'93 Accord transmission problem.

Hi everyone,
I hope you can provide me with some basic direction on this problem. My
daughter has a '93 Honda Accord LX with approx. 250,000 km (155,000 miles)
on it. It has been running great.
Today she inadvertantly threw it into PARK when it stalled briefly and she
lost the power brakes for a short time. I'm not sure how fast she was going
at the time but she says it was less than 5 miles per hour.
Unfortunately now it won't go into reverse. The transmission is making a
"grinding" noise like two gears that won't quite mesh. It runs fine in all
of the forward gears.
We will be taking it into the shop tomorrow to figure out the damage but I
thought I'd post a preliminary message and see what you think and what I
should expect tomorrow.
Thanks much for any advice and information.
Gary

 

Ouch... by throwing it into park while moving... she probably damaged
the parking pawl. The pawl is a heavy-gauge piece of metal that engages
another gear for a rotational lock. The pawl is probably broken and
rattling around in there. You should have it looked at ASAP before it
floats around in there and tears something else up.

Professor
www.telstar-electronics.com

 

if you're lucky, it's a shift cable adjustment thing. but don't bet the
farm on that.

the honda parking pawl is usually fairly abuse proof. it has two
locking components. first is a dog [with a special tooth profile] that
meshes with it's own dedicated set of teeth [doesn't mess up any gears
even if it breaks]. the second is a lock that holds the dog in
position. the lock does not engage until the dog is fully seated. the
tooth profile means that even if you engage park while rolling, it'll
just make a loud horrible ratcheting noise as it drags in and out of
it's corresponding teeth, but because it won't fully seat while this is
happening, the lock won't engage, so this process allow you to roll
without damaging the transmission or the dog. once the "ratcheting"
slows sufficiently, the lock engages and /then/ the transmission is
truly locked.

imo, it's more likely that the reverse was engaged while rolling
forward. don't think honda have abuse proofing for that!

either way, if the transmission is messed up, it's messed up & likely
very expensive to repair. if it costs you $500 just to have the
transmission removed & diagnosed, you're already in "ouch" territory.
it could be cheaper to consider getting a used japanese transmission and
have it fitted than the cost of diagnosis from a rebuilder.

i don't endorse them because i've not used them yet, but something like
this is worth consideration:
http://nippon-motors.com/honda.htm
$375 for your transmission, at the bottom of the page.

 

And then when you call him, he wants to charge you like $200 for shipping.
I've bought some used auto transmissions from importers and have had very
bad luck. There isn't an easy way for them to test them, so most of them
are untested. I've had pretty good luck with the engines and the manual
transmissions.

As bullet proof as the different 90-97 accord transmissions are, I'd just
get a used one from a salvage yard. www.car-part.com

Looks like there is one on there from "Marshalls Auto Parts" in Ohio. About
100k and $250. I've bought a lot of stuff from them and have never had a
major problem. Looks like they have low prices because they want high
volume, not because they are trying to pawn off some junk.