1996 Honda Civic My Honda civic 2 door EX shakes when break

1996 HONDA CIVIC
173,000 MILES • 4 CYL • FWD • MANUAL
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TLCR
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  • 1 POST
Please read all of this before jumping to conclusions. This Honda shakes fairly violently when breaking (sometimes worse than others). You can feel it in the steering wheel, breaks, chassis, all over but mostly in the breaks and steering wheel. My first thought was rotors so I changed them (no fix). Second thought was stuck calipers so I changed them (no fix), Third was CV joints so I changed both front axels (no fix), I narrowed it down to the front passengers side wheel area by lifting the wheels and checking each individually. The problem is definitely in the front passengers wheel area. I changed the Wheel bearing on that wheel (no fix). All the bushing are in good shape. WTF?? Could there be a problem with the transmission... maybe a bad transmission bearing? Outside of breaking the car runs smooth. Help!

One more thing... When putting the car in reverse the shifter barely makes it to reverse before "clicking" in. We have always just dealt with it. I don't know if this has anything to do with the problem or not.
Jun 10, 2010 at 7:10 PM
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F4I_GUY
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Replace the rear drums. This should solve your problem.
Jun 12, 2010 at 3:46 PM
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TLCR
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I replaced one of the rear drums but no effect. Also I highly doubt it is the rear breaks due to this: I put the front passenger wheel up off the ground. I put the car in gear and let the wheel spin freely. While giving gas and applying breaks I got the same response of the shaking. I did the same with the drivers side wheel and it was fine. Since then I have looked closer at the axle on the passenger side (keep in mind it is brand new). I put a screwdriver up against the axel while it was rotating in drive and noticed that it was solid near the outer CV but wobbled a bit near the inner CV. I can't help but think that something in the manual transmission is bad.

Thanks for the response. Any other suggestions?
Jun 12, 2010 at 4:03 PM
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