D-Series EF Civic Tranny Removal

No foreplay here, let's get right to it. The front crossmember should come out because you'll need the clearance to remove the tranny. Disconnect the suspension links and lower arms from the strut forks and then remove the stock axles.

Now onto the swap. First, find your hydraulic tranny. The second and third synchros can be worn on higher mileage boxes so try to get a guarantee. You won't need the slave cylinder or the speed sensor, so don't panic if they aren't there. After that, it's time to remove your cable tranny. All of this requires a bit of work and you'll find that a lift really pays dividends, but then again we've done these on our backs more times than we can count. Remove the front lower crossmember that attaches to the lower suspension links. Then remove the axles from the front hubs by taking off the lower fasteners so the shock fork is free from the lower arm and the axle nuts.

With the axles out, support the underside of the engine around the oil pan area for when the right side mount suddenly goes missing. Remove each of the bolts around the tranny's bell housing first, including the starter bolts. Be sure to disconnect the battery. When that is done, get to work on the right side or transmission mount and bracket. The bracket is a little tricky because there is a bolt under it that will only come out underneath the car.

Drain the oil from the tranny, disconnect the battery and [as shown here] remove the starter from the top of the transmission. While you're here, pull the speedo cable out of the top of the VSS drive gear.

After you've disconnected the reverse light sensor, unbolted the tranny from the engine and removed the rear bracket from the tranny, you're ready to actually take the tranny out. From the top, there is one bolt you can get to that holds the side mount to the tranny bracket. The other bolt is accessed from the bottom. Make sure you have the engine supported before removing this bolt or the right side of the engine and tranny will drop down.

From the Hasport team, Brian and Scott play a quick game of "stick 'em up" but the real point of this is to make sure you support the engine properly, especially if you're going to do the LSD install like we did. With the post jack supporting the engine, we lowered it down so the transmission could be slid off the end of the engine and below the right-hand frame rail.