I have a 98 spec type R motor & tranny on my 97 civic hatch. The tranny has an ACT heavy duty pressure plate, solid 6 pucks clutch & Fidanza flywheel. It's been running for over 1 year now.

Yesterday I was driving fine on the freeway, but when I took an exit & came to stop light, 1st gear did not want to go in. It did not grind or make any noise. All the other gears when in with no problems. So I took off on 2nd gear. At the next stop light same thing. 1st won't go in

1st only goes in if I press the clutch 1/2 way in & force it stopping the gears (grinding noise ggrrrr) I drove it taking off in 2nd gear. I checked the fluid at the tranny & reservoir, shift links & all look good. The clutch does not feel slipping.

Any ideas of what could be wrong? TIA

 

Does it go in without any issues with the motor being off?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eg6ajk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Does it go in without any issues with the motor being off?</TD></TR></TABLE>

no, I have to jiggle/force it in. Only 1st gear; all the others go in ok

 

updates...I took the tranny off & took it to a mechanic to check it. He told me that the synchross had the normal where but not enough to cause a problem. He also said that all the gears seam to engage properly & not execive wear was noticible. So I took the clutch, pressure plate & flywheel. He said that they where around 50% wear down. I have a B16A2 tranny that I am going to put on and see if it does the same. Any sugestions?

 

tell him to look at 1-2 shift sleeve as well.

 

I finally got it fixed. The problem was the main bearings, synchro of the fisrt and also a diferential bearing. The main bearing were really bad with a lot of play. The dif. bearing was not that bad, but since it was open and it was not too expansive I decided to replace it. Also, the mechanic let me felt the 1-2 shift sleeve & it felt kind of sharp to the touch. He said it wasn't that bad so he only sanded & polish them away. The tranny feels smoother than when I got it.