Since my acura dealership wants to charge me $1600 to pull the tranny and look at it, because 2nd gear comes and goes when it wants to, me and my friend have decided to take on this task...
- any pointers on where to start?
- do u HAVE to pull the whole motor and trans?
- can u drop the cradle?
- can the tranny pulled by itself?

- im also replacing the clutch since im only a few thousand miles away from having to do it anyhow..


anyone know of or have a good detailed DIY? from what ive been seeing in the engine bay i can see why acura would charge $1600 just to pull it lol


helpful input will be greatly appreciated! THANKS!

 

any help at all...

 

mileage please, cause more then likely your car is still covered by warranty when you consider the time/age of the car



and no the motor does not have to come out in order to drop the trans, but it does have to be supported from the top though, because you do have to drop the cradle out, which is disconnecting 4 of the 5 motor mounts (or at least the majority of them)


and for the the price/labor, it takes time to be able to disconnect everything needed, then to reconnect/reassemble everything

 

61k miles I think but they said they wouldn't cover it under warranty for some reason, but thanks alot for the help man! I appreciate it!

 

alot of times they will goodwill it at that mileage, but they are legally out of having to help you at all though

so maybe play the nice game, and maybe they will cover it idk

also from previous services, do they have any records of you mentioning that issue before, ie: it was happening before the warranty was over

 

You at least need the Honda service manual in which the procedure is clearly laid out. If you don't even know that much, I would highly advise you not to fukc with it.

And you're planning to disassemble the transmission?? Do you have any idea how complex an average manual transmission overhaul is? You can't just locate and replace "second gear".

Good luck to you, but don't be foolish to save a few bucks.

 

well i have half the cradle unbolted and the tranny is ready to come out as soon as i drop the side of the cradle. Its taking a LONG ASS time but coming along nicely, no problems, im goin to grab the service manual anyways for reassembly just so i dont forget anything, and as for the disassembling the tranny, 2nd gear doesnt need to be replaced, im almost postive its bearings or a shift fork, and im not doin the work on it, my friend is since he a master mechanic/car enthusiast/gear head/ etc... i wish i woulda started taking pictures and documenting this to make a DIY for everyone but i didnt think of it until half way through it






ya i mentioned it a few times and they wouldnt do anything like 1300miles b4 warranty expired! and they called me to ask me how my visit to the acura dealership was a few days later and i wasnt too happy with them, cause i paid for the warranty and blah blah blah blah and they wouldnt do anything to help me, so i figured id save my breathe and money and gain some personal experience

 

whole cradle has to be dropped





with that being mentioned (as long as they documented it), would give you something to stand on

i personally be the same way and just fix it myself, since i have all the tools (master tech also)
and as you think the part itself causing the issues is not going to be that much (as long as nothing else needs replacing)(and don't forget to do the 3rd gear synchro while you are in there, saves you time/labor in the long run )

and as you have noticed it is taking a while in order to just pull the tranny out yourself, won't take as long in a shop environment, but you should still see why acura was going to charge that price though

 

FINALLY! after letting it set for a few days got back to it this week, got it out and replaced the clutch, its not so much a pain in the ass, but its time consuming and very hard to make sure everything is out and unbolted so the cradle wont take it all down with it, i had a seized power steering line, so i cut it but i will be putting a compression fitting on it, but other than that, everything came out nicely! took a while but very do-able if u have all the tools and resources.

 

and that is the reason (as said before) why they charge so much to pull it out

 

cool did u figure out what was wrong with the tranny??

 

got it opened up last night, shift forks APPEAR to be fine and all the gears are fine also, but from the brass shavings that in the filter and floating in the oil, its most likely a synchro... but still too early to tell, and found out the 5th-6th gear synchros are carbon synchros, weird, but neat i suppose! my buddy is hooking me up with a dealership printout of the transmission and how it all goes, so thats going to help alot! ill keep ya'll updated and try and make a DIY from the putting the car back together (ugh) thatll be hard

 

if you are seeing brass then yes a good chance of synchros


btw while you are in there, can you get all the bearing race numbers (there standard around the world), but basically at some point i want to put in ceramic ball bearings, so it runs even smoother

 

There is no filter.

 

im sure he ment to say the magnet. true brass will not stick,but the rest of the metal/carbon shavings will.

 

double check the forks, take a measurement and see what the tolerance is listed in the manuals. If they are worn out and too thin, it wont hold the gear in and allow it to pop out. I have never heard of a bad synchro make it pop out of gear.

 

A magnet and a filter are two completely different things. OP has been discussing a suspected synchro issue, thus the brass shavings he is worried about. There are no other metal shavings that he can see - thus, the presence of a magnet is irrelevant.

Carbon's magnetic, huh?

 

upon removal of the drain bolt, what is it that is stuck on the magnet.that fine silt like material, what is it?

 

just normal wear and tear material (first fluid change is normally the worst, because of break-in), biggest thing is making sure there are no chunks in said grit

 

My buddy is taking his sweet ass time with my tranny, hopefully getting it back tomorrow or the next day, and yes it is a magnet, it looks like a filter but had some shavings stuck to it, I'll measure the shift forks just to be sure cause u never know, a spring that's on the inside was a bit outta place so who knows it could be that, but I'm thinking it's a synchro due to the brass shavings... Another friend of mine told
Me to go with synchrotech? Synchros, anyone heard of those on TL's?

 

personally only heard of the factory ones, kinda hard for aftermarket companies to beat honda's quality (most of the time); unlike the domestic cars

 

also looking at supertech's website, i see no mention of the 6-speed for the J-series, only the little 4-banger transmissions

 

I'm curious, what exactly do you mean that "2nd gear comes and goes when it wants to"? Wont go into 2nd gear, pops out of 2nd gear, something else?

