Turbo D16

I just broke down my Y8 tranny. I had the typical 3rd gear grind and towards the end the tranny would start hopping out of gear occasionally. I wanted to see if I could find out why...

I took some pics to give you guys a better view of the gears and what I noticed when I took it apart.

Here's the page from the 96-98 Helms manual showing the tranny insides. I marked the items I took pictures of in red.


This first picture is my 3/4 Synchro Sleeve. The tops of the teeth are pretty eaten up. I also noticed that there is a ridge forming (indicated by the red lines).


If I had kept it up, it looks like the sleeve might have started sticking on the hub, or worse yet, not slide over the hub at all, i.e. no 3rd/4th.

Heres a pic of 3rd gear:

Looks like the teeth that the hub grabs are beaten up pretty bad too. Wonder what the synchro looks like...

Heres a picture of my 3rd gear synchro. I was expecting it to be in really bad shape...

I was surprised to see it isn't. Apparently it wasn't being used much, maybe due to shifting too quickly for the synchro to do its job

So I guess thats where the 3rd gear grind is coming from.

As to the tranny popping out of 3rd, I turned my attention to the 3/4 shift fork. I don't know what they're supposed to look like, but I'm assuming this is not good...





It looks to me like the fork has been eaten away pretty badly, there was a lot of slop between it and the hub, definitely not within spec.

Tranny Gurus... anything else I should have a look at? Also, what are my options for fixing this stuff aside from buying a completely new fork and gear set?

I'm off to check out my 2nd gear on the countershaft now,

Thanks guys, looking forward to the input.

thats pretty messed up. But you had the same thing i did, the hub was messed up and the syncro wasnt.

sounds like the same problem i had. i just ended up buying a new transmission because i can't afford to have my only car out of commission

Id definitely get a hold of Mista Bone... i believe hes on here and browses d-series.org more often. Hes the tranny guru.

ya, his screen name on here is transzex. he could help you with anything you need

in short, your fucked.

I posted this same thread on D-Series.org (as Transzex already knows) hoping to get a few extra replies. I hope he doesn't mind me keeping this thread updated with his replies there.

Transzex said:


I did some homework last night and came up with a few options.

1) I checked out some prices on Majestic Honda's site (http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com) and I also had a look at Gear-Speed (http://gearspeedinc.com/products.htm). Majestic was around the price Transzex said and they weren't too bad if the parts circled in red are all I'll need to buy:



The thing about Gear-Speed is they don't say if the actual gear comes with their OEM sleeve set. I'll have to give them a call.

2) Option 2: I have 2 spare parts transmissions laying around at the house, one is a D16Z6 tranny and the other was supposed to be a D16Y8 tranny which turned out to be a 92-95 DX (D16A6?). The shifter forks on these two trannies look different than the ones on my Y8, but I'm curious if there some way to swap the 92-95 forks into the 96-00 housing? I wouldn't mind swapping in the slider too if possible, because the 92-95 slider looks beefier than the 96-00.

3) Option 3: Reshape teeth on both the sleeve and 3rd gear myself and try it out. I really don't want to do this as I hear its a bitch, but its in the garage anyway.

Either way I go, I'm opting for a carbon-coated synchro set from Gear-Speed because I'm hoping those synchros might extend the life a little.

you could just send the tranny to gearspeed and have them do a full rebuild and throw an lsd in there. couldn't hurt to splurge for it now. it might outlast your motor

2) forks not interchangeable

3) too much damage to reshape

Lol, yeah Zny, tell my wife that.



Sounds like #1 above is my safest bet. I double checked the manuals as well and even shift fork locations in the tranny housing appears a little different between the 92+ and 96+.

I called Gear-Speed today and they said I could get the 3/4 sleeve set (gearset) for the Y8 tranny for $225, $275 if I get both 3rd and 4th OEM synchros swapped out for carbon coated. This does not, however, include 3rd gear like the gearset Majestic is selling for $212.41. So what we're looking at is:
$150.00 for Carbon coated 2,3,4 synchros from Gearspeed.
$212.41 for the 3/4 gearset from Majestic.
$54.46 for the 3/4 shift fork.
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$416.87 not including tax, shipping, and new bearings and seals and I'll have no more 3rd gear grind. I still need to check 1st and 2nd on the countershaft though, but thats for another post...

Thanks for the pointers Transzex.

Honestly, you'd be better off getting another tranny and just either straight swapping or swapping the gears/forks over. You can get Dseries trans for cheap enough, and most of them don't have THAT kind of damage to them.

Sorry to hear about that. Yeah I would just buy another tranny.

When I did my auto to manual swap i bought a complete motor/tranny/harness everything etc.. for $200 and just kept the tranny and sold the rest of the engine for roughly $600 parted out.

Not sure how much they would be in your area but around here they are cheap as hell.

after reading everything, i would suggest

go buy another trans

for 400, you could easily get 3-4 transmissions from a junkyard or local. a place here does half off weekends and you can get transmissions dirty cheap.

i say fix the tranny you have.

if you go out and buy another used tranny. sure it will be cheaper, but what are you going to do in 3 months when the 3rd gear in your "new" used tranny starts to go? buy another? just spend the money now and do it right and have a tranny that will last longer than your engine will.

Yeah, I hear what you guys are saying about buying used trannies and swapping parts, but with my luck I'll end up getting trannies that need almost as much work as mine anyway. I already have 2 others sitting in my garage, and of those two, the one I have open now has the same issues.

I'd rather go with new parts that will last for another 100k or probably more since I know not to slam the shifter into 3rd like I had been.

I beat the shit out of my tranny and I've never had problems like that. It's a bit iffy going into 2nd but what are you gonna do.

Seriously just find a used tranny and buy it, these things really aren't worth that kind of money. I've found trannies for $50 that are fine, there just really isn't a reason to go spending all that money on brand new parts when a used one in half good condition will work just fine.

I beat the shit out of my tranny and I've never had problems like that. It's a bit iffy going into 2nd but what are you gonna do.

Seriously just find a used tranny and buy it, these things really aren't worth that kind of money. I've found trannies for $50 that are fine, there just really isn't a reason to go spending all that money on brand new parts when a used one in half good condition will work just fine.

It's a crap shoot.........I need to start buying all the "cheap" trannys I find, but the past two (both Y's) means I'll not touch them.

Might have two cure for the sleeve, but both require shift fork modification.

*Double-post*

Transzex, another guy said the shift fork on the 96-00 will work with the 92-95 sleeve if you grind the fork down to fit the sleeve. I just took apart a 95 DX tranny and it looks like the 3/4 gearset is good so I was thinking about trying it myself. Have you done this modification yet?

Well, regardless of the answer to my question in the previous post, I'm going to have to buy a new shift fork... Yeah, I tried grinding the fork down to work with the 95 Z6 tranny sleeve but I think the fork is too far gone even for that.

I decided not to go with the carbon coated synchros from Gear-Speed either because after taking another look at my synchros I don't see how they're really that worn. Carbon coated synchros seems like overkill.

So, total price to fix 3rd gear grind is right around 275 for parts from Majestic not including bearings and seals, which brings me to my next question...

My bearings and seals all look like they're in great shape, so as a bare minimum, what bearings and seals should I buy?