I was driving home from work (which involves backing out of a parking space), got home, and tried to put my car in reverse. The shifter won't go. I can get into every other gear position of the shifter, and I drove it in first, so that still works. I took off the plastic cover on the shifter and the linkages aren't obstructed or anything. So this means it must be gearbox trouble, right? What happenned? How do I fix it? How do I prevent it from happening again? Until I can get my car out of its parking space, it is completely undriveable. Help me!!

BTW, it is a manual 1993 H22a.

 

It's one of the following: Clutch, slave cylinder, synchros, master cylinder, or shift linkage. Most likely slave cylinder or clutch. First thing, check the fluids (and bleed the air if you've done any recent tranny work) from the hydraulic fluid for the clutch. Does the clutch slip at all on acceleration? If so, that's it. If not, it's probably the slave cylinder. If it leaks, it doesn't allow the clutch to disengage when it's supposed to so you can't change gears.

 

It isn't the clutch or the slave cylinder. i am physically locked out of reverse. I can get into all of the otehr gears, and they work fine. The clutch is crisp and other than the occasional grinding in 5th gear (which I am told is normal for older preludes) it drives flawlessly. If I had to guess, I bet it would engage reverse just fine. The only problem is, I can't get the shifter into the reverse position. One of my friends suggested that I may have broken a fork-something, and another one said something about synchros.. My friends are obviously not experts, however, and I am asking to see if anyone has experienced anything similar. Please help me.. I want to drive my baby again.

 

I fixed it.. searching through the archives. Apparently this problem is common.

 

same thing happened to my friends lude we were at a meet and his car didn't wanna go in reverse well what happen was the reverse gear locked up in the tranny hence it not goin into gear he ended up replacing the tranny all together