Pleas help! 2nd gen 5 spd transmission problem

i have a 83 civic 5 speed, i am in saskatchewan and it is -10 tonight, i was driving home down the highway in 5th, i let off the gas for an icy spot and about 5 or 10 seconds after i let back on the gas i heard a very soft clunk, soft enough that the 2 other people didnt hear it and then my 5th gear completely failed. i do not think that the gear stripped for a couple reasons first the noise i heard was not like a grinding gear, not near loud enough and second this car has been around my family for 20 years, no one ever abused it and especially not 5th gear. rite now when it is parked i can have it in 5th and when i let the clutch out it does absolutely nothing, the tone of the engine dosnt even change and no grinding noises from loose parts of a stripped gear (in any gear for that matter) and the speedo dosnt move either. has anyone ever had anything like this? if not can anyone direct me to someone who mite know more. i realize that replacing the trany isnt a very difficult or particularly expensive job for an 83 civic but i am in saskatchewan! far from the bc coast and my tools. did i mention its -10C and dropping. holy hell thats cold!
thanks
Andy

ummm well just go check with a mechanic or sumthing your best choice anyways, you wouldnt want to mess it up yourself would you...

im not really worried about wrecking anything my only problem is getting the bearing nut off without taking the trany off because if i can do that i can take the 5th gear housing off and have a look at what is broken or our of place, i could do it with an impact gun but with a wrench it just turns the engine over and i am far away from home at school without a proper shop

well here i am again, different tranny, same position. for the last few months my tranny has been a little troublesome, when i first got it it was cat's ass, shifted smooth, no play when i let off the gas etc. then it started to make a whining noise pretty well all the time and it was kinda weird but i ignored it. then the sinchros started going in lower gears and i got a little clunk when downshifting but still no biggie, still didn't have any play in gear so i wasn't worried. earlier this week 4th gear stopped working on me, it goes into gear but as soon as i give it any gas it slips out, if it hold the sifter back it just made an awful grinding. today it just made an awful grinding and then nothing in all the gears. in the process of throwing the 4-speed off my 78 in. oh happy day :)

Please don't bring back old threads!



LOL,

I'm stumped. Don't know what to tell you. Bad clutch maybe? But that wouldn't explain the strange noises coming from the case. Might be time for a rebuild. I know you drive kinda' like me, so I wouldn't be supprised it the tranny is shot. Maybe someone else will have more insight.

Prolly killed all of your synchros... But that is just my opinion. Reverse kicks out of gear on me when I go above 30... *eyeshifts* Although, I doubt that helps you.

Reverse kicks out of gear on me when I go above 30...

Why are you going 30mph in reverse?

bad clutch is possible, it makes more noise with the clutch pushed in right now. with the clutch out it slides into all the gears (doing nothing of course) smoothly, with it pushed in it makes a grinding noise constantly and i have to jam it into gears. however i suspect more that it is the main shaft. today i got the tranny out of the 78 and on the floor, then ran out to the machine shop to drop off the civic flywheel so that can be modified to fit the accord crank. tomorrow i will pull apart my wagon so that i can put it all together over the weekend.

So, did it start doing this all of a sudden, or has it been gradually getting worse?

When my clutch started going bad it would slip pretty much every time I drove uphill. It would slip going up any incline on the freeway in 5th gear and sometimes it would also slip in first when I let the clutch out. I suppose if your clutch was totally shot you wouldn't be able to get it in any gear easily and it would make all sorts of horrible noises. But it seems that you would experience some clutch slippage before this happens.

well i got the tranny out of my car tonight and it turns out i had 2 problems, one was the result of the other. the first problem was the one i knew about, the main shaft had a lot of play both up and down/side to side and forward and back. the second problem was the fatal one, the extra play in the main shaft (my assumption at least) put a lot of stress and vibration on the clutch plate and in turn completely severed the outer friction surface from the center portion that slides over the mainshaft. i'm still going to put the 4-speed on for now and get the 5-speed rebuilt and put it back on later.

well i got the 4-speed in today and it’s running good. the thing sucks on the highway, doing 75mph at 4K, but it's fun to drive because it just rips through the gears to get there :) the ratios are a little closer and the final drive is lower then the accord tranny.

You know... You might be able to find a way to drop that final drive from the 5speed in there... I hear about them doing that with the b-series, and newer d-series trannys... Maybe use the 5speed housing and use the 4speed gears for 1-4, and then 5th from the 5speed for your final drive. Might take a little work, but sounds like it would be a little rocket in hiding.
Originally posted by lxndr
Why are you going 30mph in reverse?

I was sitting at a stop sign where a road t-ed into another, and a friend of mine was turning onto the road. So, to show off, he pulled in, and I threw it into reverse. So, we were running down the road, me in reverse, and him in drive. Looked cool. But it threw it out of reverse and wouldn't go back in, so I had to flag him down before he ran me over in his Neon... Just being a 22 year old in his toy car. ;)

well i thought of something like that, using the 5 speed and having the final drive from the 4 speed. good acceleration and still the highway top end. but i have never heard of anyone swapping final drives so it may not be possible.

I swapped the final drive in my D16A1 tranny, but that was easy since it's already a 5 speed. I pulled a 5th gear from an '87 Accord and it fit perfectly in the Integra tranny. The 5th from an Accord will drop about 1500 RPMs when shifting from 4th to 5th instead of 500 RPMs with the stock 5th gear. When searching the junk yards I found that Honda/Acura used the same tranny case for all cars through the mid to late 80s, they just changed the bellhousing and gearing for each model of car. This may be the same situation for your EK1.