Kevin in Atlanta

1988 S4

Shifter ends up in no man's land making noises. Goes right back in as if nothing happened.

Car in question suffered a significant rear end impact in its past. Broke the transmission mounts and more.

Otherwise no transmission issues.

What's busted? Could it be the shifter linkage?

soontobered84

Kevin,
What's probably happening is that the gears are not fully engaged and seated. It could be a mis-aligned front ball coupling ......or........ the rear shifter linkage not correctly adjusted and keeping the linkage from letting the gears fully engage.

I had a similar issue and the transmission would jump out of gear when I would let off the throttle and coast. Mine was a problem with the front ball coupling. Adjusted it to fix the problem.

Kevin in Atlanta

Cool. Crossing my fingers is all it needs is an adjustment!

I'll look at the next time I have it on the lift.

Thanks!

GregBBRD

It should be obvious, by the feel and the travel, if 5th gear is fully engaging. Feel how the other gears engage. 5th should be the same.
I really hope that the linkage is the cause, as once this Borg Warner design no longer has the ability for the engaging teeth to "lock" together, you need some expensive pieces.

Kevin in Atlanta

Just to button this up I am pretty sure I know why the car was popping out of fifth gear.

This migrated to the front of my torque tube, past the coupler and got caught by my flywheel and took out my CPS.

I noticed that fifth gear no longer was an issue after that. and the random driveline shudder was gone.

Go figure.

I have had some 'interesting' cars go through my hands and this takes the cake.

mj1pate

Kevin;
What is “that”? In the picture?

Kevin in Atlanta

What's left of a TT bearing is my best guess.

I suspect a PO pulled the TT and transmission when they were 'fixing' the damage from the rear end collision.

I think they pulled the driveshaft out from the rear. The bearing fell off the driveshaft from the carrier.

And it's been in there for about 20 years.

It was hardly driven in those years. My ownership changed that. :-)