not really sure what the problem is. i have a em1 with a ls/v. i bought a tranny from some dude in bmore. the gears are hard to get into when the car is off or on. i dont know what the problem is. i took the car down the road today and it was so hard the find the gears. when i tried to back up reverse just wasnt there anymore. when i had it in the yard i could find the gears but it took awhile.. please help. what do i need? new tranny or linkage???

 

Does the shifter feel loose? By loose I mean if it feels like its wobbly and moves around alot? I had an older CRX which the bushing/the piece that holds the shifter **** go complete bad, and was near impossible to get to the gear you wanted. So are you able to lets say push the shifter forward and backward without having to "Force" the shifter?

 

yeah the shifter moves fine. no binding up or anything like that

 

Does the transmission look like its been dropped or bottomed out? May have damaged the ports where the shift forks slide up and down in if it was dropped or bottomed out...wont let the shift forks slide up and down properly during gear changes. What fluid are you using?? Did the guy do any work to the trans before selling it to you?? Install a new clutch or use the existing one??

 

im used my old clutch off the b16 that was in the car when i first bought it. ive had the tranny open up and looked inside. it looked pretty good but i dont really knw much about trannys. im not sure if the guy i got it from messed with it or not.. its hard to trust people. he said it was fine but im not sure now

 

If you can put it in gear going from 1-2-3-4 and 5th without a problem while its stopped, makes me wonder if its a clutch issue.... Even so if the clutch wasnt engaging/disengaging properly, you would be grinding gears and you would hear that. I suppose you can look around the transmission to see if something is visibly damaged outside of the case like Synchro said.

 

ive pulled the tranny and looked at it.. no damage. it goes threw the gears but no ez. it seems like the gears are more towards the pass side. when im driving its hard to go into any gear. it seems like the gears are not in the right spot..

 

Not trying to thread jack but I am having the same type of problem. I can get into 3rd and 4th with a little difficulty but the shifter needs to be closer to the driver side than usual. 1st 2nd 5th and reverse are impossible to get into. I tried taking out the clutch and bolting the tranny up without it and its the same as it was with the clutch in. I'm at a loss. Weird thing is, I had no problem shifting when I took the engine out last year.

 

Only other thing that I can think of is where the "bitch pin" is at where the shift linkage connects to change the gears, remove it and shove a screw driver through the hole where the pin goes, see if you can go left and right to see if it "returns" back to the middle. You pull the thing in and out for the various gears. Example, once the screw driver is in, and the thing is half way (neutral), then turn the screw driver counter clock wise alittle and then pull outward to see if it just comes out right away without difficulty...

Dont mean to make it sound complicating, but if its a bitch even with the screw driver in the hole of the "bitch pin" to shift gears, its going to have to be an internal issue.

 

looks like it's the shift holder assembly. when in neutral it's over to the left by the first and second shift fork. all of the shift forks appeared to be straight and not bent.

 

Yeah as stated above..check the shiftability directly at the trans. On the side of the case will be the detent ports that have a steel ball and spring. Be sure that those have a washer on them and installed properly. That will cause a gear selection problem for sure...seen it done many times. Guys will forget the washer and jam the detent ball and spring set up which apply pressure into those notches you see on the fork shafts. Shift changer assembly can have an issue as well or may not have things lined up properly.

 

Any other reasons the shift holder assembly would line up with the 1st/2nd shift fork instead of the 3rd/4th shift fork when in neutral? None of the shift forks look bent. I'm assuming the shift holder got bent.

 

Not to mention the end of the "bolt" will mushroom around the detent and make it's removal a PITA. I did that ONCE.

ONCE!!!!!

 

damn. well i still havent found a answer yet. so ima just buy a new tranny.

 

Happens to everyone!


90datech - Did you check everything mentioned? Check the shift linkage??

 

yeah i got new linkage on it. had the tranny apart, also got new slave cylinder. i feel like the gears are in weird spots. 3rd and 4th are like almost on top of 5 and R.. this **** is a headache

 

My gears felt the same way, like they weren't in the right spot. I pulled the case apart and found the shift holder assembly was not going back to center in neutral. Part of it must have gotten bent during the engine removal. I'm not going to be pulling the engine with the linkage still connected anymore.

 

im going to drop the tranny off and get it looked at ..

 

 

ok so i never dropped the tranny off to get it fix. i opened it up and put a new shift change assembly in it and it works perfect now.. problem solved!

 

Thats good news! Glad to hear you got it fixed!

 

to revive this forum. I been having the same problem for about 4-5 months ever since i swapped my car. I know it's the gear selector assembly as i was told. I want to know if it is easy to replace? being I have no knowledge of trannies what so ever. please help

 

no one can help?