If that is indeed the problem, it would need to be torn down, the shift rod removed, flipped upside down, and reassembled.

I don't believe you could even turn the rod 90 degrees in place, with the shift fork and roll pin in place.

Come to think of it, there's no way to install the rod upside down and still be able to drive the roll pin in for the 5/R bracket. If you secured that bracket correctly, it can't be in upside down.

MT-13 shows how they all should go, it's rather self-explanatory.

 

yes i just looked at that (i guess you missed my edit). It seemed like the rod could be installed in 2 different positions though and not be upside down but after looking at the diagram it appears I installed it correctly...which is why I'm now even more confused as to what the problem is.

 

bump

 

Time to pull it back out and apart. Sounds like you are stuck in two gears at once, it can happen during assembly. Also, did you remember the shift interlock plunger? It's that tiny little ****er that sits inside of one of the shift rails, shaped like a cylinder, but very very small. Also, make sure you didn't confuse the reverse gate assembly check-ball with a shift check ball, I'm not sure that's even possible but it's all the things I can think of right now.

Oh, one more thing. No knicks on the end of the shift rails. If you tap on one with a hammer just the littlest bit it will fold over like butter and absolutely not go back togethor, or not go back together right anyways.

 

****. Okay yes I put the interlock plunger and ***** in their proper place, I'm sure of that.
As far as the shift rods, I did tap them from the top occasionally to engage a gear. I didn't notice anything bending or warping etc though.
I will start taking this apart but I am still not convinced I have bent the rods...
I don't understand how I could engage a gear before installing and have it cause a problem like this. It seems like I can move the shifter between the gears if I jiggle it enough..
When I put the casing together it slid on most of the way fairly easily but I had to tighten the bolts to make it completely close I figured it was the alignment pin...I hope I didn't bend anything....****ttt

 

before taking it out and taking it apart do this. of course make sure you had no parts left over including those tiny interlock plungers as stated by krrz. if you didn't put those in then you've got a problem, and it will need to be taken out and apart again.

remove the oil from the trans and remove the large black plug/sensor for the reverse light. this will enable you to see the shift selectors and that way you can tell if they're all in the proper position for any given shifter position. a flashlight is all you'll need. it happened to me once that the trans had a gear selected when I installed it but my shifter was not on that rail when that gear got selected.

 

Okay I know what your saying. Thanks. I'm gonna check that out but it seemd like before I put it in I checked that which is why I'm confused. That would be to check and see if I'm kind of locked out of a gear right? I'm pretty sure I can move between all the gears it just doesn't feel right.
I'm going to check though and if necessary take it out. Do you have any experience with bent shift fork rods?

 

Chill ... sup mate? I am guessing you have a gear selected when you put it back together. Thus making it difficult to close the lid and you letting the clutch out and not moving. It is easy to do ... and you might have overlooked it is all. I'd try what Neal said and see if you can get a look in thru the R light switch. There are two plungers btw in the shift rod set up ... and it's possibe that you might have used the R gate check ball in the R selector spot instead. (under the shift selector rod). Dunno mate, but I am interested to know what you find. I would think if you had bent a shift rod, you'd know it upon assembly.

Keep us posted ...

Jim

 

I checked through the sensor hole and it seems that all the notches in the selector brackets line up. I can shift between the gears pretty good. I am pretty sure that I put the ***** in their proper spots. The R gate check ball is larger than the rest if i remember correctly and I had kept it separate during the whole process so I'm pretty sure I've got all the plungers and ***** in the right spots. One of the plungers is smaller, correct and fits in the hole of the 3rd and forth fork rod I believe.
I dont see how I could have a gear selected yet have all the selector brackets line up but I'm going to go ahead and open the tranny anyway because I cant figure it out. I almost have the transmission pulled out. I'll update tomorrow with what I find (if anything).
thanks for checkin up...this is a bit frustrating and hopefully its as simple as disengaging a gear

 

alright guys. Im gonna need some help for sure now. I got the tranny apart and as soon as I started removing bolts the casing separated by itself where it was originally not sitting down before tightening them

SO I took it apart and nothing really jumped out at me. It seems as if all the selectors are in neutral. like I said the notches all line up and I can move the selector between gears fairly easily and with a little tapping to get it to move over to the reverse/5th selector notch since it seems to be sitting up an 8th of an inch (if that) higher than the rest.

