So my car has recently started being grindy during a few situations. My first thought was the tranny itself (ie. bearings or gears or something) but I'm not 100% so wanted a little help in diagnosing this so I make sure I'm taking care of the right thing...

Symptoms are:

Sometimes it kind of grinds while reversing. It usually only happens if there is resistance like reversing up hill or something, and the grinding isn't really consistent. Like, it doesn't always do it. It also usually doesn't if I'm revving higher than you normally would need to to reverse and if I let the clutch slip a little while doing it, etc.

Other symptoms are that it will get grindy when I am engine braking, usually around 3000 rpms or lower. I've noticed it happens in pretty much all gears, but it is a lot more noticeable in 2nd or 3rd. Again, this is only sometimes, and seems to happen mostly when there is resistance, like going uphill. The grinding disappears if I push the clutch in all the way.

The last few things I've noticed are that sometimes going over some bumps, there is a sort of rattly/grindy sound that sounds similar. It sounds like something is loose, but nothing is from what I can tell. And sometimes when going around corners there is a bit of a grindy sound as well.

Other things I've done recently in that area are:

* Replaced front axles. Got new axles (NOT remans) from Carquest because after searching I saw many people say that they were similar quality to OEM, only to find out they were made by Cardone (who's reputation I'm honestly not sure about)

* Replaced lower control arm ball-joint at the same time with Moog ball joints.

* The two torque mounts are kind of worn, and the one that connects to the tranny itself on the passenger side was completely ripped. I'm not sure how long this was the case, I only recently just noticed it. I have OEM Type-R torque mounts on the way, but for the meantime I just threw in a cheap mount from O'reilly's which I only did yesterday.

I'm pretty sure I'll need a new tranny or something, I just want to make sure I'm fixing the right thing so figured I'd double-check and get some other opinions since I'm still kind of a noob to doing my own stuff with cars in general, much less transmissions.

Thanks for the help!

 

input shaft bearing is most common culprit. could also be the mainshaft bearing too i suppose.

 

Sounds like you should open it up and have it looked at.

 

Ehh.... Fuggit. I think I'll just go with my original plan of changing out the entire thing.

I suppose if it ends up being the clutch I can just sell the LS tranny, and replace the clutch with whatever I replace the tranny with.

Thanks for the help, but I'm too noobish to just crack it open and take a look or replace specific internals/bearings. Plus, might as well upgrade it since I'd have to pretty much take it off regardless.

Now to find a good used GSR or something transmission....