So my 86 non turbo drove fine for 1200 miles on a rebuild. Than one day she decided not to go int gear. It will drive fine for some time ,but than it comes a day where it won't go into any of the gears. I've replaced the clutch, pressure plate, slave, and master cyclinder at the time of the build. Sine day one I have had problems with my idle being about 1000 rpm's, which my boss thinks the idle is too high not allowing the clutch to engage. If that is the problem, why did the car drive fine for so long?

 

spigot bearing in back of crank may be dragging on the input shaft for gearbox

 

Idle is not the issue. Does it go into gear with engine off when its acting up?

 

yes, it goes into gear with the engine off. its very random, one minute its fine and shifts great , the next it wont go into any gear.

 

The spigot bearing aka the pilot bearing? that means I have to drop my tranny again?

 

yup,, its the most likely cause of the carry on

it will go into gear aok with engine off,, and not when engine running= spigot bearing dragging

other likely issue with no select,, engine running and not
is over-selected gearbox
and sometimes issues with the reverse switch interfering and keeping reverse gear selected
and ( very common in the old school boxes ) is the clutch fork splitting around its pivot

NB
just be sure somebody observes the clutch fork moving while you press the clutch to rule out another hydraulic issue

 

PS
other common cause for this issue is when an organic clutch disk lining splits and fails between rivets and you end up with 1 section of it jammed under another

 

do you think i can spray some pb blaster throught the inspection plates.

 

have you ruled out hydraulic issues yet?

i think it may be a tad bit more involved than spraying a petroleum based lubricant(bad idea to begin with) all over the clutch disk surface.

 

If you can't get into any gear, inspect hydraulics, if that is good, problem lies with bad transmission internals or possibly just a bad detent ball preventing shifter from going into gear. You should be able to move into gear with engine off, even with no clutch pedal pushed in.

Can you move the shifter left and right in neutral?> There is a thread around here about someone solving their problem due to a bad detent ball, I don't feel like looking it up for you.

 

all hydraulics are good. it goes in when car is off. from time to time it wont go into any gears. i can walk away for a few minutes and she ll be fine. I dont think its an internal issue

 

if it goes into gear when engine is off, you have a clutch disengagement issue. when the engine is running, the clutch isn't disengaging fully to allow you to go into gear.

 

you checked the clutch cable?

 

There is no cluth cable.

 

what????

 

pilot bearing

 

Shut up.

Did you change the pilot bearing when you put in a new clutch> If not I would start there.

 

Agree. A bad pilot bearing will keep the input shaft rotating, making the car act like the clutch isn't disengaging, even after pressing the clutch pedal.

 

Can you explain the above for me? Does that mean the engine is OFF and you can engage the gears. but sometimes when the engine is OFF that you cannot engage the gears??????? I'm just talking about the quote above, not the rest of the thread.

If that's the case, before you pull the transmission again you might want to remove the shift lever and with your fingers or whatever , fish around in cavity where the shift lever was and see if you can find remnants of an old shifter bushing causing the problem. It only takes the removal of three 10mm size small bolts to pull the shifter out. And what the heck, if your going to remove the transmission anyway it would help to have the shifter out of the way..anyway. So your not really wasting any time doing that.

But if your quote did not mean what I wrote..........just press on doing what you were going to do and ignore this.

 

Sorry hailers. I meant when the car is off, it shifts fine. WHen its running it'll shift fine but from time to time it wont go into any gear, than randomly it will.

 

all clutch components were replaced when the clutch was done the first time

 

pilot bearing. come on mr. dvs71990, you should of knocked this one out by now : )

 

dropping the tranny tomorrow to replace the bearing.

 

,, 50/50 spigot bearing or its torn the strip off the organic clutch plate and doubled it up
with the roughy outsider being a broken clutch fork around the pivot dimple

tomorrow we shall see

 

it was definately the pilot bearing, there was no bearngs left. I did run into a problem, i broke my blinde hole puller and whats remaining of the pilot bearing. i cant get the rest out. I tried grinding it out and after quite a bit im scared im going to hit the e shaft. any suggestions