The only thing that seemed kind of odd is that when I finally finangle it into reverse the reverse gear doesnt mesh with its gear on the input shaft. It still spins freely.

I'll go take some pictures and hopefully one of you can shed some light on the problem. I thought i'd be able to tell once i got it open

 

alright here are some pictures and a short pointless video. It seems like I can shift through the gears decently. First and second I can do without tapping on the yoke with a hammer but for 3rd/4th 5th/reverse its needed. I am not sure if this is anything or I'm over looking it but it seems like the 1st/2nd selector drops slightly whenever i select 3rd gear. I dont think its engaging a gear but it does drop that little bit sometimes.
I'm just looking for anything at this point that could point me in a certain direction.

 

 

The casing does not close all the way, it will have about 1/8th of an inch before closing and wont go on any further. I tap on the casing and it doesnt want to go any further is something wrong with this? it takes the bolts to close it down tight

 

still no luck. the IPS bellhousing-side bearing does not sit flush in the bore, it sticks out as shown in the picture about 1/8th of an inch. this is normal correct? I dont udnerstand why the casing does not want to close but I have a feeling that could point towards my problem .
I really really want to fix this...i need help. i need to drive my car

 

Chillin ... seems like you have 3rd gear selected in that picture, and maybe 5th as well, hard to tell. The gears slide with play on the rod forks and it's possible to slip into a gear and not have the fork lift or drop. This would make the rods very hard to move due to it being stuck with friction - being in a gear already and not being able to move normally. Also ... I don't recall off the top of my head, but I thought the IPS bearing was not a roller cage bearing. ???? Did you possibly swap the MS and IPS bearings? I don't even know that you can ... don't know if they are the same size. Sorry I can't help more ... hope someone else can !!!!! Cheers! G'luck!

 

I'm not sure I understood correctly. Your saying the gears can be engaged without pushing the selector notches up or down and locking out the selector? I guess thats what the check ***** do possible? keep the forks from engaging a gear while your in another one?
nah Ive got the bearings on there correctly, the IPS bearings are definitely the roller cage bearings.

the only thing I can imagine is that one of the rods is not sitting all the way down in its hole (unlikely) or that I havent pressed a bearing on all the way but thats also very unlikely, I was very patient and careful when I did all of those things.

thanks though, I hope someone has had this problem before or something...

 

As Jtzmax said your 5th gear is engaged.

Also maybe a check ball has fallen into the hole of where the rods fit into??
When I did my rebuild I still can partially remember how the internals are supposed to look, and from the pictures you provided it seems everything is normal. Except for the 5th gear being engaged, but yeah...

Good luck, wish I can help

 

If your 1st and 2nd selector drops slightly when ever you select 3rd gear or even 4th it drops?? It should drop maybe slightly when you go into neutral while shifting from second to 3rd. But once you engage 3rd the 1st and 2nd selector should move to original neutral height.

By the way you know what the checks ***** do right?

 

thank you darklegend. I thought maybe the check ***** prevented the dropping of the selector..it only drops sometimes and yes it is only slightly I dont think it is engaging a gear.
5th gear is engaged, i do see that...i dont remember i that was intentional or not. but its not engaged in the first picture right?

should the reverse idler gear be meshing with another gear when i shift into reverse? because it doesnt.

 

I decided to just go ahead and take it all apart and put it back together. The case does not have a gap (maybe a milimeter gap at most) when only the differential is installed. I'm going to put the IS, MS and 1st/2nd rod in there and see what happens. If I dont find anything this time around I really dont know what to do guys...I installed everything properly as far as I can tell..

 

When you shift into reverse, the reverse Idle gear should rise, making the rotation of the gears backwards.. IF that made any sense.

 

after reinstalling everything the idler gear works/DOES rise this time around, not sure why it didnt the first time.

