Over the past few months i have had a problem with reverse/5th gear in my 99 jdm itr trans. It will spontaniously lose reverse and be difficult to go in to 5th. I would change the fluid and it would get better and then after a few months it would do the same thing again.

I'm fairly mechanically inclined no master tech or anyhitng but i try to DIY as much as possible. So last night i busted out the helm and removed the trans. Its my first time ever doing trans work of any sort so it was a bit intimidating. I was by myself and in about 4 hours i had it out.

I plan to get the housing off today and see what i can find. This is all new to me so i plan to post up some pics and get some advice from people to see ifi cant get it fixed.

All the other gears in the trans shift excellent, but reverse just feels like its not there at all when i does this. I wll sometimes have difficulty getitng it in 5th gear but only for a brief second and then that problem goes away never to show up again. I noticed that the only time i have difficulty with 5th is when i try to force it into reverse.

I spoke with another member who had almost an identical issue and he said that the one side of the 5/r synchro sleeve was chewed up really bad in his trans and it would let it go into 5th but it wouldnt line up to go into reverse. I also got input that it might be a bent shift fork.

I'm anxious to get the housing apart tonight and see what i can find, and i'm open to any advice from anyone about things to check or methinds that simplify the process.

heres a quick cam phone pic at 11pm last night. Trans out and on the work bench.

 

a helms manual and a digital camera are the best tools you can own.


the helms manual tells you what to do
the digital camera allows others to give you their opinion


Modified by Bense at 4:23 PM 9/21/2007

 

i have both man, good cam+helm=

It was late and i was tired so only one cam phone pic last night.

 

i found that its the 5/r synchro sleeve, its really chewed up onthe bottom side. I didnt have time to get the mainshaft out but on the teeth on the bottom are really chewed up. Hence i can get the trans in 5th but not reverse. A member on h-t had the same issue and it looks identical to my synchro sleeve.

I couldnt find my feeler gauge set today so i'll have to swing by sears and pick up some new ones. Thats really the reason i didnt get to start disassembely today. I leave for vacation sun so i hope to get the sleeve out and verify that thats the only problem and get the parts ordered so they will be in by the time i get back from vacation.

Picking up a spare ls trans while i'm in fl from a fellow member to limp around on if i need to.

trans cover off


top side of 5.r synchro, how its supposed to look


the next few images are of the bottom side of the 5/r synchro sleeve i couldnt get a good pic i was covered in trans fluid and lighting was bad so i did the best i could. I n person it is obvious that the teeth are really chewed up!






the inside of the trans housing



the bay it came out of



all bagged up for the night, gotta keep the dust out!

 

thanks for the post! i am having the same problem with my eg b16 transmission. Didn't know what was happen. Reverse for me wasn't going in. Kind of suprise that this happen to your newer itr 99 tranny. How did it happen? I think for me i was down-shifting too much. You provided a lot of helpful information. thanks for the pictures so i would know what to look for.

 

What fluid were you running?

 

oem honda mtf.

I have absolutley no idea what causewd this.

 

i also had this happen to a 00 usdm gsr trans that i owned, maybe its the indian and not the arrows.

I have seen at least two other cases of the exact same issue with the same cause.

 

i'd like to see the 5/R hub splines. they are possibly chewed up from the sleeve burrs caused from the wear on that 5th end sleeve's synchromesh. if you have bad enough burrs that point like claws into the hub splines...and where it chews away the hub splines you'll get symptoms like you describe. it's either that or the tab on the selector mechanism which moves the 5/R fork. usually this bends and misaligns the fork up or down. this will bend slightly before the fork would. though, if you had a bent fork or tab on the selector, you would have a hard time spinning the input shaft in neutral or any 1-4 gears as the transmission would be trying to run two gear speeds at once from the force on the block rings caused by the bend toward 5th or R starting to engage. hope that makes sense. i'd check for wear on the top couple of components of the mainshaft from 5th gear up. the sleeve should slide freely by hand up and down the hub with no binds...if it does, there's your issue.

*i spotted the 5th synchro spring (thin metal ring around the brass block ring), is squared off and not 'round' like the Reverse components which look great. sign of those burrs that eat the splines up and square off the synchro spring. take a look...

 

ok i'm a total noob to transmissions so can you break that down for me a little. I have read it a couple of times and i'm not sure i'm getting what your trying to say.

 

Honestly on a scale of 1 - 10 how hard is it to take apart and replace parts on a transmission?

all my friends assume that when you take apart a trans, ***** just gonna start falling out and

 

lol...no **** doesnt start falling out. The hardest thing i've done yet was getting the snap ring off of the countershaft while trying to lift the housing off.

Its not very difficult. Just use the helm and label all the parts in ziploc baggies and it makes it a ton easier.

Granted i'm only halfway there but if you are a hardcore diy'er or have substantial mechanical knowledge then go for it, but if you dont have very good mechanical abilities then stay away.

 

are you rebuilding or putting a new tranny in?

 

rebuilding, parts are alot cheaper than a new trans.

 

fork


distance collar complete with metal shavings



this scarring has me concerned



synchro sleeve/hub


how the 5th side teeth on the hub look



the r side




so chewed up i can hold the sleeve and the hub wont slide out the bottom.


well i pick up the parts synchro sleeve set from the dealer this weekend but it wont go in til i get back from fl next weekend.

That scarring on the mainshaft really has me worried.

 

well i did nore clearance checking today, couldnt find anything out of spec. I'm still unsure of the cause of this but i pick up my new parts tomorrow and when i get back from fla i'll be installing them and getting the trans back in the car.

A big thanks to Len at sons acura in marrow GA he had the part in stock and agreed to meet me on a sunday so i could pick it up. Called gearspeed but they wanted over $175 for the sleeve set and then another $200 for the carbon synchro set, i couldnt justify that price so i just got oen for $151.

 

LSD or non LSD?

 

had a similar experience in the past few weeks, ripped into my tranny for the first time to fix what turned out to be a destroyed mainshaft bearing. hours of my life to replace a $20 bearing that would have destroyed the entire tranny if given a little more time. a great experience though, learned a ton.

a helms manual and HONDA-TECH are your best tools.

looks like yours will be an easy fix - may as well change out the mainshaft/countershaft bearings and seals while you're there. did that so i never have to open it up again (unless i get a quaife ).

good luck.

 

how much will it cost you to rebuild compare to buying a new tranny?

 

That sounds like a jetta tranny to me. Those friggin vdub trannys always had a reverse problem and alot had a 5th gear problem. Good luck man