How to: Civic 5 speed new bearings

[firehawk618]

This applies to ANY civic 5 speed from 1992 to 1995. 1996 to 2000 *except 1999-2000 Si* are VERY similar but the process is slightly different. They have shift mechanism detent springs / balls that must be removed or the pop out all over the place. Internally they're pretty much the same though.


As some of you already know I had been in search of a VX transaxle for a while and finally found one last weekend.

Upon quick inspection it felt fine, spinning and wiggling the input shaft by hand.

Nothing felt odd when rotating the input shaft and rowing through the gears.

Little did I know that as soon as I installed it and fired up the car this thing was NOISY as all hell.

I am going to do a quick down and dirty pictorial of my transmission dismantling, installing new bearings and re-installation.

A friend of mine does transmissions for a living told me that if I'm ONLY doing new bearings then my existing shims will be ok and no measuring of tolerances will be necessary. He's never given me bad advise so I am going with it.

Started pulling the transaxle today at 4:45. It's 5:30 and it is out, on the ground and I am here starting this thread. Having swapped engines and transaxles in this car a few times recently sure makes it go really fast / easy since I know by memory what sockets, wrenches, extensions and such I will need which saves me many trips back and forth to the tool box.

I will continuously update THIS FIRST POST with photos and information so pay attention to the "edited" time stamp on this post.

My bearing / seal kit was SUPPOSED to arrive today but it got delayed until tomorrow. Just as well. I can dismantle and look it over really good vs. being in a hurry to just get it back together and on the road.


I have it all apart and have acquired the tooth count for each gear:

Gear Count Ratio Total
FD 65/20 3.25
5th 26/37 .7027 2.28
4th 29/34 .852 2.77
3rd 32/30 1.066 3.46
2nd 37/21 1.761 5.72
1st 39/12 3.25 10.56



I am glad I removed the gearsets from the shift forks / rails. Even though this transmission drove and shifted perfectly *minus the bearing noise* I have found that one of the shift forks has a BIG chunk broken off!

Lucky me, I happen to have FOUR civic transmissions here. 1998 DX, 1998 EX, 1995 Si and 1994 Vx. Fortunately the Si has the same shift forks in it and I will be using the one from the Si to make this to and will replace that one later!

I compared diagrams at majestic honda for the Si vs Vx and the whole shift rail / fork assembly has exactly the same parts. I will inspect the Si one closely then just swap the whole thing over vs. dismantling it and swapping a fork.

Now that the transaxle is dis-assembled I can clearly feel both main shaft bearings are rumbly vs the counter shaft bearings. I am confident this is the source of all the noise.

I will NOT be doing the differential bearings. The trans was completely silent coasting with the engine off, in neutral, clutch out. They feel perfect and honestly I don't want to take the chance ruining the speedometer gear.







Ok onto the pictures:

This is how I support the engine vs. having two jacks under the car.








Here's the throwout bearing / fork. There's a metal clip on the back side. Some wiggling and jiggling and the fork will come free from the trans allowing you to remove it and the bearing.







Next remove the reverse light switch.





This big plug on top of the trans *theres a small spring under there*.





This bolt on the back of the trans.





This bolt inside the bellhousing.





Put the transmission upside down on some blocks otherwise your input shaft will be sitting on the ground. Do whatever you need to do to prevent this.

Next remove all the 12mm bolts around the perimeter of the case halves.





You will find two spots where you can put pry bars and pry the two case halves apart, use them to break the seal. Do not keep prying, just make sure the two case halves are separated. After they are you will need to spread open this clip with some needlenose AND continue to pry up on the case halves. Help is good to have here. Do not pry hard, just wiggle and jiggle as you keep that retainer spread open. Once you see the bearing drop down at this point you can lift the case half off.







Next remove the two 10mm bolts holding the reverse selector thingey and set it aside. It just lifts right out. After that fork thingey is out of the way remove the reverse idler gear and pin. It just lifts right out.









Now you need to remove this 12mm bolt. This will allow your shift fork selector thingey to slide up in the next step.





Now grab FIRMLY both gearsets AND shift fork / selector rods all at once and wiggle / jiggle upward. It will all come out as a unit. DO NOT DROP THIS! Pay attention, on top of the input shaft bearing there's a washer and beveled washer. They may stay with the gearset, they may stay on top of the bearing or they may fall on the floor. Make sure you put them back on in the same order / orientation as they came off.