I dont think that had anything to do with the case not closing however and I have everything backtogether (except the case) but i'm pretty sure its not going to close all the way since it didnt when i test fit it earlier. all the bearings are on all the way and the races are in all the way I dont see what would keep the cases separated. any ideas? i can shift into the gears fine it seems.

I appreciate it

 

Make sure that big hunk of thing on the end of the reverse idler shaft is lined up properly and not binding up. Also make sure the input shaft big bearing is lubed and slides into the housing ok.

Dave

 

okay I can shift through 1/2 and 3/4 gears very easily with the case open. The 5th/R is too hard to shift with my hand and I have to use a hammer to tape on the yoke to get it to engage 5 or Reverse. I figured it was normal to have more resistance in those gears.
When I install the case none of the gears want to shift at all, I have to really struggle to make 1/2 and 3/4 work but 5/R is out of the question, it doesnt want to move without a beating.
Does this point to a bent shift rod? or a warped case? Something is not right here but I cant tell what it is. If I have to buy some pieces I need to know ASAP. None of the rods APPEAR bent...and the 1/2 and 3/4 rods line up in the checkball holes decently it seems (the checkball would rest in between the 2 notches when those gears arent selected right?)
I know some of you have rebuilt many trannys.. i cant be the only this has happened to.

 

okay I know what your talking about that protrusion on the reverse idler shaft lobe thing, but I've gotten the bolt hole to line up and gotten a bolt in it so I assumed it wasnt the problem...i donno.

 

assuming that the bearings were bottoming out before I started tightening the case, this wouldnt cause a shifting problem though would it? I can bring the cases together after tightening the bolts but otherwise the case stays parted like I said.

 

alright....I reinstalled the transmission and everything and it shifts into gears normally. I can get it into every single gear. The car does not want to move. If the car is off and in neutral it cant be pushed forward and when the car is on and in neutral it still will not budge. It isnt stuck in a gear because it will idle in neutral without the clutch pushed in. If I try to accelerate in any gear the tranny locks up like it holds the car back from moving as if the e-brake was pulled all the way up....what could this be????????????? I dont understand how I can put it in gear and release the clutch and the car starts to move but at the same time its like its locked up. the best way i can describe it is that its as if you are trying to accelerate and the brakes are completely locked up at the same time... please help

 

Something is lockinng up and something is not right ..... It really seems like you have a gear selected. When you took apart your IPS (didn't you take apart one of them?) Are you POSITIVE you put it all back right? If not, that could be a problem. Other than that, did you ckeck your clutch when you put it all back in? Don't know how or why it'd be your clutch, but at this point, lot is still possible. How were the rods, did you look at them and roll them to see if they were bent at all? The springs / *****, any problems, all in the right place, ALL in? Pull up the FSM pix and just examine them and see if anything clicks. You get the diff in right? lol I dunno mate .... I wish you loads of luck and all the help you can get. Gotta run ... I'll keep updated. Cheers mate!

 

i dont see how a gear could be selected though...the car will idle in neutral perfectly normal without me even being inside the car.
all the springs and ***** are in the right spot. I didnt roll the rods, I didnt disassemble the tranny to THAT extent...they appeared straight. I didnt take apart any more than was necessary to install the new bearings really.
besides the fact that the car wont move the tranny seems to be normal...I feel like this is something else....

 

I dont know how to explain it. something is holding the car back...the wheels turn if I really give it a good amount of gas but the second I let off it comes to a hault. I havent driven the car but a couple feet....I'm getting irritated. I dont know what my options are at this point short of buying a new transmission.

 

Did you ensure that all bearings spun freely? Did you spin the input shaft by hand in all gears on the bench?

 

everything seemed to spin freely. I did NOT spin the input shaft after it was all put together I guess it just slipped my mind. everything seemed to spin fine when I had the case open. What could be locking it up? Like I said..the cases didnt come together completely without me tightening the bolts, that told me something was wrong but I could NOT figure out what was making it that way...and I tried everything I could think of.
I would start trying to source parts if I knew for sure what exactly was wrong but I dont know..and am short on cash at this point.

