Koko4

My buddy has a '97 Civic 5-speed, with the S40 transmission and D16Y8 motor. We began a clutch job today and pulled the transmission. He has been having a loud grinding noise when decelerating in gear, which I had thought could be the CV axles. Both CV axles are torn, and will be replaced while we are in here.

When I got the transmission out and on the ground, I spun the input shaft by hand. I could hear what sounded like a loose piece of metal inside the transmission, sort of "popping" around as I spun the input shaft. This could be the noise we are hearing.

Also, there is a lot of wiggle room in the input shaft (side to side, up and down).

It is safe to say the transmission needs a rebuild? From my description, can anybody make an educated guess as to what is the culprit?

We will probably be going to Pull-a-Part tomorrow to get a transmission, and crossing our fingers that we don't get one with pop outs / grinds / etc. Thanks for any input!

mithious

If trannys are cheap enough at your wrecking yard it might actually be the easiest fix. However, I took one apart with no experience this winter to replace a noisy input shaft bearing, and it was not THAT difficult. Depending on your experience and how much time you've got - there are a few decent tutorials out there. (I'm actually assuming your problem is bearings, the input shaft bearing at least)

Once you've got it apart, replacing the bearings is pretty easy. If there's nothing wrong with the gears themselves you can just take the main shaft and countershaft out in one assembled unit - again making the job pretty easy.

BUT, you might find the price of the bearings and seals to be almost as expensive as a used tranny... I'd check that out before deciding either way!

crazyhorse2011

make sure to grab a synchro kit while your in there. new synchros = buttery smooth gear shifts and no grinding gears. a full synchro kit can be had for like 50 - 100 bucks, and since your already popping open the transmission anyway it's not gonna be that much harder.

94EG8

The input shaft bearing is bad, assuming nothing else is wrong you're looking at about $30 for the bearing and the seal that goes under it from Honda.