although it is not better than si, im thinking of getting a low-mile zc tranny. what is required to put into 91 si hatchback. I would assume axles to use the halfshaft, but are knuckles required also?

 

based on my own research, but not much my own personal experience, yet, youve got 4 options to use the ZC tranny. keeping the same knuckles is fine, as long as you dont have a HF or STD, then youll need to upgrade.

1. use a ZC intermediate shaft and 90-93 integra axles. axles need to be slightly mod'ed, no big deal. illustrated here. http://www.thezcr.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8751

2. use ZC intermediate shaft and 2 regular passenger side CRX axles, with 90-93 inner cv joint cups. no need to modify the outboard end, nor change knuckles if you had HF hubs, but i see no reason not to upgrade.

3. forget the intermediate shaft, take apart the transmission, replace the differential carrier with the regular CRX carrier and replace the axle seals and fit like stock.

4. also forget the intermediate shaft, and use 90-93 inner cups on the regular CRX axles. (this is yet to be 100% confirmed, but i believe my source is correct, and will verify personally soon)


the way i see it, there are only 2 reasons to use the ZC tranny. first is the ability to use the intermediate shaft, which reduces (eliminates?) torque steer. personally, i never knew this to be a problem. maybe i just dont have enough torque with a stock engine to care....

second, is to make use of the DIFFERENT gearing the ZC tranny offers. kinda hard to say its better, since it has shorter gears, yet taller (same as DX) final drive. but you can really get into a custom setup by combining things, to make a "hybrid" tranny. throw in a HF 5th gear, and then maybe a sedan 4.0 final drive into your calculations, you can make your own custom gearing. (nikitad has one for sale, tell him tyson told you)

so, if youre not going to use the intermediate shaft, or if you dont want to open the tranny because you dont know what youre doing, then its really pointless to run the ZC tranny. you can buy a regular tranny with just as low miles from an importer.

 

there you go... thats about it

 

one last thing to mention. you cant use any other intermediate shaft than the ZC. d series integra or EF AWD shaft wont work. however, you can combine the parts that DO work from the integra and AWD intermediate shaft to make one shaft that will work. but getting a hold of both is going to be just as expensive and hard to find (not impossible) as just getting the right ZC intermediate shaft.