 

I have remove the transmission again and the input shaft spins freely in neutral but NOT in any gear..it locks up/wont budge. Sooo that tells me....not a whole lot.
I tried to go by nissan to talk to a rebuilder there but he wasnt at work so I'm going to have to wait on that....
I'm going to open the transmission up and look at everything for the billionth time...I really dont believe it should be this hard.

 

i wonder if somehow it may be selecting two gears at once when you try to put it in gear. not sure how that would occur though without having one on a bench in front me me to mess around with - and if you did the interlock *****/pins correctly, this should of course not occur. when you get it out of the car put a set of vice grips (or better yet an old clutch disk) on the input shaft and try to spin it in neutral and in each gear. you should be able to spin it without too much effort, effort increasing slightly in each higher gear.

when you have the front end up in the air before you start tearing things apart put it in gear and see if anything changes or see if you can get any new insight into the situation.. perhaps you have an axle problem, like a CV joint that is binding up because it's messed up or you pulled the shaft out of the CV joint (can happen, has happened to me) when you were pulling the axles out of the trans.

 

thanks neal. if you had said that earlier I probably would have started investigating the CV joints because I really didnt want to believe it was the tranny but I think it is. here's what happened...

I have the tranny out of the car...I tried to spin the input shaft in gear and it didnt budge...so I opened it up and my mainshaft top bearing was ALL screwed up probably from trying to drive the car forward the few times I did.
I removed the rolling pieces and outter casing of the mainshaft bearing and put the case back on and it slid pretty much all the way on with the exception of the tiniest gap, nothing like it was before.

So this would point to the mainshaft as the source but exactly what I still dont know. The bearing on the top was definitely pressed all the way on...the bottom one was too though...but regardless I have to order another bearing so I'll take all of them out and make sure the correct bearings are on there.

I feel like maybe the mainshaft doesnt sit down far enough or something if that makes any sense. Look how this lower gear meshes right at the top of the IPS gear. Or maybe I have the wrong bearing on the mainshaft lower and its pushing the shaft up higher than it should be?



I hope this is good progress...

 

That main shaft appears to be sitting exactly as it is supposed to (take a look at the wear marks on 1st gear on the input shaft and 1st gear on the main shaft, they appear to line up perfectly which is just among many indicators that it is sitting as it should.) So that to me indicates a problem at the top of one of the shafts and since your main shaft bearing was destroyed, it's likely that it was the cause of the problem. Maybe you were given the incorrect bearing? Did you reshim that bearing or not, I remember at one point you had said you weren't going to.

edit: it appears I was wrong - from your pic it seems the bottom bearing isn't completely seated. close, but not quite.

 

I see I see..hmmm..

You're correct, I did not re-shim the mainshaft bearing. I guess I could have been given the wrong bearing but the only way I would know is by the part number.
I think I'm going to go to Nissan and order either one or both mainshaft bearings just to be safe. Plus If that much pressure was on the top bearing I'm afraid the lower one might have taken some damage as well although I couldnt really tell. The outer cage is a little loose on the lower/larger bearing but I thought they came that way (I remember noticing it before installation).

These are times when I wish I had done something wrong...that would be an easy fix...

 

mainshaft bearing pics. small gap between the lower one and its mounting spot possibly?

 

The mainshaft bearings look like they were installed properly.

There should be a tiny gap between the output gear teeth and big bearing on the bottom. If you pull the race off you'll see there is a shallow land there.

Dave

 

I'm telling you, I think I was right with one of the thing's I had suggested early, I didn't say a bent rod.

The one time I did that I remember being amazed at how gently I did it yet it caused the tiniest peen'ing on the end of the shaft, actually I think it was still smaller than the chamfer itself! If you tap it just the tinies bit with a metal hammer it will fold the edge over ever so slightly, but it takes just the tiniest bit for it to not slide into it's bore when you go back to put it together. I don't know if it causes the lock-up issues your having, because the one time it happened to me I knew something was wrong when the case wouldn't fully go back togethor. Please check to make sure it's not folded over where you hit it with a hammer.