Now you can just lift the final drive out, nothing is holding it in at this point.





There's a magnet to catch all the metal crud, use a screwdrive and just pry it up and out. I found that once it's out if you smack the bracket face down on a block of wood the magnet will pop out allowing you to clean it thoroughly.




Left is the countershaft bearing, right is the input shaft bearing. To remove the input shaft bearing just use a long drift pin from the bellhousing side and tap it out nice and evenly. I would NEVER re-use this bearing once it's been tapped out. The input shaft seal will now be obvious once the bearing is out.

To get the countershaft bearing out you can use a slide hammer with outtie jaws OR flip the housing upside down so the bearing is facing down and heat up the case, once the case is nice and warm the bearing will drop right out.





Here's my broken shift fork and a good one for comparison.







Here's those washers I mentioned earlier on the input shaft.

[user removed]

I would check the outer race width of the replacements versus the bearings being replaced to make sure there are no differences in dimension. We always used OE bearings and did not worry about shims unless they were damaged.

Also make sure there are no seals where you don't need them.

regards
mech

[firehawk618]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

I would check the outer race width of the replacements versus the bearings being replaced to make sure there are no differences in dimension. We always used OE bearings and did not worry about shims unless they were damaged.

Also make sure there are no seals where you don't need them.

regards
mech

I will measure them. I am using OEM bearings only on this. I have learned my lesson with cheaper Chinese ones in the past.

Please ignore the milky looking oil. The reason it is like that is I spent an hour pressurewashing this thing off prior to installing it last weekend. I did drain all the water out prior to installation but there's always some left behind. My intention when I was installing it was to change the fluid this weekend but since I knew I was yanking it right back out for bearings I just parked the car.

[firehawk618]

Thanks Old Mechanic for mentioning to measure the bearings. I ALMOST tried to put the wrong one into the clutch housing. If I hadn't measured them first I certainly was going to install it there. They looked identical but were a few mm's off on the inside diameter.


Ok I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but this will sum it up.


Time to tap in your input shaft seal. I simply use the old seal to tap the new one in with. After that tap in your bellhousing side input shaft bearing into the housing. Again, use the old bearing to tap the new one in with. Only tap on the perimeter NEVER the center.





Now it's time for the counter shaft, bell housing side bearing. Again, use the old bearing to tap in the new. None of these bearings are very hard to get in. If you are really forcing it you'e doing it wrong. They should go in with very gently strikes from your hammer.





Old bearing on top of the new bearing.





Ah HA! Main shaft rear bearing. SHOT!
This bearing simply slides off and back on your main shaft. No press required.







Now to the counter shaft bearings. On the end with two bearings and a nut you need to spread that staked part of the nut open then I used an impact gun to get the nut loose. There's another beveled washer under here, make note of it.







These bearings are pressed on. I found it really easy using my 3 jaw puller to just grab the gear and pull up on the whole thing. It didn't take much force.

Some will say just remove the nut and slam the shaft down on a piece of wood. Yeah i'm sure this method works but I didn't want to be slamming on my synchros so I chose to do it the gentle way.









To install these bearings some will say put the counter shaft in the freezer and put your bearings in the oven. I say if you have a press use it. Makes this job easy.







After those two bearings are back on put the beveled washer and nut back on. I followed Old Mechanic's advise and waited to torque this nut down until I had the shafts back in the trans so I could put it in 2 gears at once and use that to hold the shaft still as I torqued the nut back to it's original position. I would suggest you use one hand to hold the gear shafts together so they don't try to push apart as you torque.





This is how your shafts, gears and shift forks should sit. Now is a great time to make sure all 3 shift collars are in the neutral position. If you can see synchros on both sides of the 1-2, 3-4 shift forks you're in neutral. If you can see your synchro on one side of the 5th gear shift fork you are in neutral. This is what neutral looks like.















Once you are sure everything is lined up it's time to drop the whole unit back into the case. Make sure you have your two washers on the input shaft before dropping this back in. You will see where i'm pointing, you must get the selector tabs aligned right or it will NOT work. Make sure to re-install the selector bolt that I am pointing at. You will see 3 pictures that all look very similar but are not. What I am demonstrating is the shift gate and the 3 positions.















