I follow the same schedule coming home from work every day. 5:30am, leave. 5:03, get on highway. 5:08, get off highway. 5:09, left turn onto my street. Same thing, everyday. Except for today.

Everything was fine leaving work. Car was running perfectly. I went to get off the highway and downshifted from 5th, to 4th, to 3rd. Then I tried 2nd. No dice. WTF? So I coasted through the redlight onto my street and attempted to shift into second again. Nothing. Will not go in. I stopped the car totally, pumped the clutch a few times and tried to put it into 1st. NOTHING. So now theres a line of cars behind me, and I gotta wave them by. I got out of the car and looked under to see if maybe I had broke... something. Nope. Got in the car and started it in neutral. I let off the clutch (in neutral) and it jumped forward! I started freaking out because thats never happened. I did a little more experimenting. With a LOT of effort, I can get it to shift into all gears. I gotta smack it a little in 2nd. The car will attempt to move forward in all gears, and backwards in reverse. But it dies if I don't slip the clutch. I put it in 5th and tried to get it moving (I only live 15ft up the road). I slipped the hell out of the clutch, but all I got was a cabin full of smoke.

So wtf could it be?

Recap: Extremely hard to go into gear, acts like it is in gear in neutral, and attempts to move in all gears.

Also, I think this is worth mentioning. There was no sign that anything had went wrong. I had the radio off and heard no sounds, or strange smells, or felt anything that would indicate something being wrong during the drive. I am very aware of every little noise that comes from the car.

 

It certainly sounds like your trans is at fault. If its an n/a just find another one, they are cheap.

If it's a turbo, you may want to drop it and remove the tailshaft to see if anything in that area is causing the issue.

 

that sucks

 

From the sound of it, it got stuck in 3rd gear while you were downshifting. Does it travel as far as it did before into each shift gate, or is the travel limited at all now? Any way you look at it, you'll need to at least remove the tail housing to see what's going on. I believe it's possible with the transmission bolted to the engine, but it would probably be easier to pull the whole trans and work on it separately. With the tail housing off, you'll be able to see how the shift rods are aligned, and move them by hand into each gear.

 

I have another tranny, but I have to remove it from my parts car... I was told that the shift fork might be bent. What do you guys think?

 

...Thanks for the help.

Anyway I think it's important to note that it does physically shift into all gears, though with great effort.

 

I seriously doubt that. The shift rods and forks (3 of them) are very thick steel, and have plenty of support from the transmission case. Pull it apart once you swap it out, and you'll have your answer.

 

So i was on my way to the race shop today after work and got stopped at a light. When the light turned green i couldn't get it into gear. I let the clutch pedal up with the shifter in neutral and the car jumped forward and stalled out. I turned it back on and it was in neutral.... and i couldn't get it into any gear at all.... Well after a minute of aggravating disappointment, i smacked the damn shifter and poof, it went into gear. Drove it to the shop and tore the linkage apart. We the mechanic at the shop and i decided that it is probably the clutch, or unfortunately... the trans. So tomorrow we'll put a new clutch and ill let you know if the issue is resolved. Best of luck to ya

 

Put the rear end up on jackstands and started the car. Wheels spin in neutral, and 5th gear. Car will not go into 3rd while running. Any other gear will stall the car and the wheels will not spin. Guess im yanking the bitch out.... :sigh: It's only the 3rd major mechanical problem in 2 months, and only the 20th or so since I've had the car. God damn money pit.

 

The previous owner of my car had to have the transmission rebuilt due to the reverse idler gear getting stuck. He couldnt select any gears except reverse.

 

How ironic is it that the day after i read your post i had a similar issue? Anyhow, this is what happened, for those who missed the first reply, and how we fixed it.

On the way home from work i drove down the beach and thru downtown. I had to stop at a crosswalk downtown. After the people made it across the street the car wouldnt go back into gear, so i let the clutch out to with the thought of maybe i didnt push it down far enough. As soon as the clutch pedal came up the car jerked forward and stalled out. The shifter linkage said it was in neutral.... Turned the car back on and tried again, same issue, wont go into gear. By now the people behind me as well as myself our getting aggravated, so i slam it into gear. I wouldnt suggest slam your car into gear, its a very bad thing to do! So after i got it into gear it drove fine the rest of the way home. After looking at everything, decided it was the clutch, so i bought a new one and off we went to change it out.

We took the exhaust off from the header to the y pipe. Took the shifter linkage out. Then the drive shaft (careful of all the fluid). That was our big hint, there was not a lot of fluid coming out when we took the DS out of the tail shaft... The we took off some of the heat shield bullshit. Loosened the trans cross member, bell housing bolts. Went up top and disconnected the slave cylinder. Went back down, used the jack to lower the trans. Pulled it out of the car. There are a few sensor wires you have to disconnect, and the speedo cable (not present on mine). Then we took apart the pressure plate and friction disk. The friction disk had alot of meat left on it, maybe only a few months old? The pressure plate was glazed, the input shaft bearing was destroyed. We had a magnetized pole we used to pull out all the lil pieces left over from the bearing. Then we had to take a drill and drill out the race that was stuck. I wouldnt suggest drilling, but we had to get it out, so if you do drill be extra careful!!!! After we put the new clutch pack back in, we re connected everything. Made sure the car was level and squeezed gear oil back into the trans. We used 80-9ow gear oil, most of the gallon i bought. We put it in a bottle with a nozzle style fitting on the top and squeezed the oil thru a piece of fuel hose that we had laying around. When the oil strated dripping back out of the plug we stopped, and plugged it back up. After everything was back together, we took it for a spin to see if we had fixed the issue. Ive driven the car to a few different counties today and still out and about now, with no issues. If i had to guess, id say it was low oil that made the trans get hot and act stupid. Second guess would be the glazed pressure plate not allowing the clutch pack to operate the way it was intended which might be why we thought the car was in neutral but in fact the clutch was still engaged? I doubt the input shaft bearing had anything to do with it, but you never know. Best of luck to ya, and remember to check your fluids.

 

Ok ill be the first to say im no rx7 tranny expert but when my tail shaft seal was bad it would do some forked up stuff(not wanna shift,smell like gear oil,mmmmm,grind every gear etc) the fluid has a lot to do with it,thats the reason the next time I change the fluids the engine trany and diff are all gettin royal purpel
oh by the way When I drained my tranny when the seal was bad I only got a pint and a half outta of it,,,,burnt as hell black as hell,,,,,,but its good now but grinds second a tiny bit if I get too aggressive!

 

Well, apparently my easy solution of adding fluid and changing the clutch only lasted for 36 hours. Yesterday after work i went to grab stuff for dinner and damn if the car didnt start acting stupid again. The slave cylinder moves like it should. the master cylinder is full of fluid, theres no stain on the driveway so i dunno if its leaking trany fluid or not? I drove it all day monday and to work and back tuesday. After reviewing the play, the ruling on the field has been overturned. It now appears that the syncros are messed up in the trans and that i need to drop a few bucks and get a new one. Its gonna be a long few weeks.... Anyone wanna s4 n/a trans?

 

Ok i got off the phone with the transmission repair guys in the area and they all told me that it sounds like a clutch issue, not a trans issue. So i spent a few bucks and bought a new master cylinder, hard line, slave cylinder, and steel slave line. I know the throw out bearing and fork are good, so the only issue left is the hydraulics. It could be as simple as air in the line or a broken whatever... I figured new clutch, new hydraulics, new lines, should solve the issue... If not, well then, i guess itd be time for a swap...