 

Sometimes 2nd gear will go in and sometimes it won't go all the way in, and it'll be gone, but heres the weird part, sometimes when I have 2nd gear I lose 5,6 and reverse ... But when 2nd doesn't work, all others shift fine and when I do have 2nd it also shifts fine... Idk what's wrong with it lol but hopefully I can get. It fixed

 

I just bought 05 Acura TL 6 speed 63,000 miles. a week after i bought i notice that third gear will go in sometimes and sometimes i would have to take it out and push it back in. What i noticed too was that i have problems around 3.5k rpms or below, if i shift at 4k or above then it goes in fine. What i also notice is that in all the gears you feel a click when it goes in, except for third gear. I dont feel any click when it goes in or when it doesn't it just feels that it doesn't go in all the way. The gear doesnt pop out if it's in, it only pops out at the beginning if it didn't engage.

Was this the same problem you were having? If so, let me know when you are done, and what you replaced and how much it cost you.

 

^ third gear issues. search on that. Change your tranny fluid to GMSMFM or amsoil MTF. its nothing crazy. easy fix.

 

Apparently the bearing or bushings that hold the gear column in place was not pressed in all the way which cause my 2nd gear to come and go, this according to my friend, all synchros gears forks and whatnot are in good shape, so I will be getting it pressed hopefully on Monday and then put it all back together. Will update soon hopefully there is no other problems....

 

what bushing or bearing are you talking about?
how can something not be pressed all the way? stuff is not supposed to move back and forth in there except for synchro sleeves... can you take a picture of what you speak of?
you might need shims....

Few months ago I had my tranny opened to pieces because of 3rd gear/countershaft breaking

 

Wanting to know about this bearing/bushing as well. You are describing a very similar issue I have with my '05. There are times when 2nd and 6th are very difficult to engage. They do not grind, they just will not engage without some careful double-clutching and a bit of force. The dealer has been baffled on mine for the past 1.5 years since it does not always happen. Since it doesn't actually grind and does not pop out of gear, they aren't sure where to start. When it is below 40F it seems to be much worse.

 

It is the top bearing of the gear set, I didn't hear my friend correctly when he told me this, he said everything is fine but the top bearing was half pressed in or came out a bit and needs to be pressed all the way in, if I'm wrong about the bearing needing pressed please tell me, cause I'm getting it pressed today and starting on putting the car back together..

 

you need to say which shaft. Main or countershaft

the only bearing that moves in and out is the one on the mainshaft...but it can only move when you remove the shaft...in fact, it fell off the shaft as i turned it upside down looking at it...but because you may have seen it as not being fully in place, it doesnt mean it wasnt pressed...it all presses together when shaft is installed and case closed. That bearing can be removed by hand so its not pressed in the way you think

the countershaft bearing is pressed in differently, and its also held in place by a reverse thread 20mm special bolt tight at some 180lbs or smth...i don't see how that came lose, and even if it did, i don't see how the bearing slipped out, because to remove it, I had to bang the living shit out of it, or it has to be pressed out by a press

So you must be talking about the mainshaft bearing...and if that's the case, then you need to be careful and look closer to what else could be outta place, bcs the bearing doesn't make any sense...

I wish you could take a pic and show me which you're talking about.

But I guess if your buddy is what you say he is, then he must be right.

 

Well thanks alot u just saved me some money and time, this transmission is confusing lol, Idk what I'm gonna do now... Fuck, I'll try and get some pictures up

 

You can't really see everything while the shafts are fully assembled....sliding sleeves back and forth doesn't do much in telling you if there's something wrong. There can be something wrong with the collar itself.
Anyway, the symptoms you described about the other gears...you need to check the shifting and gear selector mechanism..you mentioned the spring being outta place or not properly in place. I think the spring you speak of is the snap back spring, for the gear selector. Need to check in that area and make sure everything is in tack, nothing's worn out or bent beyond limits.

 

The mainshaft has the bearing I'm talking about, I got some pictures, I'll try and upload but I'm on my IPhone, but the shaft aren't lined up, the countershaft is like 1/16in lower than the main shaft.. Fuck I'm bout to spend money I don't have and take it to a transmission shop

 

Yes the mainshaft bearing can come off by hand, thats why i said if it looks like its not pressed in, it doesn't mean much because it can move while taking out the shaft.

Has your friend taken apart everything on the mainshaft? or just visually inspected it?

Another thing with the bearing is...You mentioned that when sometimes you have 2nd gear working fine, you lose 5 and 6...the problem with this is, 2nd gear engagement happens on the countershaft (1st-2nd)... 3rd-4th and 5th-6th happen on the mainshaft.

So in other words, if you're trying to look at 2nd gear synchro-hub-sleeve, you need to look at the countershaft, not the mainshaft.

But the symptoms with other gears, tells me you need to pay close attention to the shifting mechanism, the links between gear selector arm, and gear shifter with the forks.

This is not to say that you should ignore everything else...While you're in there, I would suggest taking both shafts completely apart and inspect them. There's stuff you can't see while they're assembled.

 

but alot of times when they are push it in like that though, they have some sort of snap ring (on the case) to retain it in there though, so it can't just fall out like that

 

With the shaft in your hand (meaning outta the case) theres nothing holding it in place....its held in place once in the case and case is closed, then it has nowhere to go.

The countershaft in this scenario is different..its pressed in and held in place by a 20mm reverse thread bolt...

I just had this transmission opened to pieces a few months ago

 

Well guys i appreciate all the help, but i just dropped it off at a transmission shop and having them fix it, i tried all i could but im stumped and so is my friend... but hey its a learning experience and thats all i wanted lol