Anyone think that it would be possible to have a shifter bushing block you from being able to put the shifter in a specific gear?

Just a situation plausibility I'm pondering.

 

plausible but improbable...when i got mine the shifter bushings were toast and i could still get every gear unless i moved it just wrong then my exhaust would block it...got a b&m full race shifter problem solved

 

I'm fairly certain I have bad shifter bushings. Everyone who's felt it shift thinks it feels like a bushing as well.

Not all the time, but sometimes it doesn't want to go into 5th. I never had a problem when I bought the car a few months ago. Then one day it has a problem with it once. Weird. It's been happening intermittently like that since.

Basically I'll go to put it in fifth, the shifter will stop about half an inch to an inch shy of it's destination. If I move the shifter around or let it go back to fourth for a few then I can get it back into fifth in a few seconds.

No metallic feel. It doesn't feel that solid. No grinding sound. No sound at all, actually. Just won't go all the way into gear. Won't "click".

I've got new ones on their way, so we'll see soon.

(Stock '88 CRX HF btw. Shift linkage has never been touched.)

 

Alright this sounds more like my problem. Alright now I'm definitely going to take a look into it.

My 5th gear originally worked with a slight "metal on metal" sound. Didn't sound like grinding like if you try to throw it in gear without the clutch. The heat shield from the exhaust would hit the shifter a little as well so eventually I just took that off. Then one day I couldn't get 5th gear in. I can get it to stay in it's general area but won't be engaged, feels like it's hit a wall. A week or so afterwards my reverse didn't want to work either. I got it to work (reverse gear) after a couple minutes of making, for lack of a better word, swirly motions with the shifter and it finally engaged and has worked fine ever since. My 5th gear on the other-hand has not.

The previous owner was a huge liar and I've had problems since day two. If I remember correctly he said he did some **** to the shifter but can't remember.

Honestly the shifter feels easier to move to left to go to 1st/2nd than it would be to move right to 5th/R. The bushings are wearing out faster on the 1st/2nd gear side due to being used more I'm guessing.

It does NOT feel sloppy nor do I have to 'fish' for a gear. Which all I've read about bad bushings are that they make it horrible to find gears/feels extremely loose while in gear.


Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere in this, I am not stupid but I definitely don't know everything. Though my phrasing of sentences makes it hard to understand I've been told.


PS: The portion about the 'swirly' motions makes me sound stupid but in all honesty it is what worked. The best description I can give for how it felt is (not car related description): imagine having two rings that weren't aligned yet you had to penetrate through both with a pen. I fished for the gear basically is what is how it felt.

 

My shifting also doesn't feel sloppy at all. Just fifth is sometimes difficult.

No metal on metal feel. No grind. Just stops going in. Nothing pops out of gear or anything.

 

****, well I'm going to have to figure something out.

 

Well, my car is unmodified with the original engine with 163k miles on it. Stock linage and all. Most bolts have been virgin bolts and I even have the original brake rotors.

So you said you had been hitting the heat shield, which could explain your metallic sound. Mine's stock 100% and just won't do that.

(Okay, just did suspension to repair worn out stuff, but otherwise stock and was before that.)

 

Had the car in the air while getting an alignment yesterday and the shift linkage definitely seems loose around the front end. Like there's play where you can shake it back and forth an inch or so. I'll try to be more detailed when we actually do the shifter bushings here soon. Maybe take pics.

 

the U joint at the front of the linkage is a typical wear point.

you cant rebuild it without grinding off the rivets and redoing it all yourself. theres a few shops that will weld a new sealed joint on and ship it back to you.

this is not covered in the energy suspension poly bushing "upgrade". but that is also worth getting.

but if you have a broken shifter fork preventing you to get into gear at all or smoothly, thats obviously not going to be fixed by a bushing or ujoint.

 

Well I've since removed the heat shield, and it still made that noise when it did work.

I'll be able to get the car up in the air in a couple weeks max. I'll check some stuff out then.



I'm still driving the same transmission with everything the same since 5th gear wouldn't engage and I'm still able to get it into gear (1-4+R).

 

Alright, still haven't been able to get it on a lift, probably sometime late next week.

I noticed tonight while dicking around that without the clutch engaged I can push the shifter into the 5th gear location and if I push hard enough, not crazy hard but... enough, then it grinds as it would if you just tried to throw it into a gear without the clutch.

Seems like it's just out of reach or something. Maybe something blocking it. Don't know, definitely not a tranny guy. (bad choice of words but I'll let it slide.)