3rd gear synchros???

[khuezee]

Hello folks,

I have been reasearching this NSX that I plan to buy from a private party in Dallas and I am from Los Angeles. It is a 91 with red/black, ~118K miles.
VIN: JH4NA1159MT000147

Anyways, I posed a question regarding the synchros and this was the owner's reply:

"I had the VIN looked up about 2 years ago to see if the transmission fell into snap range. Fortunately it did not. The transitions between each gear is great. The car grips well in each gear. I'm glad you mentioned the syncros. The only problem I have with that is 3rd gear. If you drive the car at low rpm (3 - lower)going into 3rd gear it goes in fine. Sometimes when you are at a high rpm (3 1/4 - higher) it might go in rough and make a rubbing noise. I was told by a friend that it was my syncros but he said alot of honda's or acura's have that problem with 3rd gear."

Is this any way correct and accurate? Has any owners had this problem. For an exotic sports car, you would definitely expect to be able to move into any gear without problems regardless of RPM.

It seems that in order to fix it, it would require taking apart the transmission and replacing the synchros. I think this would be a fairly expensive procedure.

In addition, does anyone know anything about the history of the car???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Khue

 

[Chief]

Someone correct me if I am wrong....to check if ones tranny falls in the snap ring failure range one must look at the tranny number not the VIN.

Also if you have any questions regarding purchasing a high milage NSX feel free to drop me an email and I would be glad to give you a call. I can run through a few things you may want to check on the car before making a final offer. Purchased mine over 2 years ago with 128K miles.

Chris
91 NSX
137K Miles

 

[khuezee]

Hey Cheif,

thanks for the reply. Give me your # and I will call you. I have a bunch of questions. Just email it to [email protected]

Thanks for you help.
Khue

Originally posted by Chief:
Someone correct me if I am wrong....to check if ones tranny falls in the snap ring failure range one must look at the tranny number not the VIN.

Also if you have any questions regarding purchasing a high milage NSX feel free to drop me an email and I would be glad to give you a call. I can run through a few things you may want to check on the car before making a final offer. Purchased mine over 2 years ago with 128K miles.

Chris
91 NSX
137K Miles

 

[nsxtasy]

Originally posted by Chief:
Someone correct me if I am wrong....to check if ones tranny falls in the snap ring failure range one must look at the tranny number not the VIN.

That's correct.

You can tell from the VIN whether the car's original transmission would have been in the snap ring range. For example, this VIN was one of the very earliest of the NSXs sold, and was probably manufactured (I'm guessing) around August 1990. (You can tell for sure from the plate on the door jamb.) This was well before they started manufacturing transmissions in the snap ring range. However, it's still possible (if unlikely) that, for whatever reason, the transmission was replaced on the car some time in 1991 or 1992 and that the replacement transmission was in the snap ring range; only by checking the transmission ID number can you be certain.

 

[scott]

I had the same 3rd gear problem with my ride. Replaced 3rd gear synchro and it is all better. They will have to crack the tranny.

 

[khuezee]

Scott,

How much did that cost you? Does anyone know how much it costs to repair the synchros?

Originally posted by scott:
I had the same 3rd gear problem with my ride. Replaced 3rd gear synchro and it is all better. They will have to crack the tranny.

 

[scott]

It was ~10hr labor total. 8hr to crack the tranny and 2hr to mess with the gears. At $75hr labor that is $750. The parts cost was $460 consisting of $136 gear, $127 gear ring, $156 sleve set. Honda does not sell synchro alone. So total cost $1210.

I had a 4.23 R&P thrown in since the tranny was cracked but kept stock gearing. there is basicaly no extra labor cost for the R&P since it must come out anyway.

 

[Smoothaccel]

How do you like just the 4.23 R&P upgrade? Do you feel a difference?