I recently bought a 1996 civic and it was fine all gears working just the shifter was REALLY loose and i ordered the bushing kit for the shifter and i was going to replace it but today i was driving and 3rd gear grinded i dont know why but it did. I though no biggy and when i got to a stop sign. 1st gear would NOT go in. whatver i did it would not go in so i took off in 2nd and got home./ and played around with it. and finally got 1st to go in but it was really dificult. Then when i tried backing out of driveway its like reverse is NOT there! it feels like from 5th down to reverse its empty nothing there? what could be the issue.

 

Crawl under the car an inspect the shift linkage.

 

what should i be looking for ? like is it bent or something im not too car savy?

 

Part of the shift linkage is very loose. Get under the car and see where the play is coming from. Should be quickly apparent when you grab the linkage near the shifter. Post pics if you can.

 

ok will try to do that tommorow. a friend of mine is telling me i need a new tranny is that the case or could it be something simple?

1-4 is prety nice and smooth but 5 is pretty hard but still goes in and reverse is just completely locked or something.

 

Has it been in a wreck before? My black sol does this and im taking it apart but 5th and reverse are hard to get into

 

^This suggests a shift linkage problem to me.

 

no wreck. it was perfectly fine until that 3rd gear grind and then reverse just took a **** on me. I mean i cant go anywhere without reverse so it really sucks.

 

Replace the linkage if you can, if that wasn't the problem then you're in for a transmission rebuild or replacement. It seems like it's the linkage, though. The tolerances for those are pretty small, so even if it's a bit deformed, it could be causing your problem.

 

its a bend scha. i have similar problem it wont shift into reverse