I have a 93 civic Si 5-speed manual. Recently, when stopped at a stop light, I cannot get it to go into any forward gear, any gear not just first. I can go to reverse sometimes with no noise some time with grinding noise. Once it goes into reverse it will go into first. This does not happen every time I stop but is happening with increasing frequency. I tested the shifting with engine turned off. Even then, once in 15 times or so, I cannot go into forward gears. Double clutching does not help. During normal driving, the shifting is normal and smooth. When I described this to our mechanic over the phone, he said it is the synchronizers. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

Replace your clutch, and you should be good to go.

 

Apologies for ignorance about transmissions. I did not think that our mechanic's diagnosis about synchronizers was correct because while the car is moving I can downshift and upshift smoothly.

Regarding replacement of clutch, I feel no slippage in the clutch. Rarely, there appears to be incomplete disengagement of the clutch when the pedal is pushed. That is to say when pulling into a parking spot
with clutch completely pushed in and no gas, the car almost stalls (oil light etc. light up for a moment). Is this symptom consistent with a worn clutch that needs replacement? Thanks.

 

If the pressure plate fingers are nearly toast then pushing pedal would struggle to unclamp the clutch plate.

Fingers usually get tore up by a bad throw out bearing.

When moving and clutch engaged, if you are around 2500 rpm the main shaft and counter shafts are near equal speeds and the synchros have less to do and shifting will be almost seamless with or without clutch.

If you are not at 2500 rpm with clutch engaged (near stopped engine running etc), the synchros have much more to do by slowing shafts down to a matched speed.

If you can shift into gears with the motor off and clutch pedal depressed, but not when the engine is running, it would sound like worn synchros. The good one to test for this is reverse. Reverse likes to catch a lot. With the car off, depress the clutch pedal and try and throw it into reverse, if it sticks, then throw it into second and then back into reverse. If it pops into reverse after that, the clutch is disengaging just fine and it indicates a synchro problem.

If you can't even shift into gears with the engine off and the pedal depressed then you could have a pressure plate problem. Usually though if it's pressure plate and throw out bearing, there is a bit of racket or noise associated with it.

Synchros are less likely to be noisy beyond the grinding of gears when trying to shift.

Anyway you look at it, the transmission will have to be dropped out of the car.

I would be looking into having a replacement transmission on hand before having the one in the car pulled.

 

Have you checked your clutch master to ensure its fully disengaging the clutch?

 

Sounds like a bad clutch

 

^^^ This is a good point too. Anything that would prevent the pressure plate from releasing the clutch disc....

No reports of slipping so the clutch disc appears to be in decent condition.

 

I had this problem but what it turned out to be was the springs had slide from their keepers on the disc. The car was hard to go into gear one day and then as Im driving it, 2 springs had pushed themselves out of their keeper flaps and I could no longer shift with the motor running. No sign of slipping or other issues beyond the hard to get into gear one day. This was at 190K on the clutch disc as well.

 

2500 rpm ....

how do you figure this? is this number the same for all makes and models of all cars?

 

had same problem, springs on the clutch disk self destructed. pull trans off replace clutch

 

This is approximate and no I'm sure it varies to some degree between vehicles.

Ask people where they power shift (clutchless shifting). There is a magic rpm on most manual cars that you don't need the clutch as the shafts are already spinning at the same speed.

For the 5th gen my buddies who do it said it's around 2500 rpm. YMMV.

 

is your clutch hydraulic or mechanical? if its mechanic it may be out of adjustment, if its hydraulic, check your fluid level. you may be very low on fluid or there may be a leak somewhere causing air to get into the system. in which case you may have to bleed the hydraulics.

 

hydraulic bro. 92 on up are hydraulic

 

Thanks to all. I am suspecting clutch related problem. Will post a follow up.

 

 

Yes. That was exactly the problems. two of the springs on the disk got loose.



Photo

 

Thanks for update.

 

Looks just like the clutch I pulled 16k ago except one of the springs on mine was in 2 pieces.

 

Seems to be the norm nowadays....don't know whats up with exedy clutch manufacturing.....

 

For myself I thought 190k was pretty good on a disc