4th gear... Sorry I meant to say 4th gear

Any ideas why this is hapenning? To change the fluid, i got under the car and unscrewed what was probably the wrong screw, but oil came out anyways. This screw was near the larger screw that you undo to put your finger in and check the level. It was maybe 3 inches down and a little to the left. I didn't think oil would come out of this hole. I was originally unscrewing it because it had a clamp attached to it, holding the wire to the reverse neutral switch. A spring came out from this screw, i'm not sure if anything else did though. So i let it drain..... I then undid the reverse/neutral switch and a crap load of oil came out... so i let it drain. I could not find the damn drain screw though!! So I put in the new switch.
put the spring in the hole and the screw... screw it all up. add the new redline gl-4 oil....

OH MY GOD! The difference is night and day.... EVERYONE change your trans oil now! it was incredible... so much butter i was shocked... It's like when you install your STS for the first time and you don't screw anything together, just change "gears" while nothing underneath is attached... very cool, very smooth!

BUT my problem now is that When i change to 4th and start accelerating, the shifter jumps right out of 4th and into neutral.
any ideas why this might be hapenning?

The weird thing to add, is that when i first got the car last august, it would sometimes jump out of 4th gear under semi hard acceleration. but then after about a week or so, it stopped.
Now it jumps out under a little less than hard acceleration.

AND, why is it that there are no pictures as to where the drain plug is on a MTX, in the haynes or Chilton manuals? only info on changin oils for an ATX, damnit!

Thanks a bunch for the help guys.

 

Worn sychro gear. Or if you are lucky, maybe the detent spring/ball is broken/missing. Do you feel some resitance when you change out of 1st, 2nd, 3rd but not 4th?

 

yeah 1 and 2 feel stiff-ish.... but still alot smoother than before...
3-4 shift is like nothing is connected... it's the smoothest gear shift i've ever had.

4-5 is more normal like 1-2 shift. theres resistance, but very light.

could it be that a ball bearing fell out where i unscrewed the screw and that (about) 1 inch long spring came out? (I read a little something about that when i tried a search)

 

Check your container of old fuid for the small metal ball. You put the spring back in, but where is the ball?

 

If a spring came out, then there "should" be a ball also. I agree with nj here. Or maybe the spring is broken?

 

Yes, either the spring or ball bearing fell out. I bet your 3rd gear also feels "clickless" as well as its on the same shaft.

 

actually yeah it does feel somewhat clickless.

but i had the same problem when i first got the car.

theory: could it be that the old crappy oil was keeping the car in gear? and that i never had that ball bearing. but now with the new oil it doesn't hold. If so, where could i get a new ball bearing?

Problem, and this sucks... I really didn't expect oil to come from this screw hole... so i think that ball bearing is on the ground somewhere... If it was in there at all.

Question, you guys know a website that has pics for the drain plug? I'm curious where it actually was.

 

You can get a ball bearing at the dealers. However, I have quite a few leftover from my last job. Make sure you're missing a ball bearing and I'll send you one.

 

Hmm.. the spring that fell out was very springy.... cleaned it off and it looked new.

 

Yeah, like the others said, your car is losing 4th gear because the tranny is missing some parts. Nothing to do with redline.

FYI, the drain plug for the tranny is at the very back of the tranny. It is slightly forward of the gear shift lever, when you are under the car. You will know you have found the drain bolt b/c it is blocked by a big black bar, that bar acts as a support bracket for the shifter when your row thru the gears aggressively.

DW

 

Here i was looking at the front of the engine for the drain plug...
sucks that there no picture of it in the manuals

 

Yup. The drain plug is not obvious at all. The fill plug is better.

DW

 

Yeah, I did the same...only with the 1st and 2nd gear detent ball and spring. I thought it was the drain plug seeing how it was the lowest bolt. Upon a closer examination, I found the drain plug after the matter on the inside facing the passanger's side of the car. I don't know who designed these things, but man was that confusing. I was thinking it would be nice if drain plugs where painted a flourecent color to stand out.

 

curious, any idea how much they cost from the dealer? can't be that much I figure... After a day or so of driving like this, it's kinda irritating holding the gear down in 4th while i accelerate...

 

I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY!



I dumped out my old oil and was cleaning out the oil container i stored the oil in... i heard a clunking sound. Turns out the ball bearing was in the container! I have my ball bearing!!! woot! hehe

Tonight i will reinstall this ball.

Question: I put the ball bearing in first, then i put the spring in, then the screw right?

incredible how such a small ball can change the shifter feel so much. I actually like how buttery the shifter shifted gears. Hate to change that feel. Then again, I think me holding 4th gear with my hand tight, isn't good for the tranny.

NOTE: If it wasn't for this forum, i would have been seriously screwed and not known where to look. Thanks