1. I'll do my best.
2. Still working on that. It seems pretty wedged in there. I'm really hoping the housing isn't damaged.
3. Done. Thankfully there will be no restocking fee, either.
4. I honestly believe they are all fine. Although the main shaft bearing came off the shaft and is still in the top half of the housing. Is that okay?
5. I've already got the seal, but Advance doesn't carry just the bearings. Looks like I may need to order it form the site you posted or somewhere similar.

With any luck, maybe I can get a few more thousand miles out of it while I hunt down a replacement. I really don't want to get rid of this car. I like it too much.

 

2.the housing is probably fine, even if it get's nicked up a bit just knock the high spots down
4.that's pretty normal for the main shaft bearing. I don't think any of these bearings are pressed on with much force
5.yeah I've only seen them available online.

good luck! I think you will be able to get many more miles out of her.

 

Well, I managed to remove the remains of the bearing race and oil seal. Had to use my knock-off (Harbor Freight brand) Dremel to cut a groove and used a screwdriver as a punch to break it. Came off in three pieces. The oil seal was a little less graceful coming out, as it was wedged in underneath the marred lip of the housing. Instead of having a nice 90 degree "ledge" from the bearing seat to the oil seal seat, it has a 45ish degree "slope" where the bearings wore down the sharp corner between the two. I know it's hard to explain, but I think if smooth out the bearing's bottom face and the seal's side face it will still function normally. I hope. I still haven't ordered the bearing yet, either. I suppose I should do that soon. Working two jobs 10-11 hours a day and rarely getting a day off leaves little time to work on my car.

 

In case it is not looking good, you might want to check out this one on ebay (it is not mine): http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-93...Q5fAccessories

 

Thanks for looking out, ari, but I'm already committed to finishing this rebuild. The bearing should arrive tomorrow (Friday) and I should hopefully get it all put back together Saturday and get my Civic back on the road Sunday. If things go horribly wrong I'll have no choice but to replace the transmission, or, the absolute worst case scenario, replace the car. I'll let you all know sometime early next week how it turns out.

EDIT: Friday Update! I've got the transmission all back together again! There is absolutely no wobble whatsoever on the input shaft now. And I'm a day ahead of schedule, to boot. I'll work on getting it back on the engine and with any luck my car back on the road tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

 

Good news and bad news. The good news is that the tranny's back on and all bolted/secured back to normal. I even got a new oil pan gasket on. All that's left is to get a replacement bolt for that short piece of exhaust that I took off (and gaskets for the flanges--if there is such a thing).

And now the bad news. My pass side lower ball joint bolt threads are shot. It looks like when I tried to use my puller to pop it out, it ballooned the threads out so the nut won't go back on. And the bolt spins in the joint and I don't think it's supposed to do that. The driver side ball joint has already been looking bad (although it bolted back on quite easily) and I also have a lower control arm bushing going out.

So if you guys don't mind me jacking my own thread, here's a few more questions I have:

1) The parts store said the tranny fluid is regular ol' 10w30, so I got some Pennzoil Platinum full synthetic for it. Will that work?
2) How easy are the ball joints and lower control arm bushings to replace? Will I need to remove the steering knuckle and have them pressed out or can it be done in my garage while still on the car?

At this moment I have no fluids in the tranny (or engine) yet, so I'm waiting to hear about the Platinum before I fill it.

 

1) I did some research on this a few years ago. The parts store was sort of right about the fluid, but not entirely. The manual says to use 10w30 SF/SG grade oil which was common at the time our cars were made. Now the most common grade is SJ, which is actually a little too slippery for our transmissions. Synthetics are usually even worse for them. Scynros take a certain amount of friction to work or you'll grind gears. So take that jug back and look at the back of the bottles for an SF or SG. They usually say they are for older vehicles or even motorcycles. I found some at wally world but most stores will carry at least one brand. Some people (myself included) use penzoil syncromesh which can be found at autozone. It does smooth out shifting but I have no idea what it does for long term bearing life. BTW you only need 3 quarts of fluid.

2) You might be able to change them while still on the car, I've never tried. When you go to pick up the new ball joints ask to borrow the ball joint press. Most places have a lone a tool program. It will look like this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=4065

 

Heh. Never stopped to think that oil could work *too* well. I was just looking for something that would be extremely durable and long-lasting. I'll take your advice and get some SF/SG and just change in regularly (which is what? every 3 years or so?)

I'll also pick up a couple ball joints and bushings from Advance and get those replaced, but now it looks like I won't be done until Monday 'cuz I'll need to hit the bank.

Again, thanks for all your help and advice. I'll keep you posted.

 

I was recently wondering about what penzoil syncromesh does for long term life, and the responses I got was that it isn't good for bearing life, and that the Honda MTF is the best thing to go with.

Personally, I rebuild my tranny about a year ago, with a new 3rd gear syncro and new 3rd gear, and I started using syncromesh. It was nice and smooth for about 10,000 miles, but I have noticed that the shifting is getting slightly rougher in all gears, so I'm going to switch to Honda MTF, see how that works out.

 

Heh. Sorry I forgot about you guys. I did eventually get my car back on the road on the 11th (Sunday). I managed to file down the threads and got the bearings back on, although they'll still need to be replaced at some point in the future, but they're fine for now. I just got so excited that I completely forgot to let you know. She's been running great the past two weeks and I'm certain she'll last for several thousand more miles. By the way, it was around 6 p.m. or so when all the wrench work was done, and many places were already closed (or not even open, it was a Sunday after all) and the only oil I had available for the transmission was some regular ol' Quaker State 10w30. But, from what I've heard and read, I think I'll be getting some Honda MTF sometime here in the near future and put some of that in instead.

Thanks again to everyone and I'll talk to you again when I have more questions or need assistance. (Which hopefully won't be for a long while...)

-jupider