Hey guys... Driving home last night, I went to shift from 3rd to 4th (go figure) , and couldn't...that sucker's not budging. I'm sure that's not strictly a common RX-7 problem, but I'm not real sure where to begin...All I did so far was remove the outer cover from the shifter, the outer rubber boot, and peeked inside the inner rubber boot. Anyway, any ideas? I squirted a little lube in there, just on the off chance that that might work. (of course it didn't). Thanks, gents.

 

Can it move at all? Even if the engine isnt running?

~T.J.

 

Prolly your clutch!

 

I had the same problem with an 84 GSL-SE. If I double-clutched, it shifted.

 

It could be that the gear box overshifted. I've seen the shift forks (particularly if they're worn and have a lot of slop) go too far on a shift. The problem is the only way to get it to come back out of gear (if this is what happened) is to open up the gear box and do it by hand.

Once opened, replacing the snap rings and sliders will generally prevent it from happening again.

 

My boss told me he had an Chevy or something, and once in a while that'd happen to him...apparently, he would get under there and wiggle the linkage around, which would cure it temporarily...anyone heard of this? Anyone else have similar problems? BTW, thanx for the replies. (oh, and TJ, no the shifter is physically impossible to move out at all)
Thanx again.

 

Take all the rubber boots off. Take the 3 10mm shifter bolts out and remove the shifter. Check and see if the bushings are disintegrated.

New ones are only about $15 from the dealer.

If the bushings are good its probably a shift fork.

 

that's becasue old chevy trannies had external shift linkages, the whole shifter was external (at least on the old 4spds, most of the 5spds were internal linkage, with exceptions of course)

our trannies have internal linkages, so jiggling them is not really an option.