<FONT SIZE="3">How To: Not Get Ripped off When Buying a Transmission</FONT>

Yesterday I was lucky enough to see a local seller in the marketplace offer a <TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by User name is safe for now &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">SOHC EX TRANNY REALLY LOW MILES. NO GRINDS THAT I KNOW OF</TD></TR></TABLE>
'Well look here, that sure would be nice to have that if the price is right." So I contact the seller, meet up, and ask a couple dozen questions, inspect the exterior and figure out, it looks good, here's your money. The only thing that threw me for a loop was the transmission ID stamp which read P20/A000, a small bearing case.
"Are you sure that's an EX/SI transmission, as I'm 100% sure that means otherwise."
"Ya, it does."

Since I've seen Honda do stranger things in my day, and the price was right I picked it up promising though to contact him with my findings once I popped opened the case.

Step 1: Look at transmission stamp. P20/A000 = Small Bearing, P20/B000 = Large bearing.


Well, that solves it right there, he sold me the wrong transmission. But wait, there's more:

Step 2: Identify Transmission definitely

Odd...after looking around Honda-Tech for a bit I could not find information on whether the JDM D15B definitely had a A000 / B000 case. Only one way to find out.

Step 3: Remove transmission housing

12x12mm bolts, pretty easy actually.

Step 4: Continue removing transmission housing

Big 3/8 drive bolt, use a breaker to guarantee removal.

Step 5: Stare blankly at countershaft C-Clip

Crap.









Step 6: Remove transmission housing from clutch house

The goal here is to count the teeth on the differential ring gear and then divide them by the teeth present on the counter-shaft. I see 69 teeth on the ring.

Step 7: Make sure all gears are present and accounted for

Or not, let's take a closer look.

W
T
F
How do you do that, really?

Step 8: Count teeth on countershaft
Normally its much easier to remove this from the housing, but I couldn't find my allen wrench. So what I did was make a mark on the gear face with a sharpie and then spin and count.

End result, 17 teeth.


What did I learn from this?
- Trust gut instinct, just because it could be something else assume it's not.
- I was sold a transmission with an obliterated fourth.
- I was sold a transmission that didn't have the correct final (69/17 = 4.058)

End Result
- Always do your research before hand, and never assume something that you buy will work as advertised.

 

That sucks man. I'd toss homeboy a box of parts and demand my money back.

 

I always ask if I can open them up before buying them. I'll bring all the tools over and put it all back together when im done. All those promises about it being in perfect condition and not grinding go out the window when you look at gear and sleeve conditions. Or in your case the massive amount of metal that should have been stuck to the magnet. If there wasnt any metal flakes floating around, he really tried to bang you!

 

I did have all my tools and what not, but I'd have been hard pressed to take apart the transmission in a parking lot last night. Now the inside of the case was immaculate but it was drained of fluid so no metal flakes, except the pound or so attached to the poor magnet. I don't even mind the poor state of the synchro's as I was planning on rebuilding it with M-Factory gears and other fun bits, it's just the fact that I was sold a transmission where the very gears themselves were destroyed and not even the correct transmission at that.

 

Man that does suck...just goes to show you that you can trust nobody nowadays.

 

man, that 4th gear got eviscerated..

I guess i am pretty lucky. I bought an 88 SI trans from someone here on H-T a while ago, and it was in great shape, sans a mild 2nd gear grind.

 

you should really warn others cause that foo got you good

sorry about your lost money and now time

 

If its to good to be true, something is usually up with it.
I always trust my gut when buying used parts. People on here take flashy pictures with their $1000 cameras and everything looks great, but after to see the parts in person your like wtf. It has happen to me a couple of times........................

Dr, hopefully you get your money back or your compensated in some way.

 

Great write up, sorry that it happened to you though.

 

What a douchey move. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Go throw it through his front window.

 

damn bro, sorry for your loss, but thanks for the heads up on how to check the condition of a tranny. this is very informative.

 

"reassemble" the transmission in a way he will see the damage on the hood of his car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EL Vap133 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great write up, sorry that it happened to you though. </TD></TR></TABLE> Thanks, hopefully though this situation will be better come tonight. The seller got back to me today about rectifying the situation and I believe we are going to reach a conclusion that satisfies both parties involved.<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SIred91 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">"reassemble" the transmission in a way he will see the damage on the hood of his car.</TD></TR></TABLE> I couldn't help but laugh.<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by f@sth@tch89 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">damn bro, sorry for your loss, but thanks for the heads up on how to check the condition of a tranny. this is very informative.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I bought a transmission from a pretty shady character not too long ago and made sure to do any check I could. The easiest way to make sure the thing is not completely toast is just take a screw driver that will fit in the hole for the roll pin on the shift linkage and shift it through all of the gears, turn the mainshaft and make sure it turns smoothly in every gear. If still in doubt pull the drain plug to see if you can get some fluid to come out and check for metal chunks.

http://www.thezcr.com/forums/s...14791 - A good PDF to have.



Modified by the_asteroid at 2:09 PM 7/9/2008

 

What the hell happened to that 4th gear! Damn, always sucks to see people get ripped off.

An easy way to tell if its a big or small bearing case, pop out the axle seal and measure the diff with a pair of calipers.

40mm=big bearing
35mm=small bearing

 

OMG! That's all I can say for the damage. Glad that you are going to get it worked out with the seller. Luckily I've never been burned like that before. Next used tranny I purchase I'll be cracking it open first or I'll hit the road.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the_asteroid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I bought a transmission from a pretty shady character not too long ago and made sure to do any check I could. The easiest way to make sure the thing is not completely toast is just take a screw driver that will fit in the hole for the roll pin on the shift linkage and shift it through all of the gears, turn the mainshaft and make sure it turns smoothly in every gear. If still in doubt pull the drain plug to see if you can get some fluid to come out and check for metal chunks.

http://www.thezcr.com/forums/s...14791 - A good PDF to have.

Modified by the_asteroid at 2:09 PM 7/9/2008</TD></TR></TABLE> I've known about the differential rotation method, it just doesn't feel that precise to me. I should though take a stab at it right now since I have the transmission on the ground beside me.

Here are the things though, in reference to what you mentioned.
- I am able to shift all gears smoothly at the shift linkage, even fourth. As usual, reverse is a PITA, some things never change.
- The transmission was drained, but the magnet looks like a minefield. I'll take it out tomorrow and take some pics of it.<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Furyof4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What the hell happened to that 4th gear! Damn, always sucks to see people get ripped off.

An easy way to tell if its a big or small bearing case, pop out the axle seal and measure the diff with a pair of calipers.

40mm=big bearing
35mm=small bearing</TD></TR></TABLE> Going to try that in the morning, I haven't heard of that direct method.