I have a 97 SE 5spd, my difff bearings were going out in my stocker(170,xxx miles), so my pops bought me one from the boneyard w/ only 85,xxx miles. Everything worked fine with my old one except the syncro's were worn out, and there was a vibration and a "clunk" noise when let off the clutch. It went into gear kind of hard sometime, but I never had to try real hard to get it to go.

I put the new one in today, goes into all the gears like a dream, slides right in...

Except reverse, it will not go in at all. I got under the car and twisted the shift rod with some pliers and tapped the rod in, and it WILL go into rev if I do that, but that is it. I did manage to get it to go in reverse using the shifter, but I had to pull my *** off and it did not want to go.

So as of right now, I have no rev to speak of, and I have got to have my cr running by tonight. Could it be a linkage problem, but if so why did it not hapen w/ the old tranny???

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I have got to be able to drive the car. It has to be something simple, I just have no idea.

Thanks in advance,
-Matt

 

If you can engage reverse from under the car, then the problem is almost certainly in your shift rod assembly. Review that. Check that your shifter bushing is in good shape too.

Also check that the support bar running alongside the shift rod is bolted down properly.

Dave

 

maybe seized up spring in the transmission. if u try real hard can u get it in with the stick?

 

yeah, I got it to go in a few times, but I had to jerk the **** out of the shifter to make it go.

How could there be something wrong w/ my shifting linkage if it worked perfectly w/ the other tranny? I had to hit it with a hammer to get it to go into reverse, all other gears I could do it w/ my hand...

 

Reverse is always a little more balky since it has to move more stuff. When I shift a manual tranny on the bench I use a screwdriver and usually a few taps from a mallet to get it into a couple of the gears. Every one feels different on the bench. Once it's hooked up to a properly leveraged shift rod and filled with oil I usually find it's not a problem. So I still think the issue could be in your shift linkage.

Dave

 

OK, so say it is. Is there any adjustment to be made in the linkage anywhere? I was under the impression that there wasn't.