Need an MT mainshaft

[Dr_Snooz]

Does anyone have a spare 88/89 LXi MT mainshaft sitting around? I started tearing down my junkyard special manual trans tonight for my swap and discovered that the mainshaft is pretty much destroyed.

http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq132/dr_snooz/pic0057.jpg

http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq132/dr_snooz/pic0058.jpg

Anyway, please PM me if you can help. Otherwise I get to go back to the junkyard, and start pulling trannies and tearing them down until I find a good shaft. Oi!

Thanks guys!

[Dr_Snooz]

Nobody has an old transmission lying around? Come on, name your price.

Words of encouragement are also appreciated...

[Oldblueaccord]

Um well email me and Ill look for one.


wp

[AccordEpicenter]

oh wow. Did you have bearing problems?

[Dr_Snooz]

The diff bearings are pretty crunchy. I have new ones, so that's not a big deal. I did a couple quick feeler gauge checks and the tranny seems to be in really good shape aside from the whole chopped up mainshaft thing. I haven't cleaned up the parts and really scrutinized them yet, so there could be more surprises to come. I've only found one tooth, so I'm not sure where the rest of them are hiding. The magnet at the bottom of the case had a lot of debris (no teeth), but not any more than I'd expect from a trans with 180k miles on it. I'm off to the junkyard today. That's going to be joyful trying to get locknuts off of freely spinning shafts without air tools. Can't wait to spend all that time dropping a transmission, doing a full teardown, hoping the mainshaft is good, finding that it isn't and doing it all over again...

[Ichiban]

Use a rag between the two 5'th gears to help undo the two stake nuts. Just remember that one is left hand thread.

[ArokASE88LXi]

to keep shafts from spinning while removing the nuts you need to shift it into reverse if possible. according to the manual anyway thats how it says to do it (also how you torque them afterwards) I'd give you mine if you don't mind having no reverse lol. i found a site sellinga used one for about $100 but i can't for the life of me remember it now. I'm still in the middle of doing mine. I got the syncros done now all i'm waiting for is one god forsaken seal to put it back together i'm getting impatient! i'll try to find that site again for you though!! good luck keep us posted

[Ichiban]

to keep shafts from spinning while removing the nuts you need to shift it into reverse if possible. according to the manual anyway thats how it says to do it (also how you torque them afterwards) I'd give you mine if you don't mind having no reverse lol. i found a site sellinga used one for about $100 but i can't for the life of me remember it now. I'm still in the middle of doing mine. I got the syncros done now all i'm waiting for is one god forsaken seal to put it back together i'm getting impatient! i'll try to find that site again for you though!! good luck keep us posted

If you select reverse, or any other gear for that matter, the transmission will still turn as you try to undo the stake nuts. Most junkyard cars already have the wheels off, so the hubs and guts of the tranny will rotate freely. What the manual says, I believe, is to drive the roll pin out of the 5th shift rod, select reverse, and manually engage 5th gear by hand. This will lock up the transmission.

[Dr_Snooz]

I went to the junkyard and pulled a trans. Just as I predicted, it was a real mother trying to get the locknuts off in the yard. The problem is that the 5th gear assembly freewheels on the shaft. You can lock the gears tight, but the shaft will still spin inside them. I tried jamming screwdrivers in everywhere, but nothing did it. I ended up taking out the fill nut and jamming a screwdriver into the diff. I put a 90 degree crimp in my screwdriver, but it was a cheapie from Kragen so no worries. Alas, the trans was worn out so I left it.

:(

[Ichiban]

Fuck that sucks. What I was saying though, drive out the pin for 5th, engage it with your fingers, then mash the tranny into reverse. It won't turn in both a forward and reverse, and you won't pooch screwdrivers, cheap or not.

How bad was the tranny inside?

[Dr_Snooz]

It was worn out. Nothing really spectacular, but clearly worn out, which is what I've found most everything at the self-service yards to be. I ended up calling a local specialty yard (not self-service) and ordering another trans from them. They shipped it to my door with a 1 year warranty for $500. I pulled it apart tonight and it looks a lot better than the one I have. I cleaned up the mainshaft and did all the measurements with feeler gauges and a dial calipers and it checked out great. The bearings are all still real smooth.

My challenge right now is getting the counter-shaft bearing out of the case. It's recessed and I can't really pry at it. The manual says to use a special tool and a slide hammer. I'll see what I can figure out. I may end up buying a slide hammer to do it though.

[cygnus x-1]

I picked up a cheap ass slide hammer from Harbor Freight. Don't use it very often but it's really handy for those times when nothing else will do.

C|

[Ichiban]

My challenge right now is getting the counter-shaft bearing out of the case. It's recessed and I can't really pry at it. The manual says to use a special tool and a slide hammer. I'll see what I can figure out. I may end up buying a slide hammer to do it though.

Oh dood....I had a machine shop full of equipment and i couldn't get that bearing out without mutilating it. I recommend you leave it alone unless it's visibly totaled or a bunch of metal went through it via the oil. Getting the one out of my JDM B18A housing involved welding the puller directly to the face of the bearing. After that, the slide hammer made it easy. Problem was, the bearing material has such a high carbon content, the welds kept peeling out.

After destroying that bearing, I found out that nobody in Canada could get me one. NTN 8E-NK 33x55x21 if I remember correctly.

So in order to get the other bearing out of the A20 housing, I put up the bellhousing in the bandsaw and cut towards the bearing bore until I could break apart the housing and the bearing fell out undamaged.

