Inside a B-series tranny�� By Ben Ogle


Ever wondered what was inside the mysterious little box that mates your motor to your wheels? I did. Then I came across a great deal from a local g2icer. All i had to do was help him swap in a b16 tranny and I got his "blown up" 91 A1. Woohooo! So when I got some free time I took it apart and found that the only messed up part was the diff and part of the case. Even better! Now I have an ls 5th if I ever decide to go with a b16 tranny. Anyway, heres some pics and a little info on how to get it apart.

Gettin it apart.

First, set the tranny down on the bench so the belhousing part is sitting on the bench. Like this:
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Then take off all the bolts that hold the two case halves together. Next, take off the 2 plugs that are on the side of the tranny shown in the above pic (they will be on the top when the tranny is sitting on your bench like it should). Also take off the bolt on the top (now side) that looks like it isnt holding anything on:
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After you got all that crap off you are almost ready to pull the upper case half off. Now split the case so there is about a half inch gap (this makes it easier) and unclip the bearing from the case. Remember that bigass plug you took off with a bigass allen wrench? Yeah, the clip is in there. Look:
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You need to spread that clip apart and push the bearing down with a screwdriver (you can push the bearing down because you split the case a little). After you get that bearing freed from the clip you can pull the upper half of the case off. If you have trouble you can to push the other bearing down from the other hole (where the little plug was), that helps a little.

When you got the top case off you will see something like this (except the diff will be in the tranny):
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How it works

Inside the shift mechanism:
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The square piece of metal in the yellow box (lets call it the "actuator") is the part that actually moves the right shift forks to change gears. As you can see in the next pic there are three separate shift fork assemblies (each assembly deals with 2 gears. i.e. 1st and 2nd) and each is controlled by a flat piece of metal (I'll call them the "shift plates" cause I cant think of anything else) that is moved by the part in the pic above.�
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The actuator is moved back and forth when the shifter is moved back and forth (like when in neutral) and then the actuator moves a shift plate up or down when you put it in a gear. Heres another angle of the shift "actuator" and a "shift plate" or two:�
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