Originally Posted by Newman

There's been a lot of talk about what axles to use and after doing some fitment testing on some customer cars down here, we came up with these senarios....

FYI: This was tested with the HCP EG-22 and EK-22 mount kits only.

Passenger side: 90-91 Integra axle. If you can't get it to say in the tranny, get some needle nose pliers and expand the snap ring ("C" clip" at the end of the axle) just a little but and put the axle into the transmission.... if you expand the snap ring, it'll be very tight to put the axle in so you'll need to force it in but once it's in, it's not going to slide out on you while driving/racing.

Driver side / Intermediate shaft: All depends what route you want to go. If you want to go the "traditional route" and get a 5-spd 90-93 Accord intermediate shaft, then you can use a 90-91 Integra driver side axle and everything bolts up. If you want to keep & use the existing 92-96 Prelude intermediate shaft, then you can use a 88-89 Integra driver side axle and put the 92-96 Prelude inner joint onto the 88-89 Integra axle so that it'll connect to the 92-96 Prelude intermediate shaft. Eitherway works.

Now, here's some "additional" information for you. Obviously if your car is lowered, it'll put more stress on the axle joints (that's for any mount kit). If you have a camber kit, it'll straighted the knuckles out and help a little bit with the joints. Now, if your axles are binding when you turn, you can try the following.

If your axles bind on the passenger side, you can take the 92-96 Prelude inner joint and put it onto the 90-91 Integra axle. The overall length will still be the same but the way the Prelude cup is designed, it allows for the axle to move in & out from the transmission with more play than the 90-91 Integra joint, thus giving your axle more room for play and not causing it to bind.

If your axles bind on the driver side, and if you're using the 90-93 Accord intermediate shaft, you can use the 88-89 Integra axle since it's an inch shorter and use that with the Accord intermediate shaft. Haven't run into axles binding on the driver side when using the Prelude intermediate shaft & 88-89 Integra axle w/Prelude inner joint.

Some things to consider:
If your car is really low, that'll cause your axles to bind more so raising your car up a little bit will help. With a stock height car, there are no axles binding. Also, a lot of "JDM H22" swaps that come over aren't always from the JDM Preludes. The Accord SiRs over there had H22 swaps in there and their intermediate shafts and rear trany brackets are different so you would need to use the 92-96 Prelude parts or a 90-93 Accord 5-spd intermediate shaft.

A little FYI on the side: Going back to saying that there's a lot of JDM Accord SiR H22 swaps that come over, this is the main reason why some people have problems with their H22 swaps and the rear tranny brackets. We had a complete front clip of a JDM Prelude here (sold it to a fellow HT member) but we tried the rear tranny bracket with a brand new US one that we picked up..... THE EXACT SAME THING. We used both brackets on a template H22 block in a straight EG6 chassis (hey, that's all that we had) and a straight DC2 chassis. The fitment is the same with both rear brackets and the HCP EG-22 mount kit (didn't have an EK chassis to test on but the same principle applies to it). The Accord rear tranny bracket looks similar to the Prelude rear tranny bracket, but when you put the motor in, you can see that it's off and there's stress on the bushings & mounts. SO, when using the HCP EG/EK-22 kits, use the 92-96 rear tranny brackets (either US or JDM will work).

Again, this is what we tested on 5 H22 cars down here in the past couple of weeks. I know some other people who had to do totally different setups on their cars with axles or what not to make it work, but then everyone's car is not exactly the same (whether it be from an accident or just slightly tweaked), but this should be a good reference for most of you to go off of. Feel free to add any comments/suggestions to this.