209591

MSL Curiosity Rover - Sol 1688 M34 Left Mastcam Mosaic

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/209594