About 2-3 months ago I purchased an S1 (cable) B series transmission from Southside. At the time of the purchase I was told that the transmission was a B16 transmission and grinded in 3rd gear (typical of a B series transmission because of the synchros).

The transmission sat in my parents garage until about 2 weeks ago because I do not live at home. I go to college 3.5 hours from the Atlanta area. In fact, my pops was the one who picked it up from him because I could not be in town to make the transaction. So when I finally got into town, I opened the transmission case to determine what the problem was with the grinding. I was going to replace the synchros if that's all it needed. Well, I discovered 2 problems.

First, the transmission is an LS transmission, not a B16 transmission like I was told. This is obviously a problem because LS transmissions aren't the desired transmissions for an NA b series because of the long gear ratios. I determined that the was an LS transmission by counting both the gear on the main input shaft and the matching gear on the counter input shaft and divided one number into the other. The numbers I got from this equation was the exact same numbers that a USDM LS transmission is.

Second, the main input shaft bearing was broken. This is the 1st transmission I've opened, and I'm not sure how a transmission wouldn't have any problems (except for a grind in one of the gears) if the main input shaft bearing was broken.



I will add, that I was home for 1 day to tear the transmission apart. While I had it tore apart, I replaced the bearing because I was pressed for time, and could not leave a transmission in pieces in my parents garage. Granted, i should have contacted Southside while it was open to address the problem, but like I said, I was pressed for time. And I highly doubted he would have dropped everything he was doing right that second to drive over an hour to see what was wrong, which is why i just fixed the problem and contacted him when I got done driving back to school the next day.


So I addressed Southside about the problem, and at first he was willing to work things out with me, although he was hesitant because it had been so long since the initial transaction, which is completely understandable. However, he claims he purchased the transmission from someone else and was told it was a b16, and did not seem to believe that it was actually an LS transmission. The main issue he addressed was the broken main input shaft bearing, which to me was not the main issue here. The main issue was that I purchased a transmission which I believed (and was told) was a b16 transmission, and it was in fact an LS transmission. He asked how much $$$ it would be to "make the situation right" and I said $50, and he counter offered with $25. Which I refused because to me, thats simply ridiculous. The value of an LS transmission (with a broken main input shaft bearing none the less) and a b16 transmission are completely different, and surely MUCH different than $25.