Car will shift into reverse and only move some of the time.

[ajfancypants]

I just recently did a 5 speed swap on my E30 and everything seems to work except sometimes when I shift it into reverse (the reverse lights come on so I know its in gear) and rev the engine the car does not move. Every other gear moves the car except for reverse. Any ideas?

[15Michaeljoseph]

Was the transmission sourced from a car that reverse was known working? All new shifter linkage? Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[ajfancypants]

Was the transmission sourced from a car that reverse was known working? All new shifter linkage? Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

When I bought the transmission I was told that it was working fine, all new shifter bushings were put in.

[ajfancypants]

I put the rear up on jackstands and I get get the wheels to spin backwards in reverse about 40% of the time.

[Vincenze]

Open the transmission, check the rear gears.

[15Michaeljoseph]

Yeah, I would believe you've got an internal issue with the transmission. My thinking is that since it goes forward just fine, the clutch/master/slave/pivot etc. system is working as it should. All new shifter bushings means there's not going to be nasty slop in the linkage to mess with getting in reverse. Drilling down into the trans itself, your detent pins and internal selector stuff must be sort of working, since you're getting the switch to activate to turn on the reverse lights. I'm not super well versed in the anatomy of a transmission, but I would bet that the culprit lies there, rather than in the reverse gearing itself... Either way my bet is you're going to need to fix/ replace that transmission. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[Vincenze]

There is a transmission rebuilder in SoCal.

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/regional-forums/gatherings-regional-discussion/california/9955078-getrag-g260-refresh-services-socal

[roguetoaster]

As stated above, likely transmission issue, providing you have your shift linkage set up correctly, with every item installed the right way, on the right side.

Beyond that I wouldn't worry about it too much, as you can likely live without reverse 99% of the time.

[ajfancypants]

To follow-up on this it turns out I installed the shift lever backwards. I rotated it 180 degrees and I can reverse now. I also noticed that I have to firmly put it into gear and ease of the clutch verrrryy slowly or it will 'slip' out of gear and not reverse.