96 Maxima 5 Speed
- Just installed a 5th gen clutch setup
- Installed Rebuilt transmission (No diff bearings play)

It hasn't happened to me since I don't drive the car. But my girlfriend has been locked out of being able to get into gear twice now. I've seen her drive before and she drives perfectly fine.

1st Incident. Stopped at a stop light. Car wouldn't go into first gear. Shook the shifter around, restepped the clutch pedal a coule of times, Car still wouldn't go into ANY gear (1st through R). Turned the car off and on and it then went into gear fine.

2nd Incident. Made a right turn, went into second kind of roughly, shifted to third and it wouldn't go in. Once again, jiggled the shifter around and restepped on clutch, still wouldn't go into any gear. Turned car off and on but this time it still wouldn't go into gear. Sitting in neutral for a little while then she tried again and it went into gear.

- I've not been able to replicate the problem, I've been driving it around for days!
- The shifter rods look pretty straight and don't have any unnatural bends
- I've double checked my two bolts on the shifter arm-trans and they're still on tight.
- Trans fluid is still full.
- Checked slave cylinder, it doesn't seem to be leaking/low. Presses into Drive Fork and doesn't seem to be missing/loose.

Have yet to check my shifter bushing which I'm thinking is the only other possibility that I can think of... but if the shifter bushing was bad... Wouldn't I have issues ALL the time?
Any suggestions on what else I should do to make sure this issue doesn't come up again?

 

Not necessarally, I think that's your next step.

 

This happens to me to, but just 1st gear. Could there b air in the lines?

 

I was wondering if that's possible too... Might try bleeding my clutch first since it'll be easier than trying to get to the shifter bushing.

Clutch flood does look like poop...

 

Sometimes my '96 will not fully engage 1st or R, a few times in and out of N fixes it, however.

 

first thing I'd do is adjust the clutch adjustment nut. probably not a clutch engagement problem but you never know.

how many miles on this transmission and has it ever been rebuilt?

 

130K miles on the trans and it has been rebuilt and re-shimmed @ 80K. Shifts smooth and no IPS issues and bearings don't move around.

Clutch adjustment nut? Wouldn't that just change at which point the clutch pedal would engage the slave cylinder?

 

No, it adjusts the throw of the master in relation to the clutch pedal, it doesn't have anything to do with the slave (directly).

 

You wouldn't happen to have a write-up/video of how to properly adjust this now would you?

 

get up under there, turn the nut which locks it in place, then you grab the rod and turn it. I don't remember which way adjusts the throw down or up, but the rod you turn has grooves machined in to it for grip so it's pretty obvious what to turn. I'm sure the FSM has a good write up of it...

A good bet is to turn it say 5 or 10 complete turns (because of its positioning, you can only turn it like 1/6 or 1/8 of a turn at a time, it's annoying), then go test drive the car to see if your clutch/transmission's behavior has changed. The reason I suggested it is that it's possible your clutch is not completely coming off the flywheel, dragging a little bit, and causing the trans to turn even when it shouldn't be.

I solved just the opposite problem with the trans in my new 96 SE this way, the clutch wasn't fully engaging. It was very difficult to drive because the clutch was spinning against the flywheel and not clamping all the way. Adjusted the master cylinder rod and solved the problem, probably will get another couple thousand miles out of this clutch before I need to replace it.

 

^^^That's the thing... I wouldn't know if it has changed^^^ I've been driving the car for about 3 days straight now and the thing has never locked out on me!

The clutch grabs fine and is fully engaged whenever it's in gear... I just don't want to end up messing up a perfectly fine grabbing setup...