FAQ: Tranny Tech Article
07-27-2004, 08:52 AM
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Tranny Tech Article
I threw my tranny a few days ago on my 91 Si so I went out and bought an 89 HF tranny. I searched my beloved H-T site for complete info on tranny removal and replacement but I came up short. So I thought why not start my own Tech article which shows(with pics) how to remove a D series tranny and replace them. And why not have you members with valid knowledge help me and others in the future by adding to this article with any help or advice you can give. Start date July 27, 2004 @ 10:00 am. While I get the car in the garage and put it up on jacks, anyone reading who has some knowledge, plz start dropping anything you know into a reply. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. TIA, - Darrell 
07-27-2004, 09:38 AM
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Okay, first problem I have encountered is getting the car up the driveway lol. I have a friend coming over soon, so while I wait I thought I'd upload some pics.
My car :
The HF Tranny :
My old VSS and some random chunks of tranny :
Edit : The tranny I got from Mike @ HighEnd Autosports for $100 with a used starter. My old VSS is in perfect shape and you can have it for free if you pick it up or shoot me an offer and maybe I can ship it. - Darrell
My car :
The HF Tranny :
My old VSS and some random chunks of tranny :
Edit : The tranny I got from Mike @ HighEnd Autosports for $100 with a used starter. My old VSS is in perfect shape and you can have it for free if you pick it up or shoot me an offer and maybe I can ship it. - Darrell
07-27-2004, 02:44 PM
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As it turns out, I was called in to work the next 3 days which were my only days off for a few weeks. There will be no time to work on the car until then so I've reluctantly decided to have High End Autosports put the tranny in for me. A job that might have taken me hours, will take him about 2 and I'll be sure its put in correctly. He's charging me only $150 which anywhere else quoted me $250+. And he's putting new boots on my axels. I'll try to take pics @ the shop and get any advice I can from Nick the mechanic. - Darrell
07-27-2004, 03:49 PM
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Yes yes, but I work graveyard 10pm-6am. And I was having trouble finding a decent impact gun. Renting one is almost as much as just paying to have the tranny put in. As I said, I'll be spending the time at the shop taking pics and just basically sponging information for everyone. The guys at the shop are good friends so they don't mind me snooping around while they work. Dont worry guys, I wont let this problem stop me from finishing my article! ha - Darrell
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08-03-2004, 01:27 AM
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- NEW INFO!! -
Well, I just finished installing my first tranny and goddamn the excitement of knowing I did the work myself more than pays off for the busted knuckles and sore joints. I had pics but the damn camera won't seem to work. Im gonna try to get some pics from others and piece the rest of my article together. Be patient its coming. - Darrell
Well, I just finished installing my first tranny and goddamn the excitement of knowing I did the work myself more than pays off for the busted knuckles and sore joints. I had pics but the damn camera won't seem to work. Im gonna try to get some pics from others and piece the rest of my article together. Be patient its coming. - Darrell
08-03-2004, 02:32 AM
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I'll try to put everything into as much detail as possible. *Warning, I am giving you my first hand experience with replacing a 1991 CRX Si 5spd transmission with an 1989 CRX Si 5spd transmission using a tight budget and limited tools. Any harm caused by attempting to follow these instructions are fault of those attempting this automotive repair. *
-Tools Needed- 17mm socket, 14mm socket, 12mm socket, 10mm socket, 3/8" extensions 1 3", 1 6", and 1 24", 12mm open/box wrench, 14mm open/box wrench, Large breaker bar, large pry bar, long nosed flathead screwdriver, Decent sized hammer, 3lb sledge, 1/4" punch, 1 can PB Blaster(You'll thank me when it saves you 40 minutes of pain) 18" 2x4" piece of wood, and some pliers.
Step 1: Get your car to a nice flat surface that your more than fine with getting dirty and laying on. Break the lugnuts loose and get that biatch up on jackstands so that its about 2'6" in the air, the higher the better. **ALWAYS BE CAUTIOUS WHEN WORKING WITH JACKS OR UNDER THE CAR!!**
Step 2: Remove the Pos(+) and Neg(-) terminals from the battery. Remove intake piping and filter. Remove battery and battery tray. Remove tires from hubs.
Step 3: Now this is where my FAQ will differ from others I believe, due to the fact my ways are strange and mysterious
and I'm poor :/. Remove the positive and negative connections from the starter. Remove the 02 Sensor connection. Remove the two wires that connect to the VSS. Remove the ground wire near the clutch cable bracket.
Step 4: Unhook the clutch cable from the transmission. Now your tranny should only be connected to the car through the 5 main studs, 2 pins, 3 mounts, and one starter bolt. This is where I used a floor jack to support the transmission on the bellhousing.
