Hello, all!

tl,dr: If you need the end cap that goes inside the bell housing of your Getrag F23 5-speed, and you can't get it from your friendly local Chevy dealer any more, go see your local F*rd parts department and ask for a BR3Z-7A010-A . If they want to look it up by year and model, ask them to look up a 2011 to 2023 M*st*ng with a stick shift. They probably won't have it on the shelf, but they can get it in a couple of days; their list price is $28. That plug fits and works just fine in the F23 on an HHR.

The long version follows. :)

Rationale

You don't need to replace this end cap as a normal maintenance thing. You can't even see it when the transmission is installed in the car. You also don't need to replace it if you're swapping your transmission for a rebuilt or used one; the new-to-you transmission will come with the end cap already installed.

The only times you'd need to replace it are 1) if you're opening up the transmission case for some reason or 2) maybe if you pulled the transmission to do a slave cylinder or clutch replacement and discovered the cap was leaking.

Story

My other half no longer owns the HHR (2008 2.2 LT1 stick-shift) that I posted about a few years ago. He did, however, sell it to a co-worker, who has been driving it since then. The used transmission he and I put in the HHR back in 2017 finally ran into some difficulties recently, so him and his co-worker pulled the transmission again, opened it up, and swapped parts between a couple of F23s in an attempt to make a good one.

The end cap is steel, with a thin rubber coating over it. It's pressed in to a round hole in the transmission case, inside the bell housing, right next to the input shaft. To get the transmission apart, you need to remove this end cap so you can remove a big nut that holds one of the shafts in. Unfortunately, removing the end cap at best puts a hole in it, and at worst destroys the end cap.

The GM part numbers for the end cap were 88893916 , which supersedes to 09120610 (or sometimes just 9120610 ), but both numbers were showing NLA at all of the online GM parts dealers that I tried.

I then went wandering around through a variety of wholesale transmission parts places online. One of them claims that on the F23, this seal is 52 mm diameter x 6 mm tall (about 2.05" x 0.24").

It is probably a standard-ish part, at least in Europe. The "generic" part number is probably something like "EC 52 x 6 mm", or "52 x 6, EC". There are other available heights of 6.5, 7, and 8 mm. EC means the narrow edge is smooth; ECW means it's ribbed. I tried McMaster-Carr, Grainger, and Fastenal with no luck. Sometimes end caps like this were listed with oil seals, so I tried Motion Industries and a couple of bearing houses, but again, no luck.

I finally dug through the transmissions parts places again for other Getrag transmissions that seemed to use a similar-looking end cap. The 2011-2023 M*st*ng was available with a Getrag MT82 manual transmission, and the blue-oval part number for the end cap on that transmission is BR3Z-7A010-A . His co-worker ordered one from the dealer, and reports that it was exactly the same as the original cap he took out of the F23; it pressed into the hole in the F23 case just fine.

Possible less-destructive removal and reuse

Some of the online advice for removing this end cap is, basically, to drill a 1/4" or so hole in the middle of it, and then use needle-nose pliers in the hole to bend and pull at the end cap until it comes out. This gets the cap out, but it can't be re-used.

The co-worker reports that he carefully drilled a very small pilot hole in the end cap near the edge, enlarged the hole with roughly a #8 (4.2 mm) wood screw, and then used pliers in the hole to pull the cap out of the bore on that edge. He thinks that in a pinch, one could probably close up the screw hole in the end cap with RTV silicone, and then reinstall it in the transmission case. He hasn't tried it, though.

Plastic mushroom-shaped thingy

On the F23, there is a plastic mushroom-shaped thingy right behind this end cap, which does something about keeping the gear oil where it is supposed to be; some of the parts fiche call it a "funnel". If you attack the center of the end cap with a drill, you may damage this plastic piece. The plastic piece is also NLA from GM ( 88893912 supersedes to 09120609 or 9120609 ). It may be the same as a Fi*t 71719517 , but you'll probably have to order that from Europe for roughly US$6 plus shipping. The part number or drawing number at Fi*t 's supplier (name unknown) may be 287.7.0258.10 . I have not verified any of this, because they managed to remove the end cap without damaging this plastic piece.

Finding the OEM

Some of the end caps that I found photos of online had "SABO" cast in to the rubber coating. SABO is a Brazilian company that makes rubber-y things for the automotive industry: gaskets, hoses, CV joint boots, etc. They even sell some of their stuff in small quantities on their Web site, but I couldn't find this particular part on there anywhere. They probably sell thousands of them to Getrag, but I don't think they make them available at retail.

There, was that way more than you wanted to know about it?

Truckette

 

Thank you for your investigative reporting. Some would cringe putting a Ford part on their Bow tie Chevy, but it really is just a part the you have confirmed fits.