98luder’s Weblog

Here is what the 4.7 Final drive components looks like before install, the ring gear and counter shaft. Now it is time to pull off all the gears/syncros/sleeve off the old 4.3 counter shaft and transfer it over.

Once i had the gears off the counter shaft i was able to have a better look at the worn second gear and syncro sleeve. Then press all the old gears/syncros/sleeve onto the 4.7 counter shaft and you done with that.

Next is the bearing in the tranny clutch housing that the counter shaft sits on. You can physically see that there is a size difference. One on the left with the brown seal was for the 4.3 counter shaft, the one on the right with the black seal is for the 4.7 counter shaft.

This bearing was a little difficult to pull out as there is not much to grab on to. I was using a special slide hammer but it started pulling out the needle bearings. Eventually it pulled out though after some caveman tactics. Now press in the new bearing and we are ready for final assembly.

Get your main, counter shafts, shift forks together and drop them in the appropriate spots. Don’t forget the main shaft washers before putting it through the clutch housing( cone on the bottom/concave up, then flat washer).

Now ready to close it all up, you might have to jiggle it around a bit to get it lined up. I had to do it a few times because it kept shifting gears. Once you have the bell housing on, now we on the final stretch. Make sure you use some snap ring pliers to open up the clip for your top counter shaft bearing to lock it in place, install your denton balls(3), reverse bolt, VVS, and finally your shifter mechanism and lock.
Done!!!!

Oh I would also recommend if anyone is doing this, make sure you test it before installing it into the car(Make sure the main shaft moves freely in neutral, and it goes into 1,2,3,4,5,6,R). Last thing you want is to go through all the trouble of installing it back into the car to find out it doesn’t work, then pull it all out again. Best to test it on the bench/floor so if there is a problem you can easily go back and fix the issue.

Looking at the donor LSD i was not sure the condition of the differential bearings. When in doubt just change them, they do no cost a whole lot and could mean damaging your tranny if they decide to blow or seize. Lets press them off and press on some new OEM bearings 🙂

Differential bearings off and cleaned.

Install the 4.7 final drive ring gear.

Now to press on the new differential bearings and vehicle speed sensor(VSS) gear

Keep in mind that the differential bearing has a top and bottom. The bottom is is stepped to possibly give it a certain space between the bearing and the diff itself. So don’t miss it up, sealed part of the bearing installs away from the bearing pointing outwards.

Bearings and VSS gear installed

Once the differential is all ready for installation we will need to shim it, make sure the side to side movement is within Honda tolerance spec. Which is 0-.004″, it’s a good thing i keep a wide assortment of shim sizes. In the end i used a 1.4mm shim that gave me a tolerance of .001″

Next we will work on the transferring the gears on the counter shaft to the 4.7 counter shaft, replace the counter shaft bearing on the clutch housing, and close it up.

So what i have to start with is the 02-04 RSX typeS transmission.
-First thing is to manually check if you can shift into all gears, 1-6 and reverse, okay check that works.
-Second thing is to open up the tranny and visually inspect the gears to check condition, usually some will be worn just because it is a used tranny. The question is? how worn are the gears and syncros.
Lets see…

Here is the tranny during disassembly

Get out the plastic sheet and prep for operation. Tranny disassembly can be quite messy if there is tranny fluid still in the case.

Lets start start the examination with the main shaft, so that will be 3,4,5,6th gear.
All these gears looks decently sharp with their original shapes so seems good.

3rd gear

4th gear

5th gear

6th gear

Now lets take a look at the counter shaft, 1st and 2nd gear.
The 2nd gear looks a little worn, but still not as bad as my Kseries tranny build1 2nd gear, which looked totally deformed and you can’t even make out the points at all.

1st gear

2nd gear

Now, that the inspection is done, it’s time to transfer the 4.7 ring gear and counter shaft…part2