Step 5: At this time you need to release the axels from the transmission. This is usually a pain for most people, but I found an easy way to get around breaking the 32mm axel nut. Get the 17mm lower control arm castle nut loose. There's a pin inside it you must remove first. Loosen it until it is almost off. Now grab your hammer of choice, I used a 2lb ball-peen and wack the arm connecting to the lower control arm near the ball-joint boot**Do not break this boot, its about a $20 mistake if you do. You may need a few good wacks but you'll see that the arm will slide down and sit ontop of the 17mm castle nut. I've heard doing this destroys your alignment but as of yet I have had no troubles. Now repeat this step on the other side of the car. You then need to take those 17mm castle nuts off the bottom of the control arm and lift the hub up, then pull it out. It may fight you to stay. This is where you will need to tie it off pulling it away from the car or have a friend put tension on it by pulling it away from the car. Slide under the car and use your long flathead screwdriver to pry the axel shaft out of the transmission. It may take a good amount of force to pop it off because the way the axel works. Its a shaft with some splines and a circular pin that surrounds it just a bit larger than the diameter of the shafter that is used to lock the shaft into the transmission. Keep prying until the entire shaft pulls out of the tranny and you are certain it is removed**This can be quite tedious, but don't give up, its worth it in the end, also spinning the hub can help you.** Repeat this on both sides. You should have both axels now removed from the transmission and be ready to move on. **If your having too much trouble pulling the axel out an alternative is to cut the Inner CV Boot(nearest the tranny) and seperate the half-axel and axel-shaft, then seperate the axel shaft from the tranny later when its on the ground. But remember if you do this you have to replace the CV Boot which is about $12 bucks from Star Auto, $15 from Pepboys.**
Step 6: *Here I start to remove the studs on the tranny before removing the mounts, so as to keep the weight on the mounts and not the motor. You may need the breaker here. * Start to remove the studs(All 17mm except the 1 Starter bolt which is 14mm) holding the transmission to the block. There are 2 under the Dizzy about 4" from each other. Go down another 6-7" towards the front of the vehicle and there is 1 with a Pin under it(only visible with the tranny off). And there is 1 very near the front tranny mount(front as in front of vehicle side.) The fifth stud is pointing the opposite direction of the others, its pointing at the passenger side of the car and is down in the back of the engine bay near the firewall. Then remove the starter bolt on the bottom of the starter, inbetween the starter and tranny-bell housing. Now you should have 5 17mm Studs in your hand and 1 14mm stud.
Step 7: Once your certain of the positioning of the jack under the tranny, take the 3 bolts out of the passenger side mount. There are 2 14mm visible, 1 17mm, and 1 more 14mm hidden under the rubber bushing and above the mount flange. For the hidden bolt, use the 14mm open/box wrench. Now remove the 17mm bolt holding the mount to the chasis and the mount should slide up and out. This will release the only mount holding the far side of the tranny so take note to this and again, check your jack positioning. Now lets take the front mount bolt out, its a 17mm and will also have a nut and washer on the opposite side. Then move onto the back mount which is also 17mm.
Step 8: Now your really sweating, but your 49% done. Your transmission is now seperate from your engine and is being held on by only your 2 pins(Visible only with tranny off) and your jack. And your engine now only has two mounts, the driverside fender, and the rear mount near the firewall. When the tranny comes out you will need to make sure there's something giving the engine a hand at staying straight because without the tranny it will want to sag towards the ground and this will stress out your motor mounts. Get under the car and remove the shift linkage( The trick I used because the bitch pin on the linkage is rather hard to remove while under the car is to just remove it from the bottom of the shifter and remove the other bar from the tranny and let it hang down. Shimmy that tranny around until you have a way to tap the large pry bar inbetween the tranny bell housing and the block. Seperate as much as possible and work your way around the housing from front to back, side to side. Get down under and pry that bitch off with all your might! Whats the you say? It's free at last, thank god almighty. Drop that bitch to the ground and slide it out. You have now just removed your D-series transmission. Be proud, drink a beer. Change the tranny fluid on your new tranny and be cautious because the fluid will drain out but Pepboys sells plugs for trannys for about $8 so be sure to pick some up if you don't have anything you can use to plug 'em up. Now that the tranny is out, spray the bitch pin on the linkage with PB Blaster (This is where this stuff becomes legendary) and use the punch to tap it out. Don't use the pointed side of the punch, this will flare it out and make its shape like a flower vase. Use the flat part and slide that bitch out with 'Gentle Strength'. Put the linkage on the new tranny and then repeat the steps in reverse. Pics coming soon hopefully, anyone who wants to contribute be my guest, This job took me 6 hours and I was alone on it 95% of the time. I am mechanically inclined but I can't learn from a book so I went by simply reasoning what I needed to do. I would say anybody with enough knowledge to change their own oil should be able to complete this task. Infact, I found it to be easier than installing cam gears on a friends 93 Integra LS, this is just alittle more time consuming. Good Luck to all and I hope this helps atleast one person out there. Any questions, any at all, pm me and I will be happy to reply. - Darrell
-Tools Needed- 17mm socket, 14mm socket, 12mm socket, 10mm socket, 3/8" extensions 1 3", 1 6", and 1 24", 12mm open/box wrench, 14mm open/box wrench, Large breaker bar, large pry bar, long nosed flathead screwdriver, Decent sized hammer, 3lb sledge, 1/4" punch, 1 can PB Blaster(You'll thank me when it saves you 40 minutes of pain) 18" 2x4" piece of wood, and some pliers.
