so i went awd in my 2000 ek, i modified a h/f lsd to work in the crv case , ordered a set of synchrotech carbon synchros, put everything together... life is good...on the street, no problems... go to the track, 2nd gear takes a ****... pull the trans apart, order a 1-2 gear set from honda, new 1-2 synchros from ST, put it all back together, life is good... put about 700 miles on it, take it to the track and notice after a few passes that 2nd is getting hard to put in gear, so i pull the tranny and send it to ST... they replace the 2nd gear synchro, some friction dampers and said i had a messed up thrust washer, clearanced everything and send it back... now i cant tell you how impressed i am with ST, david took care of me on the rebuild and i couldnt have been more pleased with the results... took it to the track, ran a personal best of 7.79 in the 1/8th and drove it home... went back to the track and decided i would try to baby 2nd a little so i didnt destroy it and started shifting at 7k into second... everything is working great!!! i ran a new personal best of 7.75 tonight... on hard street tires, i go to race another car and missed second, i thought... come back around and second is ****ed, it wont even stay in second at this point... so i drove it home with a 1-3 shift... what i have discovered is the crv tranny is basically a h/f tranny with a b series bell housing... and of course we all know about those POS's...

so now to my question... this is a fully dressed ex model ek that i daily drive, i dont mind giving up a little drivability for reliability, but my interest is now in some strait cut gears or some other type of engagement, 2nd sucks and i dont know why ... i would like to just go with a 1-2 gear set because 3-4-5 shift perfect and there wouldnt be that noise at highway speeds... what are my options, i would like to change the ratios a little also, but i'll settle for whatever... i would even concider an automatic from a crv... thanks in advance guys...

build thread https://honda-tech.com/forums/forced-induction-16/ek-sleeper-top-mount-back-door-ic-c-2976240/

 

Liberty face plated 1/2 is a good way to go if your under 650hp. Not really much of a daily driver set up though.

Also the speed factory shift assembly is a good addition if your gonna have the tranny apart.

 

I still even had problems with my Saenz box... I would talk to ppg or liberty about maybe getting one of there gear sets that's kind a hybrid, something like straight cutt or dog engagement 1-3 or 4th "bc I use to burn 4th up on long pulls" and a helical 5th and final drive for the drive ability and not a lot of whining. I think what your gonna find is unless u go dog cutt, and prob 90% of ppl on here will agree is that hseries trans "which your crv trans basically is" is garbage no mater what goes in it.

I say go automatic and find someone to build a converter for it with a stall...automatic+awd+civic=insane

 

As far as ratios go I would go with a longer 1st to get rid of that 2nd gear lag when u shift and pick you 60 way up

 

That tranny doesn't use a b-series shift change assembly; its a cable shifted tranny.

If you're not breaking the gear itself than why do you think you NEED a gear set? Sounds like theres an issue related to the 1-2 assemble. Gear, hub, sleeve, synchros, springs, fork etc.

 

this !

 

so what is the "problem" with the 1-2 shift... possibly the shift fork??? i mean what makes that gear any different than any of the others??? it has a double cone synchro, would that make it any different than the other style synchros??? is it rpm's that could be the problem??? i really want to know "why" it acts up... you cant fix the problem if you dont know what it is that you are trying to fix...

 

well if you have replaced every other piece of your puzzle, then what do you have left that was not replaced ? shift forks do get bent. what kind of condition are your shift cables in ?

 

Have you taken it apart yet? Could it be the shifter cables not allowing it to fully go into second, thus allowing the sleeve to get messed up because its not fully engaging to teeth on the gear? I would like to see which part is broken

 

I have been talking to David at ST and I think I'm going to try the face plating on 1-2... my cables are smooth as butter... he said he had another customer with a crv trans that had the same identical problem... I'm going to pull it apart and send the gears off... ill report back... I am determined to make this work...

 

david is top notch, I get all my trans parts from him. He is always very helpful if I have any questions as well.

 

And u hate on me for pulling my stuff apart all the time when something isn't working right lol... I'm keeeeddding some ppl say why fix it if it isn't "broke" I say it's easier to fix it before its broke

 

You need to know for sure if second gear in engaging all the way before faceplating the 1-2. Before pulling the tranny out unhook the cable from the shift arm and manually put the tranny into 2nd. With the tranny in 2nd try to put the cables back on. If you have to move the arms to get the cables back on than something is wrong with the cables/shift box. Once you rule out the cables/shifter box, pull the tranny and get another top case to build a window case. With the window case on you will be able to see if 2nd gear is engaging all the way.

If your problem with 2nd is an engagement issue and you faceplate the gears without fixing it the dog teeth will be destroyed your first time to the track. Only faceplate the gears if you can confirm the problem is synchro and spring related, otherwise its gonna do it again.

 

Listen to this guy^^^ he helped me through a lot and where did your cables come from? Are they used? I use to half to replace mine "brand new oem" every once in a while bc of this problem... If one stretches just a little there garbage.

I finally to a set of hybrid racing cables for a kseries and made it work and jimmy from JJSPEC had some custom made out of boat steering cables and it worked perfect

 

I agree with double checking everything. We have Synchrotech carbon synchros in our CR-V trans and have had no troubles shifting 1-2 at 10k. It sounds like the sleeve could have gotten messed up if it wont stay in gear. We had that happen a while back when a missed shift rounded off the teeth.

 

Do d series awd from a wagovan. D-to-B swap