Is Swapping a high mileage transmission in a good idea?

[AmTeC]

I apologize if this isn't the right forum category for a question like this, and I am aware that this is kinda a vague question with many different factors that lead to different answers. But I want an opinion from someone who is more experienced with THIS platform, the CB7 platform.

So I was planning a 5 speed manual swap, I want to buy a working manual
donor cb with a rusty or dented body that isn't worth saving, but has a good transmission. I found a few, one that im looking at in particular has about 250,000 km on it, which is about 155,000 miles I believe. Where I live, we consider 200,000 km or 125,000 miles is considered the beginning of the end of a car's useful life. I haven't seen it in person, but from the pics, its rusty, its a base coupe with no AC like mine, $300, and the clutch is described as grabbing near the top of the pedal, but it still works fine. A few other issues here and there, unrelated to the transmission though.

Now what do you guys think? What's the highest mileage you would tolerate for a used transmission? How would I test to make sure this transmission is good and would last me? I would assume shifting through the gear while accelerating hard and feeling for grinds and irregularities? What do you guys even consider high mileage for a CB?

[blind_peach]

Alright, here's my 2 cents for this convo and I'll give you a little ethos as well. My dad and I look at used cars all the time. We both agree that at 125,000 miles some form of maintenance has to be done on a car. Generally, I avoid American built cars after 100,000 miles, European after 150,000, and Japanese after 200,000. My CB7 has 179,000 miles as of this post and when I bought it had 178,000.

Now, my car's transmission has bad synchros. It just happens over time. IMO you're probably better off not going with that guys CB7 especially when he says the clutch is high. That could mean a multitude of things. Atop of that, you have no idea how the car was maintained OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT IT'S RUSTY. Yeah, you're looking for a car with a good transmission, but you could get anything like that from a junkyard. And again, the question arises, how was it maintained. I'm sure that if you got that person's CB7 for the transmission, you'd have to replace the clutch soon.

There's no way of testing the transmission if you can't actually drive the car. If it drives then, get enough speed to check all gears. Down shift into other gears (obviously without blowing up the motor), make sure there's no grinding. If the owner lets you, try and drive faster (but not past the speed limit) and see if you get any grinding. My CB7 grinds in second and third when I do that, but normal street driving is fine.

That's all I can really say

[AmTeC]

Alright, here's my 2 cents for this convo and I'll give you a little ethos as well. My dad and I look at used cars all the time. We both agree that at 125,000 miles some form of maintenance has to be done on a car. Generally, I avoid American built cars after 100,000 miles, European after 150,000, and Japanese after 200,000. My CB7 has 179,000 miles as of this post and when I bought it had 178,000.

Now, my car's transmission has bad synchros. It just happens over time. IMO you're probably better off not going with that guys CB7 especially when he says the clutch is high. That could mean a multitude of things. Atop of that, you have no idea how the car was maintained OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT IT'S RUSTY. Yeah, you're looking for a car with a good transmission, but you could get anything like that from a junkyard. And again, the question arises, how was it maintained. I'm sure that if you got that person's CB7 for the transmission, you'd have to replace the clutch soon.

There's no way of testing the transmission if you can't actually drive the car. If it drives then, get enough speed to check all gears. Down shift into other gears (obviously without blowing up the motor), make sure there's no grinding. If the owner lets you, try and drive faster (but not past the speed limit) and see if you get any grinding. My CB7 grinds in second and third when I do that, but normal street driving is fine.

That's all I can really say

Yeah, bad syncros is something I'm really worried about. That's why I ask.
Low mileage cb's are hard to come across around here. Mine's an automatic with 118,000 miles and I want to put in a 5 spd that has similar or lower mileage. I want the car to run trouble free for as long as possible.

[Bunta]

While you would be better of checking the transmission in a running car you can check that it at least will shift into each gear while it is sitting. Row through the gears and see if it will let you get the lever into each gear (including Reverse). That should eliminate bent shift forks at least.

[blind_peach]

Hmm you could try and get a bunch of your buddies together for a road trip to the States and grab a tranny somewhere in the northeast. Other ideas could be finding a prelude with low miles or some other transmission that would link up to your accord

[AmTeC]

I just thought of something!

I was thinking about buying the rusty high mileage CB and just using it for the clutch parts like the slave/master cylinder, the clutch pedal, the manual ECU, shifter assembly, axles, Basically every part of the 5 spd swap except the transmission. The seller says the clutch bite point is near the top of the pedal, but that would be the clutch disc being worn and not the actual hydraulics responsible right? The car IS driveable from what he tells me, I haven't seen it in person yet. It was also a victim of catalytic converter theft. And I was thinking I could grab a transmission from TotalJDM, they have one in stock near me, but its JUST the transmission, no shifter cables or anything. Is this a wise idea? is there any real difference in wear between shifter assembly/hydraulic cylinders from a high and low mileage CB?

Also, does TotalJDM exist in the states? Anyone ever bought something from them before?

[AmTeC]

Hmm you could try and get a bunch of your buddies together for a road trip to the States and grab a tranny somewhere in the northeast. Other ideas could be finding a prelude with low miles or some other transmission that would link up to your accord

I just went to the states for a family visit and found that sitting in a car for that many hours is not my cup of tea.