*Important Question about Axles, Lowering and Transmission!*

[JFreddy]

Ok, so Problem: Trashed one tranny, got an $800.00, 50 thousand km used one. 2.5 months later, trashed with same problem.

Symptoms: metal shavings in tranny oil, lots of them. makes a nice silver fleck:help: . It seems that my "pinion" inside my tranny is wanting out... on the first transmission it blew a hole in the casing it wanted out so bad.

ok so, i apologize if my vocab is wrong I'm going off what my tech told me at work today, cas he helped me put in this tranny. Anyways there are two theories that I'm going with here and I'm really really wondering if anyone has ever encountered the same problem... because lots of ppl are lowered but nobody has said much bout blowing out transmissions...

Theory 1: Axles are suppose to be on somewhat of an angle stock. This gives the axle play in order for when the vehicle goes over bumps correct? just as an example we'll say its a 10 degree angle they sit on (this is just an example not real stats). so inside the axle boot close to the transmission, the axle can move inwards and outwards depending on the bump. Lowering your car therefore would decrease this angle and push the axle inwards towards the transmission.
So when lowered, we have come to a conclusion that the axle has been pushed in soo much that it is right against my differential in the transmission, and banging up against the pinion and like what happend in the first transmission pushing it out.
Has anyone come across this? anyone have a solution that will help while still lowered? does anyone make shorter or performance axles for our cars? I ahvent seen anything like this on the site so I never looked into it.

Theory 2: Motor Mounts are way too weak lol. but we dont kno cas the same problem happened twice within 3 months.... :help: :help:

And now I'm 800$ in the hole plus the cost of finding ANOTHER transmission...
:rant: Thanks to all who read my rant and thanks to anyone who can help with this question.

[89AccordResto]

Lowering your car messes up all sorts of suspension geometry. Theory 1 makes sense to me. Keep it about stock height and you shouldn't have problems. :P

[HondaBoy]

this is just something my instructor was telling us today when we were changing out some axles on a 2nd gen accord. take only one axle out at a time, because sometime the final drive gear will want to slip out or sideways, either way misaligning somehow. i dont know if that would be any problem you have, but seems like its possible. maybe you just have shit luck and both transmissions were bad to begin with? i've had that problem with used parts. oh and about lowering your car, this really shouldnt do a damn thing to the transmission itself. just the CV joint can sometimes wear out, but i've never heard of lowering your car directly messing up the tranny.

[NXRacer]

lowering your car won't kill your trans. While its a good guess, it doesnt happen in reality. I've had 2 3g's dumped and never had tranny problems. And they were DUMPED. Plus, i've seen so many other Hondas and other cars that were sitting on the gorund and never had axle problems like that.

My guess is you got to lemon tranny's, or there's something else wrong (maybe the wrong axle?). Either way dont worry about your car being lowered.

how low is your car anyway?

[bobafett]

yeah seriously caleb would have blown trannies if lowering killed them! :)

[JFreddy]

Yeah... see thats why I came to you guys is because I know their are tons of hondas DuMPED with no tranny problems... my car can be a max of 3" dropped, so not dumped but a decent drop. I thought that it kinda made sense about the axles nto having any leeway and going from this--> / Tranny \ to this.... ___ Tranny ___ (the lines being the axles). well.... any other ideas? are all the axles between 86-89 the same length? on both driver and pass. side? I did have an axle replaced about 2 months before i lowered it. maybe that one is longer than stock? I got it from NAPA. hmmm well, so there are no aftermarket axles for us? and aftermarket performance axles for other hondas, are they shorter than stock?

I'm not really buying the lowering killed the tranny because of all the accords more slammed than mine... without transmission problems.. hmm thanks for the input anything else u want to add please do

[bobafett]

AFAIK all 86-89 MT axles are the same. and i would ASSUME that all 86-89 AT axles are the same as well. though im thinking MT and AT had different axles...

and no, there is no performance aftermarket axles for us :(
as for performance axles for other cars being shorter, i dont think that is the case. generally they are larger diameter and/or made from a stronger material, to hold more horsepower before twisting or shearing. :)

[halxi]

there have been rumors that people buying axles from autozone/checkers have problems with them popping out of the tranny when turning sharp kuz they were too short... but i dunno about that.

Could be worth a shot though?


or, pull the axles out, cut off 1/2" off of each end, re-thread the outer part, and make sure the splines are still ok on the inner part... reassemble axles with tranny. Do it with bad axles, and deal with the clicking from the CV's for awhile... then change your tranny fluid after like 3k, if no shavings are there, then your problem has been solved... if they are still there, cut down another 1/4 of an inch off of each side on each shaft...

just an idea

[JFreddy]

Yeah, ok sorry I forgot to mention my Transmission is a 5 spd. There is one way to figure out this myth, next week I'm puttin it up on the hoist at work and i'm going to see with my hands how much play the axle has, if no play... then this theory could prove right, if there is still enough play that it shouldnt bother the transmission that much then... I will prove my boss wrong. He also said his theory could be wrong but the way to check is to put it up on a hoist and check how much give the axles have going into the transmission.

[Lockleaf]

The whole deal about Autozone/Checker parts is probably operator error. Most likely they didn't replace the spring clip on the end of the axle to enter the tranny. It is only available at dealers and they cost like 4 bucks a piece and it's a thin metal C the size of a quarter is all. But if that is worn out and can't hold the tension then gunning the car around a corner will pop that bastard right out.