gearbox selector going funky?
 

guys,

First off, id like to say that i drive my car HARD. VERY hard. I shift fast and violently, my RX7 is purely to be abused pretty much, be it on track or autox days.

After an autox on wednesday ive noticed my first and second gear are acting funky. Sometimes when you go to put it in first, the stick goes so far across it almost feels like im putting it into reverse (you know how some cars have reverse on the left? and you have to push down on the stick to get it far enough across tehn push it up?)

So anyway, the stick goes REALLY far to the left, and then its quite hard to move it up in to first gear - and if i wobble it about a bit sometimes it pops back to the proper location, or if i take it out of gear (which sometimes it doesnt want to do) and put it back in it fixes itself.

This SOMETIMES happens when putting it into 1st and second, but not all the time.

This is my selector going up the shitter right? I have a spare box on the floor in my garage now. Should i fit it and pull this one off and try to fix the damage before it gets too bad, or is the box toast?

Box has about 80k on it, 15 of those driven by me (seriously, it makes a difference lol)

and as terrible as i know it is, ive never changed the fluid in it. Its in my garage, just havent got around to doing it. This wouldnt affect a selector problem though right?

sounds like the shifter bushings are bad....you can get some cheap from rx7.com

Shifter bushings?


any info on a write up or anything?

I'll bet you damaged the actual shifter gates. They can be bent and the metal can be gouged from abuse. Not to mention that the synchros are probably ground down too. The shifter gates are about $100 in parts, and actually not hard to replace.

Definitely replace the shifter bushings too.

I suggest you take you time shifting. Ramming it into gear does not make you faster on the clock.

Dave

No it probably doesnt, but its more fun :)

I know what your saying, but i drive my car the way i like to drive it; and thats that. I may have damaged the shifter gates, im going to open it up and see waht i can find from inside the cabin. Do i need to remove the box to do the gates?

Also i forgot to mention that this only started happening after i let my friend drive my car, so it may not even have been me...

You can change the shifter bushings from inside the car.

You would have to remove the extension housing to change the shifter gates. I'm told it can be done without dropping the tranny but I've never attempted it.

Hey, it's your tranny feel free to do as you please. But when it breaks don't expect that the fix will easy as changing your oil. If you crash the gears you'll destroy pretty much everything in there before long.

Dave

I've done it. Drain the tranny, remove the shifter, drop the driveshaft and the PPF. It took a combination of extensions to reach the top bolts but not hard. The tough part is getting the housing back on without making a mess of your gasket sealer.

Did you have a jack under the tranny so you can lower the ext hsg down a few inches?

Dave

^ Nope.