700 mile trip tomorrow

[Helirich]

Ok, I made it, but I got trouble. Hoping someone knows what is going on.

I left in the morning early. The trip was almost entirely on the interstate. Everything was fine for 600 miles. I got off I95 to get gas and drive the last 40 miles. There is something wrong with my transmission. (Stick) It won?t go into first gear. If I try, it grinds terrible. At first I thought it was the clutch, but I found that I could shift into second and start with the clutch as normal. I?m not saying it goes into second easy, but it will go. It appears to be difficult to shift into any gear. If I start in second and I time my up shift good, I can shift up through all the gears. I think I?m just timing the shift perfect so it jumps into the next gear easy. But I can?t downshift to save my life and have to slow down completely and start again in second.

To top it off, while I was limping it the last 10 miles, I heard and felt a big clunk. I honestly don?t know if I might have hit something like a bottle or if something fell off the front of the car and bounced under. It totally freaked me out and I was expecting a rod out the side of the engine. But it drove fine from there to my client?s house. (Except for the shifting) I took a Quick Look under the car and didn?t see anything amiss.

It appears that maybe the shifter has the most trouble in the forward shifts. Meaning first, third and overdrive. Second and fourth seem better. This would lead me to believe the shifter is somehow not adjusted right.

Anybody had symptoms like this? I?m worried about driving home. I guess I can start in second and up shift to overdrive. I did most the whole trip in overdrive at like 80 mph.

[82DMC12]

Sorry to hear about the trouble! It's not likely there is a spontaneous inner transmission problem. I'm curious to see if the stick feels normal when the car cools down and you select each gear, in turn, with the engine OFF. If you can easily choose all six gears in any order while the engine is off, then the linkage or crossgate is still good (enough).

This almost sounds like the expanding plastic clutch line problem.... I assume you have an upgraded line installed?

It could also be a clutch fluid leak. Not sure what tools you have but you could check the inside of the firewall to see if there's any fluid leaking into the interior, or around the fittings at the master cylinder if you can get the access covers off. If the clutch slave is leaking slightly, it might not be retracting far enough each time you press the clutch pedal in, giving unpredictable grinding results. You'd probably have to be under the car to see this. When mine had a slight leak, I had trouble getting out of gear at a stop light, and if I did get out, maybe I couldn't get into gear without turning the car off, shifting, then starting with the clutch in and hurriedly driving off. From under the car, I could see the clutch fork retracting but then slowly returning to the original position the longer the clutch pedal was held down.

Any chance you can get the car in for a quick look on a lift on a slow day at a shop? They can also check to see if anything is loose underneath or if was just road debris you heard.

Good luck, any further info you can give would help us help you!

[WHO1DMC]

I also had similar problems when my clutch hydraulics stopped working. I had a leaky slave but the master quit working before that did and the peddle whent really light. I made it home from a trip by timing the gears and starting the car in first. Now you say you heard a clunk, hopefully it isn't the pivot bolt but I wouldn't think you could get any gears if that happened.

Anyone know if it?s possible to get into gear if you lose the pivot bolt?


Hope you get home safe!

Dave B.

[82DMC12]

I have had the unfortunate experience of losing my pivot bolt twice over 25 years, both situations resulted in the transmission being completely stuck in whatever gear it was in when the bolt unscrewed and disappeared. The shifter is also super floppy and won't stay in a neutral position.

Both times this happened it resulted in needing a tow truck.

Needless to say I finally learned my lesson and have bulletproofed that area!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[WHO1DMC]

I have had the unfortunate experience of losing my pivot bolt twice over 25 years, both situations resulted in the transmission being completely stuck in whatever gear it was in when the bolt unscrewed and disappeared. The shifter is also super floppy and won't stay in a neutral position.

Both times this happened it resulted in needing a tow truck.

Needless to say I finally learned my lesson and have bulletproofed that area!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

OK. Exactly what I was thinking would happen than.
I do have a extra incase.



Thanks
Dave B.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

What pivot bolt are we talking about?

[WHO1DMC]

What pivot bolt are we talking about?

#17.





Dave B.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

Sorry to hear about the trouble! It's not likely there is a spontaneous inner transmission problem. I'm curious to see if the stick feels normal when the car cools down and you select each gear, in turn, with the engine OFF. If you can easily choose all six gears in any order while the engine is off, then the linkage or crossgate is still good (enough).

This almost sounds like the expanding plastic clutch line problem.... I assume you have an upgraded line installed?

It could also be a clutch fluid leak. Not sure what tools you have but you could check the inside of the firewall to see if there's any fluid leaking into the interior, or around the fittings at the master cylinder if you can get the access covers off. If the clutch slave is leaking slightly, it might not be retracting far enough each time you press the clutch pedal in, giving unpredictable grinding results. You'd probably have to be under the car to see this. When mine had a slight leak, I had trouble getting out of gear at a stop light, and if I did get out, maybe I couldn't get into gear without turning the car off, shifting, then starting with the clutch in and hurriedly driving off. From under the car, I could see the clutch fork retracting but then slowly returning to the original position the longer the clutch pedal was held down.

Any chance you can get the car in for a quick look on a lift on a slow day at a shop? They can also check to see if anything is loose underneath or if was just road debris you heard.

Good luck, any further info you can give would help us help you!

I?m not sure about the clutch line. I did check the clutch resivour and it was full. I?ve got some tools, but my client has All kinds of tools in his hanger. I plan to pull it in there and put it up on Jack stands. I was tired and pissed off when I got here. Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope. I?m giving this guy flight instruction. He can only take a few hours with breaks in between. So I should have time to check it out.

Edit, I did install both a new master and slave on the clutch. That was a few years ago.

[Helirich]

#17.





Dave B.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

I see. I will be checking it tomorrow.
Thankyou
.

[Rich]

It appears that maybe the shifter has the most trouble in the forward shifts. Meaning first, third and overdrive. Second and fourth seem better. This would lead me to believe the shifter is somehow not adjusted right.

Anybody had symptoms like this? I?m worried about driving home. I guess I can start in second and up shift to overdrive. I did most the whole trip in overdrive at like 80 mph.

You surely have at least a linkage problem.

The shifter pivot bolt is a known issue. Here?s one decent thread about it. One of the posts shows the factory service bulletin for one of the issues with it.

It has to be there and it has to be secure in its threads, not wobbly.

For proper access you may need more than jackstands since the access is only from below, similar to the fuel accumulator.

As part of the fix you will eventually want to check or replace all 4 pairs of plastic shift linkage bushings. They aren?t critical to getting into gear, just good for tighter fore-aft shifter feel.