SpeedFactory B-Series AWD Transmission Gear Conversion Kit

SpeedFactory B-Series AWD Transmission Gear Conversion Kit

The CR-V transmission bolted straight to your B18 because Honda used the same bolt pattern, and that's exactly why every B-series AWD Civic and Integra build starts there. Then you found out why nobody shifts one hard. The factory B AWD gearset was built for a 3,200 pound SUV with a 6,300 rpm limit, and the 1-2 shift on a car spinning to 8,500 is somewhere between awkward and impossible. The SpeedFactory FWD2AWD B-Series Gear Conversion Kit is what lets you put a proper FWD B-series 1-4 gear stack into that AWD case without sending anything to a machine shop.

What It Is and Why It Works

Read this part carefully, because it's the thing people get wrong: this kit does not contain gears. It's the hardware that makes FWD gears live in an AWD case. You supply the gear stack.

Before this existed, retrofitting FWD gears into a B AWD transmission meant machine work. You either opened up the inside diameter of the 1st gear or cut the countershaft journal height, then had spacers made to get everything sitting where it belonged. SpeedFactory replaced all of that with a split needle bearing sized to let the FWD 1st idler ride on the AWD countershaft as-is, plus a set of four precision spacers that locate every component correctly. Each spacer is paint marked so you're not measuring parts on the bench trying to work out which is which.

The other half of the kit addresses a failure people hit even in unmodified transmissions. The stock B AWD 1/2 shift fork is thin enough that it bends on its own, and it's too thin to work with a FWD 1/2 slider anyway, since the FWD slider has a wider fork groove. Earlier versions of this kit had you ship your stock fork to SpeedFactory for modification. That's no longer the case. The current kit includes a complete new 1/2 shift fork CNC machined from chromoly billet steel, heat treated and hardened per manufacturer. Nothing gets sent in, and nothing gets welded.

The practical result is that your ratio options open up to essentially any factory-layout B-series FWD gear set, synchro or dog engagement. That means a B16 or LS gear stack, an Albins dog set, or whatever ratio spread suits your combination, running behind a K20-swapped or built B-series in an EF, EG, or DC2 with the CR-V drivetrain underneath it.

What's in the Kit

What You Supply

The B AWD 2nd synchro and the 3rd/4th hub, slider, and synchros can be reused if they're in good shape, which saves you sourcing those from the FWD set.

Setup Specs

Fitment

This kit fits a transmission, not a chassis. If you're running a B-series AWD gearbox, it applies, whether that box is still in the CR-V it came out of or sitting in an EF Civic, an EG hatch, or a DC2 Integra. Chassis choice matters for mounts, axles, and the rear end, not for this kit.

What to Know Before You Buy

The reverse idler requirement is where builds stall out, so sort it before you order anything else. You need a 3.0 ratio 24 tooth reverse idler, which comes from a FWD gearset or from a 1998 CR-V AWD set. The 1999 to 2001 CR-V AWD reverse gears are a 3.461 ratio with 29 teeth and they will not work with a FWD gear stack. If your donor box is a 99 or later, you're sourcing a reverse idler separately, and it's better to know that now than with the case split open on your bench.

Whether you use the orange thrust washer depends on which reverse idler you end up with. It goes under a short 41.9mm tall FWD 3.0 idler. If yours measures 45.8mm tall, whether it's FWD or AWD, leave the washer out. Measure it, don't guess.

SpeedFactory recommends this install be done by a transmission rebuilding specialist, and that's honest advice rather than liability language. This is a full teardown with endplay measured to four thousandths using the factory shim tool. If you've never had a Honda transmission apart, the cost of having a builder do it is less than the cost of doing it twice. One tip from the instructions worth knowing: the 78mm upper mainshaft shim is genuinely hard to find, so builders commonly use 80mm differential shims from a B16 or LS transmission, which Honda still stocks in a range of thicknesses, and turn the outer diameter down 2mm. You can stack two to hit your number.

Plan the rest of the drivetrain while you're at it. The CR-V dual pump rear differential is a part-time system that reverts to front drive when it gets hot, so it isn't a high power answer without being locked, and Civic wagon rear ends are the usual alternative. That's a decision to make before the trans goes back in the car, not after.

While the case is apart and the trans is out, this is the moment for the parts you'd otherwise regret skipping. New bearings and seals throughout. SpeedFactory makes titanium transmission case bolts in a B AWD specific set and a titanium dowel pin for the B-series AWD transfer case, both of which go in far easier now than later. And once it's back in the chassis, our B-Series AWD shifter cables and short shifter combo are built specifically for this transmission in a swapped chassis, because the CR-V shift box geometry is not what you want in a Civic.