Once you have the shafts in the trans and counter shaft nut torqued down go ahead and re-install reverse and the fork. It's hard to get this wrong.





Now it's time to set the other half of the case on. Apply your sealer of choice to the case halves and lower the other half on. Jiggle and wiggle and it'll go on all the way but the last 1/8" or so. What you now have to do is spread open that clip that retains the bearing. Once you get that clip over the bearing the case will drop on the rest of the way. Put in all your case bolts, torque them down. Don't worry that the clip hasn't seated into the bearing because now you flip the transmission over and it will "click" into place.

Make sure you re-install the two allen head bolts you took out. Shine a flash light in there to make sure the tabs are aligned. I couldn't get any pictures of this.

After all your bolts are back in take a punch and manually shift through all the gears while making sure your input shaft spins nice and smoothly.

[user removed]

Nice photos and explanation of the disassembly procedure. Good to have people here who have no fear of tackling the bigger stuff. Also good to choose OE versus the cheapest you can find.

regards
mech

[user removed]

Oh I almost forgot. make sure to lube the pivot ball where it mates with the release fork (5th attached photo). It may even be worth it to replace the pivot ball if there is any indication of it lacking lube. I have seen the pivot ball break off from lack of lube and seen the mating point of the release fork with a hole worn through it from the pivot ball. Looks like what you have had been lubed so you should be ok. Lightly lube where the throughout bearing rides on the collar and a small blob where the imput shaft goes into the back of the crankshaft, but not too much in either place so it won't get on the clutch disc and cause chatter.

regards
mech

[firehawk618]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Oh I almost forgot. make sure to lube the pivot ball where it mates with the release fork (5th attached photo). It may even be worth it to replace the pivot ball if there is any indication of it lacking lube. I have seen the pivot ball break off from lack of lube and seen the mating point of the release fork with a hole worn through it from the pivot ball. Looks like what you have had been lubed so you should be ok. Lightly lube where the throughout bearing rides on the collar and a small blob where the imput shaft goes into the back of the crankshaft, but not too much in either place so it won't get on the clutch disc and cause chatter.

regards
mech

Absolutely. I have come cross many pivots / forks that were pretty much ruined due to the friction there and lack of grease.

I personally always closely inspect that point as well as the shaft the throw out bearing slides on. I've come across a few transmission cases essentially ruined due to lack of lube on that shaft and deep scoring of the bearing sliding back and forth on it.

It seems like the days of replacing the input bearing retainer to fix that are long gone! Now it's replace a transmission case.

I just used a pilot bearing remover tool and was able to easily remove the counter shaft bearing as well as input shaft bearing with it. I would never use this approach if I were planning on re-using those bearings.

I also tore apart my Si transmission and the shift forks look perfect! Woo hoo!

[firehawk618]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Nice photos and explanation of the disassembly procedure.

You can thank Chryslerkid for the pictures and explanation.

I never do that kind of stuff because I just plow though my task at hand to get it done as quickly as possible most of the time.

Besides that I am terrible at explaining things and have zero patience.

Hopefully if others find this thread and start asking questions you can jump in and answer some better than I can. I know enough about this to be a little more than dangerous.


One question I do have is that big nut on the counter shaft......

What is the torque spec on it or should I just tighten it down until the stake matches up with the groove again?

[user removed]

We modified a chisel so we could cleanly remove and reuse the staked nut, then shifted the tranny into 2 gears at the same time to tighten the nut, to the same position as before, checking for any binding if it got too tight.

regards
mech

[Chrysler kid]

Originally Posted by firehawk618

You can thank Chryslerkid for the pictures and explanation.

I never do that kind of stuff because I just plow though my task at hand to get it done as quickly as possible most of the time.

Besides that I am terrible at explaining things and have zero patience.

Hopefully if others find this thread and start asking questions you can jump in and answer some better than I can. I know enough about this to be a little more than dangerous.


One question I do have is that big nut on the counter shaft......

What is the torque spec on it or should I just tighten it down until the stake matches up with the groove again?

I definitely appreciate the write up. I am sure this write up will be used by many members as they scower the junk yards in the future