Hey all, I'm getting ready to do my first 5 speed swap here in about two weeks. All parts are gathered and I just scrubbed the transmission as best as I could and figured I would replace both the input and output shaft seals. I couldn't help but notice some play on the input shaft side. To my understanding, up and down / right and left play is normal since the shaft is not yet supported by the pilot bushing. I've got maybe an 1/8 inch in each direction. However, the input shaft also moves IN and OUT by about an 1/8 inch (total) as well. I'm having a hard time finding out whether or not this is normal for the ka / sr manual transmission. I have never seen the trans in a car, but it feels nice and smooth turning by hand, with no unusual noises, just the slight 'whir' of the bearings. If shifts through all the gears, but again under no load. I would assume there are easily over 100k miles on the transmission, though the seller was unsure. If anyone could help me out that would be great, I don't want to install fresh seals let alone install the trans on my car only to find out it has some serious issues. Thanks.

Hi and welcome to NICO Club!

Sorry this is a late reply and maybe you're already done. The input shaft has a larger bearing on it's outside that goes to the bellhouse right behind that cover plate. It also has a small needle bearing in the inside that goes around the interior tranny shaft. Anyway, that sounds like a lot of play and you might want to remove the inner cover and inspect the bearing and the bellhouse for wear. The C clip that holds it in place is supposed to be matched to the bearing because it doubles as a shim if I recall correctly.

Thanks, I appreciate the reply! I actually had the cover off at the time of writing, and being the newbie that I am didn't realize that this is what was causing such excessive play - the actual bearing was sliding out of the bore in the bellhousing. With the cover on, there is still a bit of play but it is drastically reduced, and I think it is a reasonable amount. I took the bellhousing apart to take a look inside, and all of the gears seem to be in good shape, the bearings do not show any wear, and the synchros grab and appear to have quite a bit of life left in them from what I can tell after reading all I could about them! I'm fairly confident the transmission will be good, and I'll hopefully be swapping it in this weekend, so I'll know soon enough!

Oh, well shoot! I figured the thing was intact. Yeah, you're probably good to go with it in one piece. Check the transmission shifting again while it's all assembled before installing it so that you're sure the stuff inside aligned properly with the forks and selector and all.