My wife's car is a 94 Civic Ex Coupe and I just swapped in a B20 with LS transmission. It has the LS IM/Starter/Shift Linkage/ECU. This was also a Automatic to Manual transmission Conversion. Innovative mounts on both sides. Reverse lights have been wired.
When we first started the car up there was some noise from the transmission at idle with the clutch out that goes away when the clutch petal is down. The transmission was dry when we put it in and it is now filled with GM Syncromesh(just a note it was never run without fluid, just wanted to be clear). There is still a slight noise at idle, it may be more a vibration than an audible sound, I don't think I should be concerned with this since the transmission may take some time to soak in the fluids. The car up shifts 1-5 without any grinds and drives very smoothly. When we try to downshift into second its really difficult to get into gear, i have also noticed it has popped out of second a few times. I was assuming that the second gear syncro's are worn so that's on my list of things to resolve.


Now the one thing I don't seem to be able to explain is when we put the car in reverse it feels like the parking brake is on with the clutch in or out. if I put the car in neutral it rolls without any resistance. Besides the resistance reverse seems to function smoothly. I have been reading everything I can find for about a month concerning the Honda manual transmissions and I have not heard this described before. Its not a big problem as far as drivability but I don't want the transmission to grenade on me.


Any ideas?

 

That sound is most likely the Input Shaft Bearing. No big deal, and pretty common. It could possibly be a different bearing, but still no big deal, they will usually make noise for a verrryyy long time before they really go bad.

When you say it wont roll while in reverse, do you mean with the engine on or off? If you mean with the engine off, then that is 100% normal. It SHOULD roll with the clutch pressed in but even if it doesnt, you could just have a minor clutch disengagement issue, no big deal.

 

Yea a bearing would make sense for the noise. Its not something I am overly worried about.


So when the car is in Reverse, it will not roll backwards with the engine on and the clutch petal pushed in. I don't think I have tried it with the engine off but I don't expect any difference. I was thinking about changing the Throw out Bering but I really didn't want to tear it down until I had a replacement transmission on hand. The car runs very well as it is, very fun. You recommend I pull the trans and change the throw-out and possibly the clutch if worn? I see a lot of posts about the springs coming loose.


I don't have a whole lot of experience with B/D series engines and Trans. I have always been H/F series. I never had any issues like this with any of my cable transmissions.

 

Looking for a LS trans in SoCal if anyone has one laying around. My wife decided her car didn't need oil so she destroyed the bearings. Got a good deal on the engine/trans/ecu so we decided to do the swap and go to the manual trans. I think we ended up putting in about a $1000 dollars including the engine lift and a few trips to Pick a part for misc parts. ended up paying for the wrong front mounts and picking up an Integra Radiator/fans that looked brand new that we didn't end up using. New exhaust/test pipe.


Got the swap done and my heart dropped when the trans sounded like crap. After driving it for a bit its a lot better but we are still worried that it will grenade due to the reverse issue. definitely double thinking that we should have went to Hmotors and picked up a D16 and kept the automatic. Would have been cheaper but the car wouldn't be as awesome, well minus the transmission. lol. Transmission may not be a big deal but I want to have a spare on hand when I pull it just in case the clutch/flywheel/ throwout are good.

 

The Clutch Slave Cylinder went out last night. Maybe we will get lucky and the problem will be resolved. Doubtful but it would be nice. New one comes in tomorrow.


I checked the movement and it was good before it went out, guess we will see.

 

I put the new Slave Cyl in tonight and now it feels smooth as butter. I was only able to do a 2 foot forward and reverse since my wife is blocking me in with my car. I think the slave may have been the whole problem. Ill take it for a good test drive tomorrow and i'm really hoping its better now. That will make me a very happy person. That may resolve my downshift into 2nd problem as well.


I checked the slave after the first few test drives and there was no fluid under the boot. Guess lesson learned that if you do a trans swap spend the extra 10$ and replace the slave. Its a 15-20 min job including bleeding the system. Now i'm sure down the road ill be making this same comment about the master but its not leaking so I don't really want to deal with it. Ill post again to confirm that its resolved tomorrow.

 

Well, reverse issue resolved. I never thought it could be the Slave Cyl. Crazy. 2nd gear is rougher than ever at the moment. I think we were a little rough on it trying to get it home with no clutch. Hopefully it just needs to grind itself smooth again. haha. Guess we will find out. A huge weight off my shoulders not needing to replace the trans. Now I can go back to putting money into my accord. May need to replace the 2nd gear syncros down the road a bit. I am no longer worried its going to grenade.

 

Just so you know, if youre having issues with it popping out of a gear and grinding, chances are it isnt the sychro, but the selector hub being ground away. Eventually 2nd gear will be gone and never engage.

