I just helped my son move 1200 miles across the country, Car did really well. I was in the Uhaul. I drove it on a side trip to Denver and thought the shifting felt kind of rubbery and stiff getting into gear, but I never drive it so maybe that's just a quirk I thought. He and I swapped this manual in for an auto a bit over two years ago, probably 10 or 15K miles since. Unknown mileage on this box. 205k miles on an '86 ES. I flew home and he started work.
He called wondering if I had done something to it. He said the shifting is a mess. This seems like a sudden change in behavior.
Here's what it's doing :
In 2 & 4, the lever wants to push out of gear. Easy to put in, it won't stay.
5th is very hard to push right enough to get it to the slot.
3rd is acting like it won't go in, lever doesn't push forward enough. With a bit more oomph, it pops into 3rd with a bit of mechanical noise.
This is a plate-style shifter transmission. When we swapped this transmission in, we replaced the seals, sensors, mounts, all shifter bushings, shims, clips, lower shift lever, and all the mounts on the shifter plate. Rebuilt driveshaft, new donut, etc - it's all new.
So we spent an hour and a half on the phone, him under the car and me looking at parts diagrams. We eliminated a bunch of obvious possibilities, like the selector rod is on the left side, it isn't hitting anything, the big rubber bushing at the rear mount is in place. There is some play in all the selector rod joints. The plate didn't seem to want to move either direction. His uncle came over and shifted it above while he watched underneath for any hangups or movement. He was pretty sure we found the issue with a loose forward plate mount bolt and nut, which he thought was turning - then he decided it was greasy fingers. If that plate mount could move fore and aft, that would mess up your 3rd gear throw if it can't quite reach.
So I don't know what's wrong. After messing with the shifter for an hour, he took it for a drive, up through 5th, and it's totally normal he says..... go figure.
There's no whining, no bearing noise, no grinding, no synchro problems. Drove it 1200 miles, all flat Interstate, at 65-75.
Does this seem like a shifter assembly issue or a fork / selector shaft kind of issue?
He called wondering if I had done something to it. He said the shifting is a mess. This seems like a sudden change in behavior.
Here's what it's doing :
In 2 & 4, the lever wants to push out of gear. Easy to put in, it won't stay.
5th is very hard to push right enough to get it to the slot.
3rd is acting like it won't go in, lever doesn't push forward enough. With a bit more oomph, it pops into 3rd with a bit of mechanical noise.
This is a plate-style shifter transmission. When we swapped this transmission in, we replaced the seals, sensors, mounts, all shifter bushings, shims, clips, lower shift lever, and all the mounts on the shifter plate. Rebuilt driveshaft, new donut, etc - it's all new.
So we spent an hour and a half on the phone, him under the car and me looking at parts diagrams. We eliminated a bunch of obvious possibilities, like the selector rod is on the left side, it isn't hitting anything, the big rubber bushing at the rear mount is in place. There is some play in all the selector rod joints. The plate didn't seem to want to move either direction. His uncle came over and shifted it above while he watched underneath for any hangups or movement. He was pretty sure we found the issue with a loose forward plate mount bolt and nut, which he thought was turning - then he decided it was greasy fingers. If that plate mount could move fore and aft, that would mess up your 3rd gear throw if it can't quite reach.
So I don't know what's wrong. After messing with the shifter for an hour, he took it for a drive, up through 5th, and it's totally normal he says..... go figure.
There's no whining, no bearing noise, no grinding, no synchro problems. Drove it 1200 miles, all flat Interstate, at 65-75.
Does this seem like a shifter assembly issue or a fork / selector shaft kind of issue?