i have a 86 rxl gxl n/a, i just changed the clutch in it a couple days ago and she was running fine. But tonite, went for a cruise with a friend, the car was running like a champ, shifting properly no grinds or anything. on the way, it started making a rattling sound, it sounded like it was one of the heat shields lose or something, so i was like its only a lose heat shield, so i decided to head home. I dropped off my friend, about a block away from my house, reversed out of his driveway no problem, shifted properly, rattling still there. it shifted properly from 1st to 2nd to 3rd normally. But when i got home, i was parkin the car, tryin to reverse but i couldnt even reverse at all, seemed like there something blocking there and wouldnt let me go into reverse. So i turned off the car, tried shiftin all of a sudden its hard to get into 3rd adn 4th... so my problem is, what do you think is causing the problem? i cant get into reverse and 5th and have a hard time going into 3rd and 4th. Could it be that the tranny is not lined up properly? or is there internal damage in the tranny? please help. i plan on workin on the car and try figuring things out tomorrow. I need ur guys help on this one... thanks

 

no 5th or reverse means the tranny is gonna need a rebuild

 

even if it was working just fine within like a couple of minutes of driving it? i checked it again, it seems like theres something blocking it from going into the 5th and reverse side. need some hardcore help on this one..

 

sounds like your getting a new/rebuild tranny for christmas...

 

Mine is almost doing the same thing, but mine grinds into 5th and its starting to get hard to put it in reverse.

Oh well I'll be getting a Used/Jspec tranny when I get more cash.

 

this sucks, so basically im gonna need a new tranny then? how much would it cost to rebuild it? i hope i dont have to rebuild or get a new one for a while, coz i dont have the money right now... damn... so its 100% sure that i need to rebuild or get a new tranny? coz i dont want to spend money when its fixable... no 5th and reverse like a symptom of the tranny going out on me?

 

Almost nothing is 100%, will the tranny go into 5th or reverse when the cars off? If it doesn't I'd look into a decent rebuild shop, or start looking around the junkyards (If your lucky enough to have rx's in your local junkyard, I'm not )

 

N/A Trannys are a dime a dozen, I wouldnt bother rebuilding. Im sure you can find someone selling a good used one for like $100 or less.

 

hey airceo13,

in the FC transmissions, in the shifter turret, there is a tensioner. it kinda looks like a large bullet from a gun, and i believe it is there for tension when you are over in the 5th/reverse area of the shift pattern. i believe its on the drivers side of the turret box, if i remember correctly.
anyways, this tensioner can get stuck and totally lock you out of 5th and reverse. i took my whole tranny out of my TII and even took the tail off of the transmission trying to figure out why i couldnt shift into that area of the transmission... it turns out that tensioner got stuck and wouldnt let the shifter shaft over all the way, enough to access 5th or reverse. i have attached a picture and hilighted the tensioner.
give that a shot and report back to us.


edit: this is ONLY a fix for if you are completely locked out of 5th and reverse... if this is a syncro problem and you can access the gears while the car is off, then disregard this post, as you will need a new tranny or rebuild with new syncros.

 

hey jacobcartmill, yeah, you totally described what my problem is, im totally locked out from 5th and reverse even when the car is off, so im probably going pull out the tranny sometime this week and check the tensioner, thanks. i'll give you guys an update when im done it.

 

its either your nuetral safety switch or your 5th gear/overdrive/reverse light switch. mine did same thing, i bought both of those switches new and wala... what happens is the washers between the switches and tranny over time just get crushed or whatever allowing the switch to ever so slightly be pushed more into the tranny and lockout the arm that sweeps past the switch, i found out later that all i needed to do was put a washer in between. i bough new switches cuase the wires were fucked, and when i put them in i dindt use the washers and the switch was too far in the tranny, so i put the washers back in with the new switches and it fixed it. all you might need is the washer

 

well, i drained my extension part of the shifter and bam, i was able to go into 5th and reverse.. i think there was just some broken bushings that fell in there and it needed some cleaning. Thanks guys for the help. I'll be back on here when i need more help for my car. peace

 

screw the rebuild-pop in a miata tranny like i did-trust me, youll loooove the results!!