I really need some help identifying a noise in my '89 Civic si. Originally, it developed a noise that could best be described as a purring, but with the rythm of a ratchet ratcheting. It did this in the first 3 gears and while accelerating. I put it on jackstands and used a stethoscope (man I could use a spell checker!) and foudn that the noise was coming from the transaxle, which has 211k on it. Since it did it in the lower gears and not in 4th, and concluded that it must be a problem with the countershaft in the transaxle. This is my daily driver and can't be down for long, so instead of repairing it I bought a used trans and this past weekend swapped them.
Unfortunately, it still makes the same noise, only different. Now it isn't as consistent, sometimes doing it under decelleration, sometimes during light acceleration, and now it does it in 4th gear also. IN addition, sometimes it is much louder than other times. I jacked up one side and then the other so that I could spin only one tire and the noise seems independent of which tire is spinning, thus ruling out a half shaft or wheel bearing.
It seems unlikely that I'd get two transaxles with this problem, although I suppose it's possible. The guy I bought it from said it worked fine when he took it out of the car, and a friend of mine vouches for him.
Any ideas? I'm at a loss to explain it.
Sorry for the long post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jim