So here is the rundown,

96 Integra

Running gear consists of the following:

USDM ITR tranny
DSS 2.9 Axles
STOCK IM shaft
CC stage 5 unsprung clutch and LW flywheel
All poly motor mount inserts
Engine makes 180whp

All moving drivetrain parts are less than a year old and have less than 1000 miles on them.

The other day while doing some spirited country road driving, I did a hard 1-2 shift and heard kind of a popping noise followed by a slight loss of power. Ever since, there has been a slight shudder on acceleration in all gears. Mostly between 2-4k RPM. It gets worse with more engine load, but is completely gone when revving under no load.

Everything seems tight concerning all bolts for motor mounts, control arms, ball joints, axle nuts and everything else of the sort.

The only thing that I noticed is that drivers side axle has a slight wobble where it slides over the IM shaft(the IM shaft is tight in it's bearing otherwise.) Is there supposed to be some allowance for movement, or should this be a tight low tolerance fit? I will pull the axle in a couple days to see if there is any spline damage or excessive wear to either part.

Also there was no visible MTF in the tranny when looking through the VSS hole, and you can hear the gears loudly loading in either direction when rotating the wheels by hand. I think this may be another problem. I have been having some issues with the passenger side DSS axle sealing properly. That axle has only been in for a few hundred miles. I just picked up 3 qts. of Honda MTF and just put that in but haven't driven it yet. Anybody got any leads on that stuff for less than $8/qt?

Thanks,

 

So far all I have done is swap out the pass side DSS axle for a new OEM reman. At least my MTF leaking problem is fixed for now and I have an extra axle.

I would still like to find out if any play between the drivers side axle and IM shaft is acceptable. I just want to do that before I drop $350 on a DSS IM shaft.

me =

 

I swapped out the drivers side DSS axle for a fresh OEM Reman axle and the shuddering went away!!! I sure hope those guys customer service is far better than their products. I have had nothing but problems with BOTH axles. The passenger side axle refuses to seal into the transmission causing the $8 per quart MTF to **** all over the place. So right now I am running on 2 OEM reman axles. They hold up fine as long as I am not running my slicks. I am gonna call up DSS tomorrow and see what they will do for me. I just bought the axles (2.9s) back in January from Lightning Motorsports and they have less than 1000 miles and 50 drag launches on them. Plus this time the drivers side axle went out during a spirited drive in the country doing a hard upshift on heat cycled RA-1s. F-ck!!!

 

Keep on them man. I was going to recommend changing the axles because I have seen that issue so many times.

 

I haven't had a chance to call them yet, but I will on Monday... Also when I put the OEM axle in, there is still a little play between the axle and the IM shaft. There are no vibrations, so I am going to take it as normal. It wiggles back and forth about 1mm peak-to-peak. Just a little more info on HT.

BTW the ITR tranny is still as good as new, and it has taken a beating!