I've been fighting a problem for 3+ months with my swap, have spent thousands of dollars, countless hours and still have not gotten resolution.

if you have your car w/o axles or are changing axles, before you put them in, can you measure for me the distance from the diff seal to the back of the wheel hub (inner surface on hub where the axles sits) on the passenger side, and also from the seal on the intermediate shaft bearing support to the driver's side hub?

If you do this, please do it with the car suspension loaded, like, with jackstands and a jack under each side tire jacking up the suspension right until the body starts to move and the vehicle's weight makes the suspension compressed, or, even better, on a rack lift ; )

thanks SO much to anyone who helps me with this!!!

BTW, my measurements were 19.5" on both sides...




Modified by builthatch at 12:58 AM 8/11/2007

 

anyone with a 99-00 si would be nice as well ; )

 

but...why?

 

http://members.aol.com/builthatch609/carprob.doc

that says-

Car:
JDM obd2 b18c from HMO swapped in ’97 hatch with GSR LSD transmission

Issue:
shudder/vibration during acceleration, especially in 2nd and 3rd gears under light or moderate throttle angles (10%-30%) and low to mid RPM (2000-4500). This occurs during straight acceleration and turning acceleration. Shudder can be felt in the seat, pedals, floorboard, and mirrors, and slightly in the steering wheel. Vibration can’t be felt that much during first gear acceleration

Parts changed:
3 sets of reman GSR axles, settled on a brand new set of 99-00 Si axles
Brand new intermediate shaft assembly, including brand new support, shaft, bearing, seal
New Falken Azenis 615 tires, mounted and balanced with no issue
Engine mounts used were ones previously used with my single cam engines which exhibited no such problems over the past 9 years, only added brand new 99-00 Si rear t-bracket and driver’s side engine-side bracket to allow swap fitment. Mounts have urethane inserts.
Am using a ’97 CRV ac bracket to keep stock a/c system intact and using stock torque mount for that
New upper a-arms with new ball joints
New inner tie rod ends
New outer tie rod ends
New lower ball joints
Car has perfect fresh 4 wheel alignment
Replaced HMO JDM GSR LSD transmission with another from HMO
Hub bearings exhibit no play and are 100%
Clutch is brand new Exedy unit, as is flywheel
Added Ingalls “Stiffy” engine damper to help handle the load for the notoriously lame EK driver’s side mount

Addl info:
When car is raised via coilovers, especially after 8 turns, the issue practically disappears
Shifting action is perfect

i've deduced that for some reason it still is the axles for some reason, so i need these measurements to see if there is anything strange about the distance of my spacing vs. someone else's with a similar setup.

 

do you have camber plates for when it is lowered? your vibration sounds like its the axle for sure.

 

I have the same swap and vibration in my 96 coupe. The vibration is so slight i never addressed the issue. Hope you find out what it is.

 

yep, new ingalls upper arms with sliding plates.

i'm thinking i am going to run a set of the driveshaftshop axles that are a hair longer than stock. this might be the key....

the vibration in my setup is NOT slight haha, it's super annoying and depressing.

 

Sounds like you never replaced the intermediate shaft that bolts to the back of the tranny......this is probably your issue as there is something wrong with it.

Also the intermdiate shaft of an automatic tranny and manual tranny are different. the part that bolts to the motor is at a different angle for each kind of tranny. I had some serious vibrations I could never figure out, one day when I pulled the intermediate shaft my buddy looked at it and was like dude, thats the wrong shaft.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mike1114 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like you never replaced the intermediate shaft that bolts to the back of the tranny......this is probably your issue as there is something wrong with it.

Also the intermdiate shaft of an automatic tranny and manual tranny are different. the part that bolts to the motor is at a different angle for each kind of tranny. I had some serious vibrations I could never figure out, one day when I pulled the intermediate shaft my buddy looked at it and was like dude, thats the wrong shaft.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by builthatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Brand new intermediate shaft assembly, including brand new support, shaft, bearing, seal</TD></TR></TABLE>

and regarding the support, the bracket bolts to the block; on the auto ones, it's different. but, regardless, mine bolts up, is brand new and is the right one. the one that i replaced was the factory unit from HMO. the engine i got from HMO came together as a unit, he didn't switch the trans or add the trans to the longblock, so it was a manual setup from the start.

thanks tho




Modified by builthatch at 1:25 PM 8/9/2007

 

Are you sure the car is straight?

 

yeah, ive had it since practically new. the only stress it's seen is 3 weeks after i got it in 1998, i was hit on the driver's side. a van pulled out, did not see me, and drove alongside of me while hitting the entire d-side of my car. it was cosmetic, not much of an impact but alot of the skin was hurt. that's about it. i haven't raced the car other than some drags.

i measured distances all around the front end while i was checking for anything weird w/ the suspension, mounts or subframe and it all was square, so to speak...

 

so i measured today with the axles out but car's suspension under the vehicle's weight and it was 19.5" on each side. the dohc axle spec for each side is 18.7-18.9, so that is more than half an inch on each side more than spec, that doesn't include turning and ****!

well see what driveshaftshop says on monday.

 

i got the same vibration too! real freakin annoying.

my door locks rattle so much I have to turn the stereo up just to tune them out.

I just got a new motor and havent finished the swap, but maybe by this weekend I could have a measurement for you.

 

after talking with Frank at the driveshaftshop, he noticed that the right side gap is about 3/4" out of spec, making the stock axle work at the end or past it's range all of the time. He's going to add .75 to that side and .5 to the other (since he typically makes his race axles .5" longer than stock anyway) and we will see what happens.

 

let us know what happens

 

so what causes this..happens to me also...

 

So i finally got to putting the DSS custom axles in and it was a total disaster. I firmly believe that they did not put grease in both outer CV's because they are both out of this world stiff and extremely notchy. when i put them in the car, they caused insane vibration when turning, coasting, whatever, however, interestingly, they didn't vibrate in some spots when i'd accelerate which is the problem i've been fighting. one by one i put the old axles back in and it was like it was previously, driveable but still vibe on acceleration.

i am not so happy with DSS currently and they will be getting a call from me ASAP on tuesday...

 

I have the same problem with my 2k civic coupe, after insalling the b16a2 motor. Vibrations were quickly felt after the swap, but I never looked into it. The vibration dissapeared after a year, but it was still noticable, by just a bit.

4 weeks ago, noticed that my axles were both shot, and noticed that the tranny mount (visible through wheel well) was ripped.

I changed the axles, changed the tranny mount (the mount hat can be seen through the passenger side wheel well), and now, the freakin car is vibrating even stronger now.

I hope you solve the problem, as I sorta gave up on this car (no motivation); got RDX now, but I stil love this car and drive it everyday.

 

yeah, ive had this car for almost 10 years and i've about had it with this issue. i can't spend any more loot on it to get NOWHERE with the problem...