Ok, 98 ITR tranny. Came from a running ITr in japan, motor looked clean, and stock. After completing the swap first thing that was obvious was that the shifter would not go all the way to the left. It appeared that it was going in to 1 and 2nd but it was really 4rth and 3rd. I disconnected the shift linkage, and attempted to shift manually, once again no 1st 2nd or R. When attempting R you get the "typical" R clank but no actual engagement, like it stops short on the lockout. Everything is stock, and no leaks anywhere, no rattleing noise or strange sounds. 3rd and 4rth gear spin just fine, and wheels turn without without any grinding or hessitating. I need to hear what you guys think. Ive searched, and most people dont have a left to right shiting problem. Mostly just difficulty going in a gear. Im assuming its the shift forks. I will attempt to drain the fluid just for safety measure, but would a low or contaminated fluid problem cause a neutral left shift problem ? The tranny sat for a good year as well, could the shift fork have seized in place ? The shifting is the same with motor running and off.

 

its doubtful it rusted in place, if you cant move it into 1/2 even without the linkage something is going on inside i would remove it and check the internals

 

Sounds like the 1/2 collar....You'll have to break open your tranny to asses the situation...

 

I only gave my self the unlikely scenario of rust, as a hopeless self assurance that everything is ok.. lol. Im aware that its deffinetly something internal. Ive opened up a couple of trannys, and a basic understanding of how things work. To me it sounded like a bent shift fork, or maybe a foreign object jamming the mechanism. Just a few min ago, I drained out all the fluid, which btw looked brand new. Same problem persists. Shifting from within the car is still impossible to the 1/2 area, and R is blocked. From under the car, same problem, no access to the left most range where 1 and 2 would engage, and lockout from fully engaging R.

 

Pull the tranny...

 

only quick check would be to remove the two 12mm sprung bolts that hold the ball bearings against the shift forks. If for some reason, someone removed those, and lost a crush washer when replacing, this would indeed lock one/both shift forks. worth a quick check before pulling the tranny.

D

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">only quick check would be to remove the two 12mm sprung bolts that hold the ball bearings against the shift forks. If for some reason, someone removed those, and lost a crush washer when replacing, this would indeed lock one/both shift forks. worth a quick check before pulling the tranny.

D</TD></TR></TABLE>


Good thinking....

 

Hmm.. that did occur to me, but what are the chances that someone would tamper with those 2 bolts on a completely stock Itr which was in running condition before being chopped up and shipped to the US... ? Either way, Im off to the garage to give it a shot.

 

Ok, update. I examined the spring bolts, and both of them still retained their crush washers. I loosed them up just in case something might have struck them, but the problematic shifting remained. One more symptom that I forgot to mention. To get in to 3rd and 4rth I have to slightly posh the shifter to the left, meaning straight up and down will not engage gear. This moves me to further believe that its either a bent shift fork, or that shifting mechanism.

 

Did you pull the tranny yet?

 

No, havent had any time today. Im still not sure on what I should do. I called the place where I purchased the tranny from, and they told me to bring it in, and some guy named Joe will check it out. Well, I dont trust just any "Joe" to go and poke around. And Im positive he wont be there to do the work when I drop it by them. Most likely it will sit at the shop for a few days. I dont want my tranny stuffed full of junk parts laying around the shop, with a half *** assembly job. So I think I will have to do the work my self, my only problem would be the parts. I can order Honda/Acura parts through my job at %15 off, so that helps. I also have a few JDM S1 tranny parts laying around. If the problem is in the tilt shifting mechanism connected to the base of the shift shaft, then I deffinetly have spare, all other stuff Id have to order.

 

*Update* on the tranny.

I dropped the tranny, and took it over to the place to sold me the swap. Their tranny guy took it to his shop and called a day later. To my surprise he tells me everything is fine. So I tell him, Im not crazy, and everything is not fine. I end up taking a 2 hour drive to his shop and checking out the internals my self. Everything did look very clear, but point is, it wasnt shifting right. It did start going in to 1st and 2nd, but 4rth took a few tries, and R was impossible. After comparing most of the shifting parts to an identical tranny he had at the shop, I was not able to see any visual flaws. With the case open, I am able to shift to any gear, with no problem, even R. Everything was very very clean, the magnet was almost spotless, and all teeth were brand new looking. My only conclusion is that the main spring loaded shifter assembly thats sits directly on the shift rod was somehow bent, causing some sort of binding which resulted an improper shifting angle of the shift works. That being my only clue as to what might be wrong, I had no choice but to swap those parts with the other tranny, and take it back home. The guy was really short for time, and it was allready past 11pm. Tommorow after work I will look over everything once again, and then drop it in and give it another try.

Any help, or creative insight is werlcome. Tommorow I will try to take some very detailed pictures.

 

No pics yet.. i might get in to the garage in a few min though.

 

Just to get an idea of how clean this thing looked, I snapped some pics. As of now, the tranny is exactly how I bought it, with the exception of the swapped shift mechanism, the one that sits directly on the shift rod that links up to the shift linkage. Whith the tranny assembled, it appeared to go through all the gears, with increased effort needed to engage 4rth and R. Tommorow I will install it, and hope it works. Here are some pics.




part of shifting assembly removed for testing of the gears ^

 

what shop was this from&gt;?

 

Not really a shop, just my own little import connection. Guys there are really cool with me, its been over 6 months since I bought the swap. And they totaly trust me, and know that I havent done anything to it. The motor and tranny waited to be swapped in this whole time while I slowly collected the rest of my parts. Anyone else would have been f'ed after 30 days. And the shop that took a look at the tranny was just someone that works for them, basically a troubleshooter for when someone has a problem with a swap, or needs something installed. He wasnt a tranny expert though. For now its the only help they could offer, until they get me another tranny.