Citroen D35 Transaxle Rebuilder?

[deecee]

I have an 86 Esprit and am interested in having the Transaxle Rebuilt. It was suffering from Red Hose Syndrome (since corrected)and although I don't suspect much is wrong other than a few chipped Synchros, I would rather get it done while it still is out of the car.

One last question, has anyone retro'd the Renault Box into a pre 89 Esprit and how difficult was it?

Thanks!

[lotusguy]

I have an 86 Esprit and am interested in having the Transaxle Rebuilt. It was suffering from Red Hose Syndrome (since corrected)and although I don't suspect much is wrong other than a few chipped Synchros, I would rather get it done while it still is out of the car.

One last question, has anyone retro'd the Renault Box into a pre 89 Esprit and how difficult was it?

Thanks!

DeeCee,
There isn't really much to do when rebuilding a Citroen C-35 box. You basically have two bearings and the synchros, assuming that your half shafts are tight and don't leak, there is really nothing left to do except swap the synchros. LCU will totally rebuild it for slightly less than $4,000, I am not sure the extent of this rebuild whether they replace everything, or just that which needs replacement. I rebuilt my C-35 box this past summer, replacing only the prinary and secondary shaft bearings (not that they were needed, but they are cheap and the box was open) and the 2,3,4 synchros, which again were in ok shape. All the dogs were good as were the forks, CW&P etc.
It is really pretty easy to do yourself, if you have even a passing knowledge of transmissions and do not separate the various spacers etc. If you do, then you'll need a vernier and runout dial to reset everything. If not, it should take less than 4 or 5 hours to do what I did. I have since put nearly 5,000 trouble free miles on it and it works better than it ever has. The only issue is the speedo worm drive which also acts as the retaining bolt for the secondary shaft. There are 2 flats on this which are 36MM, but only 0.200" wide, so you need a special tool which of course is made of 'Unobtainium'. I bought a regualr 36MM wrench and had it machined to the proper width and it works fine, If I had to do it again, I'd use a crowsfoot wrench and machine it down to what I need instead, but what I had made up worked just fine. I have some technical drawings of the wrench and worm gear. If you'd like a set, offlist me and I'll send them to you.
Why would you want to retrofit a renault box into your car? It's an urban legend that it is a better box. If your C-35 is in good order, it should give years of trouble free performance. We drive our cars much differently than most europeans, and this car and tranny was designed by them using their driving styles as the guide. If you peruse the UK Turbo Esprit List, you rarely see the transmission woes expressed by US owners. As a group, we simply don't know how to drive the car. We are used to high torque V8's with 3 or 4 speeds which are so overbuilt as to border on the rediculous. They take miles and miles or abuse. The renault bax is really no better than the C-35 box, if you drive it the same way. The only reason Lotus shifted to this box was their anticipation of the V8 which exceeded the horsepower rating of the Citroen box, it was not to solve any reliability issues...Jim '85TE

[dsvitesse]

Now you have the transaxle out the car and needs overhauling, you might consider different gearratios aswell. I can send you the possible ratios or you can find them on the Yahoo list S1S2owners in the section Files, named : overbrengverhoudingen.

Harry Martens
www.ds-vitesse.com