While driving to work yesterday, traffic slowed a bit in front of me and I changed gears out of 5th into 4th. Once it cleared up a bit, I give the car a little push, and then tried to shift into 5th. I was met with fierce grinding and now gear. Once I pulled off, I found I could not get the shifter to completely select 1st, 3rd, or 5th. It feels very similar to when reverse doesnt go all the way in, and needs an extra nudge.

I assume a replacement trans is in my future, but what could have caused this? Its almost like its just the shifter fork or something, but Ive never taken apart a trans so I dont really know.

Any ideas on a fix or some pointers would be great, thank you!

 

Weird. 1,3,5 are all separate forks and rods. 1-2 share a fork, 3-4 share a fork and 5-R share a fork.

This picture illustrates this...

 

i would take the inspection plate off the shifter, and see if a spring broke and is lodged in the mechanism. something is in there, you can remove the drive shaft and trans mount and let the thing tilt down a bit. mind the firewall.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but the inspection plate, is that on the US passenger side of the shifter? Looks like a flat piece of metal, 4 10mm bolts holding it on? Just going off pictures of trans out of the car.

Interesting that they all share different forks. This happened once before after some spirited driving. As I exited a corner, I went to shift into 3rd, and when I let out the clutch all I got was grinding. However, that time I just slowed down, and let the car cool down. After that it was all back to normal.

Thanks for the fast response.

 

you may want to check and see if a piece of bushing broke off and is hindering your shifting.
Pull the shifter,easy to check,.takes about 3 minutes.

 

Yeah I was gonna pull the shifter when I get home tonight.

 

And the culprit has been found. Problem solved.

 

/\..?
where was that??

 

Pulled the shifter off and started rooting around in there, and felt this screw sitting in there. Grabbed it with a set of pliers and that was that. Shifts great now!

 

Next question, is where the HELL did it come from? Doesn't look like no factory screw to me

 

Im just about 100% sure it was a steering wheel bolt. I didnt end up using these bolts, but they came with my hub. I pulled the dash to clean up wiring and everything a couple months back, this must have been in there since then. Thats my guess.

 

a lesson on previous service history. you know, that thing that customers tell you after you fix the car.