Hey guys, i dont know where to start with this. Set-up is a cx hatch 92 with a b swap with gsr transmission and some sort of aftermarket clutch. I bought the car with the swap and have been fixing it little by little but now i dont know what can be wrong with the car.

GO ALL THE WAY DOWN to BASICALLY if you dont want to read the background

I had the problem before but all of a sudden it came back. It came with an edelbrock short shifter (sh**) i got an extension for it and one day it snapped of with the thread. Had a dual bend short laying around so my friend and i switched it out. pain in the *** in a lowered car and sucky jack.

All of a sudden i was driving and i felt that it was getting harder to go into gear. Each time i shifted it would get harder and i was basically really trying to slam it in there to get it in and at some point it just didnt want to happen. I retighted some bolts under the car of the shift linkage and it was all good. Also changed the transmission oil. It has been some months since that happened.

Today i was coming back from a muffler shop, revving it a lot to see why it sounded bad, then on my way home the problem came out of no where. But it was only with first and second gear, it never got to a point where i could not get it in at all but it was really tough. I had to clutch twice, etc. and yea i dont know what was going on. then i stopped somewhere turned off the car and tried to shift and all was good. turned on the car and tried again and in a little bit the shifting was hard again and it would get harder. got home turned off the car was going to retighten some bolts because it helped last time. I went under and tried everything seemed fine turned on the car and it came back. A couple of hours later took it out for a semi aggresive spin around the neighborhood just not vtec, taking turns faster than normal lots of shifting trying to recreate and it was all fine like it never happened.

BASICALLY.....why does my car not go into some gears when the car is on and its fine when the car is off at that same instant. its fine one drive and goes bad the next

is it the vibration of the motor ( i do neet to change my motor mounts), is it because it got too hot with lots of revving, something wrong with the shift linkage, or is it the short shifter.

Please help i need to see what i have to do if i have to drop the tranny,

thanks guys for are the help in advance, this thing has me worried.

 

You know the reservoir for the clutch? Is it topped off? Maybe you have air in the clutch system or maybe a leak somewhere.

If it's not that then it is most likely clutch related.

 

Clutch system problem. Slave cylinder, master cylinder, fluid, clutch disk, pressure plate.

 

UPDATE...well i went out again last night, saw the same problem but i didnt really have to clutch again, i would have to move the shifter back to neutral and try again and most of the time it would work but this started happening after less than five minutes of driving so im pretty sure its not a heat issue. before it wouldnt go into any gear after running it hard for a bit.

Now i know there is an issue with the slave cylinder or master cylinder dont know which one. basically the clutch medal never comes back up fully or to the level of th other pedals i have to grab it with my foot to lift it all the way up.

Also as for fluid i checked before and all of a sudden it was low to the point where the little plastic white floater was not floating since there was no fluid at that level. I filled it up and checked again it was low but not nearly as much as last time.

i have switched the clutch line with a stainless steel one but i see no leak.

thanks for the help so far.

 

did you pull the slave cyl off the trans? If the piston seal is leaking at the end and you have the rubber boots over the pushrod and the end of the shift fork it could be leaking into the bellhousing and you wouldn't necessarily see the leak

its easier to get into gear with the car off because nothing is spinning, all the shafts and teeth are already all sync'd up

 

Fluid loss is a sign of just that, we have a leak somewhere we haven't found. We need to isolate that as culprit, if not, the pressure plate + clutch does sound like the next logical area to look. I once had a clutch disc so far gone, that when the pressure plate was removed it turn to dust, but the car drove fine. I also had a setup that would slip and slide like the clutch was made of ice, but on visual inspection the clutch was fine but the pressure plate was glazed in multiple spots.

 

thanks so far....so basically you guys think its the slave cylinder?