Step 1: Get your car to a nice flat surface that your more than fine with getting dirty and laying on. Break the lugnuts loose and get that biatch up on jackstands so that its about 2'6" in the air, the higher the better. **ALWAYS BE CAUTIOUS WHEN WORKING WITH JACKS OR UNDER THE CAR!!**
Step 2: Remove the Pos(+) and Neg(-) terminals from the battery. Remove intake piping and filter. Remove battery and battery tray. Remove tires from hubs.
Step 3: Now this is where my FAQ will differ from others I believe, due to the fact my ways are strange and mysterious
and I'm poor :/. Remove the positive and negative connections from the starter. Remove the 02 Sensor connection. Remove the two wires that connect to the VSS. Remove the ground wire near the clutch cable bracket.Step 4: Unhook the clutch cable from the transmission. Now your tranny should only be connected to the car through the 5 main studs, 2 pins, 3 mounts, and one starter bolt. This is where I used a floor jack to support the transmission on the bellhousing.
Step 5: At this time you need to release the axels from the transmission. This is usually a pain for most people, but I found an easy way to get around breaking the 32mm axel nut. Get the 17mm lower control arm castle nut loose. There's a pin inside it you must remove first. Loosen it until it is almost off. Now grab your hammer of choice, I used a 2lb ball-peen and wack the arm connecting to the lower control arm near the ball-joint boot**Do not break this boot, its about a $20 mistake if you do. You may need a few good wacks but you'll see that the arm will slide down and sit ontop of the 17mm castle nut. I've heard doing this destroys your alignment but as of yet I have had no troubles. Now repeat this step on the other side of the car. You then need to take those 17mm castle nuts off the bottom of the control arm and lift the hub up, then pull it out. It may fight you to stay. This is where you will need to tie it off pulling it away from the car or have a friend put tension on it by pulling it away from the car. Slide under the car and use your long flathead screwdriver to pry the axel shaft out of the transmission. It may take a good amount of force to pop it off because the way the axel works. Its a shaft with some splines and a circular pin that surrounds it just a bit larger than the diameter of the shafter that is used to lock the shaft into the transmission. Keep prying until the entire shaft pulls out of the tranny and you are certain it is removed**This can be quite tedious, but don't give up, its worth it in the end, also spinning the hub can help you.** Repeat this on both sides. You should have both axels now removed from the transmission and be ready to move on. **If your having too much trouble pulling the axel out an alternative is to cut the Inner CV Boot(nearest the tranny) and seperate the half-axel and axel-shaft, then seperate the axel shaft from the tranny later when its on the ground. But remember if you do this you have to replace the CV Boot which is about $12 bucks from Star Auto, $15 from Pepboys.**
Step 6: *Here I start to remove the studs on the tranny before removing the mounts, so as to keep the weight on the mounts and not the motor. You may need the breaker here. * Start to remove the studs(All 17mm except the 1 Starter bolt which is 14mm) holding the transmission to the block. There are 2 under the Dizzy about 4" from each other. Go down another 6-7" towards the front of the vehicle and there is 1 with a Pin under it(only visible with the tranny off). And there is 1 very near the front tranny mount(front as in front of vehicle side.) The fifth stud is pointing the opposite direction of the others, its pointing at the passenger side of the car and is down in the back of the engine bay near the firewall. Then remove the starter bolt on the bottom of the starter, inbetween the starter and tranny-bell housing. Now you should have 5 17mm Studs in your hand and 1 14mm stud.
Step 7: Once your certain of the positioning of the jack under the tranny, take the 3 bolts out of the passenger side mount. There are 2 14mm visible, 1 17mm, and 1 more 14mm hidden under the rubber bushing and above the mount flange. For the hidden bolt, use the 14mm open/box wrench. Now remove the 17mm bolt holding the mount to the chasis and the mount should slide up and out. This will release the only mount holding the far side of the tranny so take note to this and again, check your jack positioning. Now lets take the front mount bolt out, its a 17mm and will also have a nut and washer on the opposite side. Then move onto the back mount which is also 17mm.
