Hey I have a 1998 GSR with 130k miles but its in great condition. Sometimes when I try to shift to reverse it wont go all the way in which I understand is a safety feature and usually I just put it in 1st or 3rd gear and then try reverse again and usually it goes in. My tranny is perfectly good and never grinds but today it would not go in reverse no matter what I did, every other gear works fine but it wont let me put it in reverse. Tommorow i'm going to try changing my tranny oil and see if maybe that will help. I think that whatever the safety mechanism is, it may be bent or something, I have no idea what it looks like or how it works though. Has anyone else had this problem or does anyone know how to go about fixing it? Also does anyone know if this is going to be an expensive repair? because if it turns out to be, then I might as well just get a Type R tranny

 

Yeah try changing the fluid, and when going into reverse, I usually clutch in-n-out in neutral, and it pops right in.

 

there is no "safty mechanism." it wont let you in because of how gears are designed. reverse is a spur cut and the idler splines in w/ the drive by the shift fork. heres some things that could be wrong: shift fork is a little knawed or bent, linkage is a little out of whack, or the reverse idler is a little chewed up. here's a neat trick to try: roll the car slightly forward or backward while sitting there trying to get it in gear, sometimes its hard to get into reverse because the output shaft (the diff) is sitting still, meaning that secondary is sitting still and maybe the gear teeth between your reverse drive on the secondary shaft and the reverse idler simply wont line up, roll the car in either direction and they'll line up, car will go into gear easier. YAY! there is no built in safty mechanism in the manual trans of a honda, its all in how spur cut gears spline in with eachother and how clutching teeth between the synchro sleeve and speed gear mesh together.

sorry if that explanation seems a little crazy. cliff notes = roll the car an inch or two in either direction (simply by letting off the brake or putting your foot out the door and giving a kick.) it'll go in.

 

Thanks i'll try rollin it back and forth, but the cars manual does say that there is a safety mechanism that wont let you shift from 5th to reverse and I thought by shifting to 1st or 3rd or letting the clutch in and out disengages it. I dont think my linkage is bent or anything because all the other gears are perfectly normal.

 

Try changing your trans fluid.

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<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 3.504 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">there is no "safty mechanism." it wont let you in because of how gears are designed. reverse is a spur cut and the idler splines in w/ the drive by the shift fork. heres some things that could be wrong: shift fork is a little knawed or bent, linkage is a little out of whack, or the reverse idler is a little chewed up. here's a neat trick to try: roll the car slightly forward or backward while sitting there trying to get it in gear, sometimes its hard to get into reverse because the output shaft (the diff) is sitting still, meaning that secondary is sitting still and maybe the gear teeth between your reverse drive on the secondary shaft and the reverse idler simply wont line up, roll the car in either direction and they'll line up, car will go into gear easier. YAY! there is no built in safty mechanism in the manual trans of a honda, its all in how spur cut gears spline in with eachother and how clutching teeth between the synchro sleeve and speed gear mesh together.

sorry if that explanation seems a little crazy. cliff notes = roll the car an inch or two in either direction (simply by letting off the brake or putting your foot out the door and giving a kick.) it'll go in.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, I think there is a lock that prevents your from shifting 5th to reverse.

 

nope, no lock... have you ever takin apart a transaxle? its all in how the gears mesh together, they simply wont if they're at the wrong angles or if the vehicle is in motion it wont go into certain gears. like try going into 1st gear at 50mph... it probably wont let you select that gear. its because the clutching teeth on the 1st speed gear and the synchronizer sleeve simply can't mesh together because the speed gear and output shaft are moving at such different speeds that the synchrosleeve will not be able to match there speeds, no matter how new the blocking rings are. the whole job of a synchronizer is to match speed gear/input shaft speed to output shaft speed to allow for a smooth engagement of gear selection, i.e. no grinds. the gears themselves are constantly meshed (except reverse) and the synchro assemblies simply locks in the selected speed gear to the shaft it rides on. the synchro's are moved by way of shift forks which are controlled by the linkage itself. there is no "lock mechanism" its just how gears are designed. you're transmission is not a smart transmission, but the design and engineering that went into is smart, old but smart.

 

I tried rolling it up and down like you said and no matter what I do it still wont engage. I think the only way to fix it is to actually open the tranny, does anyone have any idea what this could possibly cost?

 

opening the tranny to fix whats inside costs more than buying a junkyard tranny and replacing yours. get a "jdm" replacement from the many distributors, and replace. tranny work is expensive.

 

I may know a few people who can work on my tranny, but if nobody can fix it, then i'll just save up and buy a type-r tranny

 

nope. Theres definitely a reverse lockout. You have to go to the left then into reverse. Even sitting still with the car off you cant shift from 5th to reverse.

 

Clutch to floor, then push the shift **** gentley toward reverse from neutral (at low idle) and very slowly let the clutch out. ... should go in. Push the clutch back in and back out normally.