 

some guy told me that it could be the synchros and all you had to do was remove the shifter, but something in its place and put it into fourth to realign them or something like that.....: /

 

lol it doesnt work like that. The synchros are always moving around in there and every time you shift they get loaded & unloaded and shifted around. There's no way to "reset" them and have them stay like that for awhile

If you're losing fluid you def have a leak somewhere that needs to be fixed otherwise it will never be right no matter what else you do. It might also be that the internal seals have gone bad in either master or slave so you will either need to rebuild or replace

I'd check and replace motor mounts including the tq mounts, ditto shifter bushings preferably with poly as well. That will help out either way

 

yea i didnt really believe what the guy was saying, mostly people think its the slave and im probably going to change that first, i hope its that and not the internal seals. hoping that the master isnt bad, i see no leaks really around the pedal.

Sorry to ask but what are tq mounts, i know of only three motor mounts. should the shifter bushings come from energy suspension or something. like this ENERGY Short SHIFTER BUSHINGS CIVIC 92-00 SOHC CRX , thanks for the help

 

if its only the internal seals that are bad you won't see a leak, the fluid just leaks past the piston internally and doesnt come out but doesnt get pushed thru the line either. Like engine compression leaking past bad rings

tq mounts are the ones on the underside of the frame rails. If those aren't in the car that could be your prob right there. Should be 1 coming off the front of the trans and 1 off the ac mount

as far as the shifter bushings yes ES is good prothane too, most performance ones will be poly. I think even the oem type-r's are probably poly, I know the suspension bushings are. If possible get the graphite impregnated ones, they squeak less

 

got it well im gonna change the slave cylinder either way to be safe, should i just go OEM or OEM from autozone since they have lifetime warranty, i dont know if there are other companies that make better ones?????

yea i found the tq (torque) mounts you were talking about never seen them before but glad i learned something new. What company makes graphite impregnated ones?

Are they not a pain to change because when i was changing the shifter with my friend i said maybe we should change those bushings one day and he was like they look like a mission to change.

 

well changed the slave cylinder and that was bad but the problem persisted. I went to a honda dealer asked a guy that used to work at service at acura and told me it was most likely the shift fork of first and second

also might as well change the synchros of them as well.

 

I just went back and reread your original post, I think I was unclear whether it was only doing it in 1st/2nd or every gear. If its only 1st and 2nd then yea that synchro assembly in there takes a beating. Very often it's just the sleeve that needs replacing, any one I've ever seen was tore up pretty good. Those teeth get flattened out and hang on the synchro spring making it very difficult to get it past the spring

 

Wrut?

Please tell me this guy hasn't reproduced and Darwin has taken care of him since the statement.

 

yup now its only first and second and it happens so randomly lol. the guy that works at honda is coming over tomorrow to drive and check it out, once that tranny is open, im gonna wish i would have money to rebuild it all and put an LSD...gonna see what clutch and flywheel it came with. basically i want to see whats up in there. thanks for the help so far.

How much are the parts that need replacing cost around?

 

yea i dont know what he was talking about he is ful of bs anywasy, he was trying to scam me and a friend that he could get us pretty new cars for cheap at those auction places, it was worth a shot but he was basically gonna run away with our money but of course that didnt happen lol. i hope he doesnt get to reproduce lol or that he hasnt

 

LOL. Yeah. Don't listen to that guy. Ever.

As for parts. If it is indeed only occurring in 1/2, then it may just be internal to the trans and not necessarily clutch related as we originally thought.

Replace syncho ring, synchro sleeve, AND synchro hub when you're in there if that is the problem - gotta look to find out before throwing money around. May have to replace 1st or 2nd gears too if they are bad, but you will most likely get away just fine without. Typical price for the 1-2 synchro kit including both synchros, sleeve, and hub is around $300 from places like Delray Acura Online or Majestic Honda Online. Dealer retail is probably close to $400. You can also get these parts from Synchrotech.

 

thanks for all the help guys, ended up being that the clutch pedal was way to low so it would never have the clutch fully engage. A guy that works for service at honda and acura before came and checked it out. Sort of fixed it since the just brought up the pedal. I still will need a new clutch, seems to be going soon since there is a lot of play with the pedal till i feel a little resistance.

I ordered a ITR shift lever and am gonna get some energy suspension bushings. Is there a lube or something to quiet them down. Idk i read somewhere that they are squeaky. Hopefully my circuithero extension wont snap off this time .

thanks again