For Those that have Lost a BA 10/5.......

[desertred]

How did the demise of the tranny manifest itself? Did it seize up or let you know the ghost was leaving in some other manner? I have 237K on the original Peugeot. No real issues with the tranny, except that it has started kicking out of reverse gear as I'm backing up on cold morning starts. It may be weather related (cold - in the teens lately), but that has got me wondering. Other than that, no issues except that its leaking fluid everywhere.

 

[1985xjlaredo]

It will kick out of gear it will loose fluid and the synchronizers will go bad. Never heard of one just locking up though,just keep fluid in it and hold ir in reverse.

 

[desertred]

Sounds like I might be experiencing the beginning of the end. What is a reasonable price for rebuilding the transmission or buying a rebuilt one? I'm also reading the AX15 swap thread.

 

[old_man]

AX15 is definately an upgrade. Watch what oil you use in the AX15

 

[5-90]

How did the demise of the tranny manifest itself? Did it seize up or let you know the ghost was leaving in some other manner? I have 237K on the original Peugeot. No real issues with the tranny, except that it has started kicking out of reverse gear as I'm backing up on cold morning starts. It may be weather related (cold - in the teens lately), but that has got me wondering. Other than that, no issues except that its leaking fluid everywhere.

Been through four. In each case, first gear became progressively useless, and reverse wasn't far behind. Two of them were stripping second gear as well.

This was caused by the gear teeth being too hard (therefore, too brittle) for the loads on them - when I say the gear "stripped," I mean the teeth were literally chewed off. It looks like the gear had been chucked in a lathe and had a rather bad bit used to turn the teeth off, one of them had no teeth left on the first range countergear, all of them has lost better than half of the teeth on the first range maingear.

 

[desertred]

What kind of loads did you place on the transmission? I don't go any towing; just carrying light weight loads on the roof with no hard off roading. That could be why my tranny has lasted as long as it has. I have no had any issues with any gears other than reverse on first use on very cold mornings. Once the transmission is warmed up, I have not had any issues using reverse.

 

[gradon]

I managed to not have any issues with the ones in the 88 XJ and MJ, but BA humbug!

 

[kastein]

the pukegoats were marginal even in a stock vehicle from what I understand... I'd AX15 swap it. I think even an AX5 is an upgrade if you can find the right bellhousing? not sure.

Drain the fluid and see if you can get a sample of any of the shavings or fragments in the pan. In general, the bigger they are, the more you need to worry, and the more there are, the more you need to worry!

As mentioned, the AX15 has brass synchros, so be careful with the fluid you use in it. Mine is perfectly happy running on 10W30 Mobil 1 motor oil.

 

[5-90]

What kind of loads did you place on the transmission? I don't go any towing; just carrying light weight loads on the roof with no hard off roading. That could be why my tranny has lasted as long as it has. I have no had any issues with any gears other than reverse on first use on very cold mornings. Once the transmission is warmed up, I have not had any issues using reverse.

It should probably be borne in mind that the BA-10/5 was originally used, as I recall, in the Peugeot 505. So, take an XJ:
- Shave off about 800#
- Cut the engine output in half
- Cut the engine displacement in half.
- And give it to a French driver (I've driven in France, I wasn't wholly impressed.)

I didn't do any serious towing with the 88 - probably 2,000-3,000#. I did do some hauling (internal loads up to 800-1,000#,) and I am a fairly spirited driver with a lightly-loaded or unloaded vehicle.

But, I don't ride the clutch, grind gears, or anything like that - I used the transmissions, I didn't abuse it.

Offroading was similar - since the BA-10 rapidly developed a reputation with me, I didn't want to go anywhere I couldn't walk out of, get a start in second or third gear if I needed to, or something like that. So, technical crawling and heavy off-camber stuff was right out.

It was just a horrible mismatch from the factory, and probably borne of AMC's partnership with Renault at the time (but, since the I4 and V6 engines got either Aisin or BorgWarner boxen, I don't know why they had to use the Frog box behind the I6... I'm not sure what they used behind the Renault Diesel, they may have gotten that as a package setup, and it was better-matched.)

@kastein - while the AX-4/5 may be an "upgrade" from the BA-10 (I'm reasonably sure it will last longer,) I wouldn't consider it a useful upgrade - the AX-4/5 won't support the same torque input as the AX-15, and you'll rapidly strip the gearing on it (through no fault of its own - you're just trying to shove too much power through it.) Similar failure to the BA-10 - and for a similar reason (it's just a user-provided mismatch, instead of a factory mistake.)

 

[kastein]

@kastein - while the AX-4/5 may be an "upgrade" from the BA-10 (I'm reasonably sure it will last longer,) I wouldn't consider it a useful upgrade - the AX-4/5 won't support the same torque input as the AX-15, and you'll rapidly strip the gearing on it (through no fault of its own - you're just trying to shove too much power through it.) Similar failure to the BA-10 - and for a similar reason (it's just a user-provided mismatch, instead of a factory mistake.)

makes sense to me. In the same vein a 35 is a decent little rearend, emphasis being on the word little.

 

[desertred]

......Drain the fluid and see if you can get a sample of any of the shavings or fragments in the pan. In general, the bigger they are, the more you need to worry, and the more there are, the more you need to worry!......

Just swapped the tranny fluid (Mobil 1 75W90) as it was a bit overdue at 39K since the last change. I was surprised how much was in there with the apparent leak(s). At any rate, the old stuff contained so fragments that would cause alarm. There was a layer of minute shavings on the magnetic drain plug, but no more than any other vehicle I have swapped tranny fluid on. Certainly nothing to be concerned about. I haven't had any further issues with reverse kicking out of gear since the weather warmed up. Maybe my luck will hold out. However, I'll continue to think of an eventual AX15 swap in the times ahead.