Step 8: Now your really sweating, but your 49% done. Your transmission is now seperate from your engine and is being held on by only your 2 pins(Visible only with tranny off) and your jack. And your engine now only has two mounts, the driverside fender, and the rear mount near the firewall. When the tranny comes out you will need to make sure there's something giving the engine a hand at staying straight because without the tranny it will want to sag towards the ground and this will stress out your motor mounts. Get under the car and remove the shift linkage( The trick I used because the bitch pin on the linkage is rather hard to remove while under the car is to just remove it from the bottom of the shifter and remove the other bar from the tranny and let it hang down. Shimmy that tranny around until you have a way to tap the large pry bar inbetween the tranny bell housing and the block. Seperate as much as possible and work your way around the housing from front to back, side to side. Get down under and pry that bitch off with all your might! Whats the you say? It's free at last, thank god almighty. Drop that bitch to the ground and slide it out. You have now just removed your D-series transmission. Be proud, drink a beer. Change the tranny fluid on your new tranny and be cautious because the fluid will drain out but Pepboys sells plugs for trannys for about $8 so be sure to pick some up if you don't have anything you can use to plug 'em up. Now that the tranny is out, spray the bitch pin on the linkage with PB Blaster (This is where this stuff becomes legendary) and use the punch to tap it out. Don't use the pointed side of the punch, this will flare it out and make its shape like a flower vase. Use the flat part and slide that bitch out with 'Gentle Strength'. Put the linkage on the new tranny and then repeat the steps in reverse. Pics coming soon hopefully, anyone who wants to contribute be my guest, This job took me 6 hours and I was alone on it 95% of the time. I am mechanically inclined but I can't learn from a book so I went by simply reasoning what I needed to do. I would say anybody with enough knowledge to change their own oil should be able to complete this task. Infact, I found it to be easier than installing cam gears on a friends 93 Integra LS, this is just alittle more time consuming. Good Luck to all and I hope this helps atleast one person out there. Any questions, any at all, pm me and I will be happy to reply. - Darrell
08-03-2004, 04:10 AM
#10
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Re: (DOHCZCCRXSi)
Ok, here is my question - For the axle installation back into the tranny, did you replace the ring clip that locks the axle into the differential or did you replace it?
08-04-2004, 09:44 AM
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My driverside axel clip that went into the differential was bent because my diff blew apart so it was keeping my axel in. Through the huge hole in my old tranny, I was able to pop the clip off with a screwdriver and pull it out. But to answer your question directly, yes, I did reuse the original ring clips. I had to reshape the driverside clip, then just pounded them in with the rotors jacked up. - Darrell
08-04-2004, 09:57 AM
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Re: (DOHCZCCRXSi)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DOHCZCCRXSi »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes yes, but I work graveyard 10pm-6am. And I was having trouble finding a decent impact gun. Renting one is almost as much as just paying to have the tranny put in. As I said, I'll be spending the time at the shop taking pics and just basically sponging information for everyone. The guys at the shop are good friends so they don't mind me snooping around while they work. Dont worry guys, I wont let this problem stop me from finishing my article! ha - Darrell</TD></TR></TABLE>
Man you don't need no Impact gun to do a tranny. The only tough part is the Axle nut, this part will test how strong you really are......
But nice write up.
Man you don't need no Impact gun to do a tranny. The only tough part is the Axle nut, this part will test how strong you really are......
But nice write up.
08-04-2004, 10:44 AM
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Re: (CRX T-Si)
I pop the inner LCA mount bolt and the lower strut mount bolt on each side and pap the axel . Has worked for me through several tansmissions. I only take the axel nut off when and axel needs to be replaced. But whatever works for you is fine. Its enough work regardless how you do it.
08-16-2004, 08:47 AM
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To make it clear, I never actually used any air tools or pnuematic tools in any sense. Everything was human strength :Thumbsup:. - Darrell
08-18-2004, 01:47 AM
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Re: (DOHCZCCRXSi)
The only thing I can add is try using a prybar for install/uinstall of the axles and don't forget about the roll (BITCH) pin clip that snaps over it on the shift linkage connection point.
05-04-2010, 10:39 PM
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Re: FAQ: Tranny Tech Article
oh yeah!!! THANK YOU GOD!!! I am in the middle of an si tranny swap right now and this has just COMPLETELY saved my life!!! You are the man!!!
06-22-2015, 12:37 AM
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Re: FAQ: Tranny Tech Article
Hi there! So I was wondering if anyone could give me a list of the actual tools needed, (not that this list isn't helpful), but a non budget or rather a lighter budget tool list for this job? Thanks so much!
06-22-2015, 09:13 AM
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06-22-2015, 09:58 AM
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Re: FAQ: Tranny Tech Article
Without even reading it, the only time a piece of wood is ever used is in between the engine or transmission and the floor jack. I'll leave the reading up to you.
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