Well this past weekend I took my Cobra down to the shops here with my best friend who took his F-150 down as well. He was having a cylinder misfire and was going to change the spark plugs. After some diagnosis he was able to figure out it was a coil that needed replaced and got it all taken care of. While he was doing this, I was putting new spark plugs in, new fuel filter, fuel injector cleaner, wash, clay bar, wax, cleaned and conditioned the interior, and finally detailed the engine.





Well, then the fun started... Let me first say, that I've let one other person drive Ashley (yes the Cobra has a name ) the entire time I've owned her. My best friend, the same one from above, and my Dad are the only two people I would trust to touch my car.

My friend and I went and grabbed lunch together then I was going to drop him off on my way back to school. I tossed him the keys as we left to drive it to where I was dropping it off since it wasn't very far and he'd really been wanting to drive it. Well, I don't think he listened those times I told him there was no point in running my car all the way to redline the way the power curve is... He was getting on it pretty hard and didn't have the clutch all the way in when he slammed it into second at redline. The tranny didn't like that too well and got stuck in first gear, no matter what either of us did. I was kind of in shock at this point because my Baby that I had spent the whole day detailing was now non-op.
After some phone calls and trips to Advance Auto Parts we tracked down a guy with a 97 Cobra tranny that he ended up not using for a project and he sold it to us for a real good price.

We spent the next day swapping the transmission out on the car and were done by early afternoon. All in all things worked out the best they could have. Found a new transmission the same day for a reasonable price, and had it in the car working the next day. The guy at Advance that found the tranny for us is going to try and rebuild the old one depending on the damage and allow us to sell it minus cost of parts. My friend payed for the new tranny, and spent the day helping me put it in. All in all, things worked out... as long as I can replace the oxygen sensor today that we broke

Here's some pics and video from the swap...



Old transmission


New Transmission


Shifter all cleaned before re-installation


New Trans in place


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QivVW_ZxAg

Thanks for looking and sorry for the long read!

 

You've got a clean undercarriage. Consider me jealous.

 

You going to let your friend drive the Cobra again?

Glad everything worked out!

 

Thank you, I wish it was cleaner lol but crawling under the car to scrub it when it gets a wash isn't the most practical thing lol.

I definitely won't be going out of my way to let him for a while lol, but to be honest I'd probably trust him more now just because he's too afraid to try anything with it again.

 

Ive got a friend like that. He was there when I bought the car and he even test drove it before I bought. Now that it's mine... Different story lol.


PS. My ponys name is Leela

 

Now that I look at the picture again and I'm so lucid... (at 1:12 in the morning...) do you have a leak in your tailshaft seal? It looks like you're probably leaking a little tranny fluid that's getting flung off the driveshaft. I guess since you have a new tranny now it doesn't really matter, but maybe low fluid was part of the failure?

 

Is that something that I would have noticed a puddle dripping from just sitting? The picture makes it look worse than it is, but I did notice that spray when we were doing the swap.

 

It probably was much worse during driving since the seal against a moving part is much less than on a static part. I would assume that with such a relatively small amount on the tranny tunnel, that it would not have dripped much, if at all.

 

Keep the stock trans and put it back in after you get it rebuilt. Numbers matching cars are worth a few pennies more

 

In a non-stock Cobra? Probably not worth it...

 

I'm going to stick with the tranny that we put in it. I plan on continuing to modify the car, and the new tranny has 30000 less miles on it then the original.

I'll keep an eye on the tranny fluid with the new one.

 

Any "friend" that beats up on another man's car is like a "friend" that sleeps with your wife (or girlfriend)! No respect! I'd watch that dude!

 

Lol, normally I would agree with you. He's actually the guy who helped me learn a lot of the techniques to driving a manual, not to mention my best friend whom I greatly trust. I was in the car with him and didn't mind him getting on it pretty good. He just sold a built 5.0 Cobra, so he's familiar with driving a manual Cobra. On top of all that he payed for the new tranny and helped me replace it. Even IF I did let him drive it again he wouldn't want to because he's afraid he'll break something again.

 

I stand corrected! I could use some new friends! Have him come over and work on my car! Tell him to bring a supercharger!