 

That's true, I suppose if I need to replace the syncro is wouldn't be too much more work to replace the hub as well. We will baby it for a while and see if it gets any better. I have not had it pop out of gear since the slave was replaced. Its only been driven around the block a few times. I'm thinking it would still be a good idea to pick up a spare trans and swap that one in. I have found some good deals $300-$500

 

I was driving the car around a bit yesterday and the speedo was actually working and I noticed that the car hits 80mph around 4500rpm. Looks like I don't have an LS transmission. Also when I was installing it I had a very clear picture of there being no pin in the middle where the axels go. It may be LSD as well.


Hopefully I don't hate myself when I put in the LS transmission. I'm guessing I can do the repairs to that transmission and make a few bucks on it.

 

sounds like you have a GSR or B16 trans with an LSD then. Definitely worth the money to get it fixed ASAP

 

Picked up a LS Transmission yesterday(Thanks J13) Gave the new trans a little bit of a scrub, it was pretty clean to begin with and removed the old Transmission. I spent about 4 hours working on it, only lost about 5 lbs of water weight. lol. Got the old one out in about 3 hours, would have been quicker but I missed one of the bolts on the back side and fought with it trying to remove the trans. I also was trying to leave the intermediate shaft attached since the threads on the block are... not so good. There was just not enough room to wiggle it out with it still connected.


I got the trans out and gave it a quick look and.. well not LSD. Darn, guess I just missed the pin when I looked during the install. Ohh well, no biggie I guess.


I spent another hour trying to get the new transmission in place balancing between 2 jacks, another set of hands would be nice. lol. I have all of the top bolts started but it doesn't seem to want to slide in. Ill double check the dowels tomorrow. I was tempted to just tighten the bolts until it fit but I figured it would be safer to do a little more reading before doing any damage.


I will be absolutely heart broken if this trans has any issues. Hopefully it will be smooth. I want to get it up to 80(or 88mph so I can go back in time to tell my wife never to buy this car, lol) so I can compare the rpms compared to the trans I just removed, make sure the speedo is accurate and if I have a B16 or GSR.

 

It took me a good additional 4 hours to finish the tranny install. I loosened up all of the top bolts since the bottom ones on the rear mount wouldn't not line up, I wedged a piece of 1x2 wood between the transmission and cross member and lowered the jack and it finally slid into place, took a little maneuvering with the jacks to keep the engine lifted and the transmission moving.


Had to clean up a few issues from the b20 and Manual Swap. I was worried about the intermediate shaft but I was able to add some studs in place of the regular bolts and they bolted up nice and tight, I was worried I was going to have to re-tap with bigger bolts but got lucky.


When I did the swap I had a hard time finding the correct front tranny torque mount. I ended up using one from a D Series Manual. 2 out of 3 of the trans bolts lined up but it took some serious prying to get it connected on the chassis side. I fought with it for about an hour then finally rage quit and threw it on the ground and Ebay'd the correct one. I think with a little bit of trimming the D Series mount will work just fine but working in a tandem garage in the heat at some a point where saving money isn't as important as getting back inside to the AC. lol


I test drove the car today and it shifts smoothly. I did notice the car felt quite a bit slower with the LS transmission. I need to pull apart the one I removed and see if I can identify what it is. Hopefully I can make some cash selling it.


One note, without the transmission front torque mount the car felt very unstable, definitely not safe to drive. I figured with the Innovative motor mounts it would be stiff enough but I thought wrong. The new mount will be here in a few days and ill get that one bolted up.

 

I didn't get a chance to Identify the transmission but here is what I found when I got it on the bench today. From the pictures can anyone tell if they see any major issues besides the obvious grenaded bearing?



First thought.... I' screwed.


Once I got it apart it wasn't as bad as I expected.




Pulled all of this out before separating the case.








the other half of the bearing








I see some damage but what do you expect with ball bearings bouncing around

 

Mystery transmission Identified. B16


B16 Transmission

 

If you don't plan on a full rebuild, I would just scrap that trans...

 

The transmission was smooth except for the bearing and second gear. I'm not sure why you would suggest I scrap it. Looking at images from other transmissions some of the grooves in the gears are factory and not damage like I was thinking. I'm going to assume that some of the issue with second gear was caused because the shaft was not secured due to the missing bearing.


I need to check to see if there is any other damage to second gear but other than a good cleaning I don't see any other problems.

 

Not sure what that guy is thinking...

I see very little wrong with that trans. Fully dissemble both shafts, clean everything (including internal oil passages in each shaft), replace any excessively worn parts/bearings, and reassemble.

It will be perfectly fine for normal usage.

 

Thats what im thinking. Besides the blown up bearing the components themselves appear to be in decent shape.

 

Took a few pics of the 2nd gear Syncros and such. Maybe someone could identify if they should be replaced. Looks pretty good to me.

 

The dog teeth on that gear look severely rounded. I would replace that gear along with a complete full synchro and synchro ring replacment kit.

That's the good thing about driving a transmission before you pop it open. You normally already have a good idea what you will be replacing.