Guess what?

Different bearing. 8E-NK 33x55x19. Yup, machined an .081" wide spacer to sit behind that bearing and stuffed it in anyways.

Whole situation sorta pissed me off.

[Dr_Snooz]

Okay, if you struggled with it, then I won't try. The last thing I need is to mutilate it and still not be able to get it out. I'm sure the one in there is fine. It gets plenty of oil. The oil flips off the big diff gear and into that bearing. My donor trans looks to be low mileage and in good shape so I'll just deal. I have the new bearing in my kit, but whatever.

Thanks for the heads up.

[ArokASE88LXi]

:rly: it's funny you mention that about trying to get that countershaft bearing out i couldn't really get mine out either. but then i was pressure washing that half of the case and i picked it up and the bearing had just come out! pretty weird i guess! and ya that's what i figured out the other night was putting it into fifth and reverse at the same time to torque the nuts. tried a rag... that worked but left lots of red fibers i had to clean out, tried a screw driver... broke the tip (ok cause it's snap-on they'll just give me a new one :thumbup: ) tried a brass punch... the teeth just chewed it up! so the reverse and 5th trick is really the only thing that got it done for me. Anyways i just got back from my 1st drive after fixing the trans!! 130mph woo hoo long live the 3gee!!

[Ichiban]

I have the new bearing in my kit, but whatever.

Thanks for the heads up.

Could you tell me what size that bearing you have is, and what specific tranny it's for, please?

[Ichiban]

Oh dood....I had a machine shop full of equipment and i couldn't get that bearing out without mutilating it. I recommend you leave it alone unless it's visibly totaled or a bunch of metal went through it via the oil. Getting the one out of my JDM B18A housing involved welding the puller directly to the face of the bearing. After that, the slide hammer made it easy. Problem was, the bearing material has such a high carbon content, the welds kept peeling out.

After destroying that bearing, I found out that nobody in Canada could get me one. NTN 8E-NK 33x55x21 if I remember correctly.

So in order to get the other bearing out of the A20 housing, I put up the bellhousing in the bandsaw and cut towards the bearing bore until I could break apart the housing and the bearing fell out undamaged.

Guess what?

Different bearing. 8E-NK 33x55x19. Yup, machined an .081" wide spacer to sit behind that bearing and stuffed it in anyways.

Whole situation sorta pissed me off.


:rly: it's funny you mention that about trying to get that countershaft bearing out i couldn't really get mine out either. but then i was pressure washing that half of the case and i picked it up and the bearing had just come out! pretty weird i guess!



This whole stupid situation gave me an idea. I bet Arok's pressure washing heated up the bellhousing around the bearing, causing it to expand and release the bearing. I bet if I could try this again, a couple of seconds of tiger torch on the back of the inverted bellhousing and a tap with a hammer would cause that bearing to fall right out. Just a little late night research.

[LX-incredible]

Looks like someone took a while to figure out reverse isn't synchronized!

Check the reverse idler gear both for wear and excessive play between it and the idler shaft. Also measure the gap between the reverse arm and gear with a feeler gauge.

[Dr_Snooz]

Looks like someone took a while to figure out reverse isn't synchronized!

Check the reverse idler gear both for wear and excessive play between it and the idler shaft. Also measure the gap between the reverse arm and gear with a feeler gauge.

Thanks. I did all the feeler gauge checks recommended by the manual. It's mostly academic now because I just bought another trans and used this one as a donor.

Guy, I still have the new bearing if you want it. It's from a stock '89 FI manual trans. PM me if interested.

[Ichiban]

Guy, I still have the new bearing if you want it. It's from a stock '89 FI manual trans. PM me if interested.


Naw, I was just curious if your tranny used the wider bearing like my B18A bellhousing, or the narrow one like my ET2 transmission.

And curious what reverse not being synchro'd has to do with anything. Just wondering.

[OldSkoolA20accord]

i have a tranny for $45. located in east tennessee. its a DX tranny tho

[lostforawhile]

snooze i missed this thread, you could have gotten a completely overhauled manual tranny for that car for just over 600 from man trans in Tallahassee plus shipping, that's all they do are manual trannys nothing else. big company.

[ecogabriel]

snooze i missed this thread, you could have gotten a completely overhauled manual tranny for that car for just over 600 from man trans in Tallahassee plus shipping, that's all they do are manual trannys nothing else. big company.

Is this the shop you are talking about?

http://www.manual-transmission.com/?q=node/1

[lostforawhile]

Is this the shop you are talking about?

http://www.manual-transmission.com/?q=node/1yep, they have a good reputation around here, i'm not that far from Tallahassee, I know on some of the boards that are based out of Florida they also have a good reputation. There aren't many shops that specialize in just manual trannys left, so they have picked up the business from those that have gone out of business. they are having a site problem right now. you can go to the main page but it's acting up.

[ecogabriel]

I've seen the site before but when I tried to do a lookup I got an error message... I have to do something about the freaking vibration when idling (in D, R, whatever gear) and I would like to go stick but here at home (a.k.a. wife) does not want to... If I were not broke, I would destroy the transmission and replace it with a manual.

[Dr_Snooz]

Sorry, I've ended up with too many hard and pointy things in my rectum from trusting other people to rebuild my stuff. There's a machine shop here in Fresno I trust to prep my block and maybe rebuild a head, but that's it. I don't even trust people to balance my tires anymore.