while driving home from my 8.2 sec. run last night, i shifted into all gears normally, however, when i came to the first stop sign, i pulled it out of gear. no funny noises or anything. took off again, and went through all first 4 gears easily and normally, but when i shifted to 5th, i couldn't get it into gear, as a matter of fact, the shifter will not even move over to the right, therefore i cannot go into reverse too. it feels like something is blocking it from moving to the right.
earlier today, i was messing with it and i finally got the shifter to move to the right with a little force and into 5th gear a couple of times, but it does not go in normally and still will not go in most of the time. i still cannot get into reverse.
HELP!?

Check the centering spring. Mine broke once, and I had similar problems.

Check the centering spring. Mine broke once, and I had similar problems.

where would that be located? is the purpose of the centering spring to keep the shifter in the neutral position?

where would that be located? is the purpose of the centering spring to keep the shifter in the neutral position?

Yes it keeps the shifter centered.
Iv'e broke mine before on another car and the shifter was limp and would move all around.
The spring is located between the cat. converter and the body. You can remove the heat shield above the cat and get a look at the spring.

could be a pressure plate

one other thing I can think of.... motor mount is shot and the motor/tranny has shifted and binding the shift linkage; therefore, not allowing it to move.

the shifter will still go back to the neutral position after you take it out of gear.

if the pp was bad, why would it go into all the first 4 gears fine?

i kinda suspected my engine mounts to be bad at first, but all are solid and "looked" fine. also, like mentioned earlier, i can now move the shifter to the right, but will still not go into reverse, i can however get it into 5th, but not normally and not all the time...

would bad syncros be a suspect?

Remove your drain plug and take a look at the fluid condition. Also see if you find metal shavings.

Remove your drain plug and take a look at the fluid condition. Also see if you find metal shavings.

the condition of the fluid is fine, looked new. however i did not remove the drain plug, but i do suspect that there will be lots of metal shavings anyways...i'll check anyways..

Hey!!! I have the same problem...and my third gears is difficult tu shift too

while driving home from my 8.2 sec. run last night, i shifted into all gears normally, however, when i came to the first stop sign, i pulled it out of gear. no funny noises or anything. took off again, and went through all first 4 gears easily and normally, but when i shifted to 5th, i couldn't get it into gear, as a matter of fact, the shifter will not even move over to the right, therefore i cannot go into reverse too. it feels like something is blocking it from moving to the right.
earlier today, i was messing with it and i finally got the shifter to move to the right with a little force and into 5th gear a couple of times, but it does not go in normally and still will not go in most of the time. i still cannot get into reverse.
HELP!?

I had this problem with my car. You will not like it if it's the same thing that happened to me:
http://www.sr20forum.com/showthread.php?t=28013

I can reupload the pics associated with this thread and update the links so they work if you'd like.

My tranny has been perfect since I repaired it then, November 2002.

I had this problem with my car. You will not like it if it's the same thing that happened to me:
http://www.sr20forum.com/showthread.php?t=28013

I can reupload the pics associated with this thread and update the links so they work if you'd like.

My tranny has been perfect since I repaired it then, November 2002.


YES, please reupload the images. that would be great in helping me diagnosis this problem. thanks.

YES, please reupload the images. that would be great in helping me diagnosis this problem. thanks.

Done. ;) You can go back to thread to see what goes with each caption.

Plus I put every picture I took on a website here also:
http://www.techlink-solutions.com/se-r/RS5F32V

Before I got to this point I had replaced the shifter mounts (yes, even the one under the shifter), checked mounts, basically everything under the sun. If you have any more questions let me know.

Good luck.

Done. ;) You can go back to thread to see what goes with each caption.

Plus I put every picture I took on a website here also:
http://www.techlink-solutions.com/se-r/RS5F32V

Before I got to this point I had replaced the shifter mounts (yes, even the one under the shifter), checked mounts, basically everything under the sun. If you have any more questions let me know.

Good luck.

so basically you had a snap ring that broke? what was the approx. cost to fix this (what was your total cost)? is this something someone could perform with simple hand tools?
thanks.

i really didnt want to take my tranny off, but i guess i'll have to anyways....

so basically you had a snap ring that broke? what was the approx. cost to fix this (what was your total cost)? is this something someone could perform with simple hand tools?
thanks.

i really didnt want to take my tranny off, but i guess i'll have to anyways....

Well, the snap ring in my opinion damaged the shaft when it came off. You can see the chip it left in some of the pics. Because of this I thought there was a high probability it would happen again. Since that shaft is all one piece except for 5th it was a very expensive piece to replace new. So I found a tranny at a junkyard for $450 and tore it down and inspected it. Synchros were more worn than mine so I decided to keep my case (which was welded up) and swap in the one shaft from the salvaged tranny in mine. To do this you need just ordinary hand tools and an FSM to guide you through.

If you opt to swapping gears off shafts (which again in my case was not necessary) you pretty much need some presses and pullers which are kind of specialty.

I want to add however that I went out and bought one of those parts cleaners (the 7 gallon tub model at your local parts store, $100) and it was the best money ever spent. I had NO IDEA that there could be that much debri in a tranny case after something like this! Surely if I didn't do that my tranny would have been bathing in that stuff which would have resulted in premature wear.

Do this. This narrowed it down for me:
1. Jack up the car so you can get under it safely.
2. Disconnect the shifter shaft from the tranny U joint so it is free.
3. Grab the U joint and row through the gears manually (it takes some effort)
4. If you have the same issue there then the problem is inside the tranny.
5. The next step is to drain the fluid in a pan, look at it, and the plug.

If so maybe you got lucky and a big piece of debri broke off something and is jamming the shift fork mechanism inside. Everything that breaks in a tranny will fall down in the bottom and that is where the fork mechanism is.

Good luck.

thanks for the info! it was extremely helpful. i guess i'll have to tear my transmission apart so see what happened, but in either case, i may just have it rebuilt with cryo treated and shotpeened gears, welded tranny and clutch lever and be done with it, or i may just get another stock transmission while i look too see what happened. its starting to get cold out now so that sucks.