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Hello everyone, I am wondering what the most common failures are on our D17 5 speed transmissions. I recently got a complete 5 speed swap from a local junkyard that I am going to be installing into my 05 Civic shortly. Fortunately the transmission I got seems to be in great condition. It has a new clutch and flywheel, all the gears engage easily, and it turns smoothly in each gear. I can not afford a full rebuild, so I would like to replace the most problematic parts before installation to help ensure that it will work reliably for years to come and I am wondering what parts I should replace before installation. I already ordered a new input shaft seal and bearing as those are somewhat problematic from my understanding and I am wondering if there is anything else I should get. Pilot bearing and throw out bearing is still good, but I may replace those anyways.
Thank you very much in advance, this is my first manual transmission so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2nd-3rd shift grinds a touch when I drive it hard, otherwise it's been reliable. My brother's around 220k on the stock 5-speed. They aren't usually a point of failure.
How were you testing it? Did you see the car running/driving at any point before you pulled it?
2nd-3rd shift grinds a touch when I drive it hard, otherwise it's been reliable. My brother's around 220k on the stock 5-speed. They aren't usually a point of failure.
How were you testing it? Did you see the car running/driving at any point before you pulled it?
Good to know, thank you. Seems like the 5 speed is way less problematic than the auto on these cars. Unfortunately I was not able to drive the car before I pulled it, I got it from a self serve junkyard for ~$80 with a 30 day warranty. The whole swap cost me $160 for the trans, mounting brackets, shifter, shift cables, starter, clutch, clutch line, flywheel, pedal, master cylinder, slave cylinder, and ECU. Not too bad IMO. Still need a drivers side axle, subframe, and front mount as that stuff was already gone off of the donor car, but that should't be too hard to find locally.
The only tests I have been able to do is turning the input shaft in each gear to listen and feel for any weirdness and it seemed to be fine. Each gear engaged smoothly and the input shaft spun smoothly and pretty quietly in each gear, I didn't feel any binding or anything concerning. I also inspected the oil and it looked good, it was reasonably clean with no major glitter. I haven't opened it up yet, I'm waiting to get my new input shaft bearing so I can get it done and put back together the same day so it isn't sitting open for too long. I will upload pics of the inside when I open it up. Is there anything specific I should be looking for other than general wear on gear teeth and such?
Mine had 250k miles when I swapped and still shifted buttery smooth. Did pop out of 5th a few times but once the ball on the shifter was lubed up it never happened again.
Mine had 250k miles when I swapped and still shifted buttery smooth. Did pop out of 5th a few times but once the ball on the shifter was lubed up it never happened again.
That's awesome! Makes me feel a bit better about the 290K mile trans that I just recently bought. Did you have to replace the clutch or was it still original?
That's awesome! Makes me feel a bit better about the 290K mile trans that I just recently bought. Did you have to replace the clutch or was it still original?
I bought it with 156k miles, I never replaced the clutch in the ~100k I drove it. It wasn't slipping when I swapped but it was starting to feel weird, was going to need it soon. A few years of autocross took it's toll I guess.
I just opened the trans up to replace the input shaft bearing and from what I can see everything looks alright except the old bearing, I don't see any obvious damage. However, I'm not exactly sure what I am looking at. Gear teeth look good and there wasn't much glitter in the trans. The bearings on the differential sound slightly noisy compared to the other bearings, but for for all I know that may be normal. Is there anything else I should inspect while it's apart? Thanks in advance!
Big gears are engaged all the time so they shouldn't really show any wear. You would want to look at the synchro and small teeth next to them. 1st and 2nd synchro and shift collar are on the countershaft. 3rd, 4th, and 5th are on the mainshaft. Don't have a pic of chewed up shift collar teeth but here's a pic of a worn synchro. If you look in the service manual it will show you what to inspect.
Big gears are engaged all the time so they shouldn't really show any wear. You would want to look at the synchro and small teeth next to them. 1st and 2nd synchro and shift collar are on the countershaft. 3rd, 4th, and 5th are on the mainshaft. Don't have a pic of chewed up shift collar teeth but here's a pic of a worn synchro. If you look in the service manual it will show you what to inspect.
Great info, thanks! I just inspected the synchros and shift collars and everything looks good, so hopefully it is alright. Only thing that has me a bit concerned is the diff bearings sound a bit loud, but that may be normal for those bearings for all I know. I was going to replace them while its apart just in case until I looked at the price of those bearings. I'm hoping they are okay since they don't feel rough or have any play.
