Gianni Barbados

I have an '82 5 speed Euro and have the lost the ability to shift. The trans is stuck in neutral and the shifter is completely stuck in the neutral position. I have inspected the front ball cup which looks old but intact, and the rear coupling, which has been replaced by the PO, and these are not the problem. When the shifter shaft is disconnected from the rear coupling it has full movement, so the problem is within the transmission itself. The shifter rod behind the coupling that extends into the transaxle is immovable.

All of this happened as I was shifting from 3rd to 4th (I think) just after merging on to the highway at about 100kph. Some points that may help diagnosis:

• The grub screw behind the rear coupling that screws into the shifter shaft on its way into the transaxle was loose when I got it up on the hoist. Initially when I pulled over I had lateral movement in the shifter but it would not move forward or back. After tightening this up the shifter hardly moves at all.
• I had tightened this screw a few months prior after having issues with the excessive play in the shifter but I may not have found the pilot hole in the shaft (I didn't realise there was one) and did not use loctite.
• There had been a little extra play in the shifter over the last month or so but I was still able to select all gears.
• Shifting in to 1st has been regularly difficult often requiring the clutch to be cycled again or consistent moderate pressure until it clicked through into gear. Pushing the gear lever all the way left then up (half into reverse) then back down again also usually worked.

Here are some ideas I had as to what might be wrong:

• The grub screw let go mid-shift leaving the internals of the gearbox in an awkward position and when I released the clutch this jammed the levers somehow
• The gearbox has jammed between gears of its own accord causing the grub screw, which was potentially already loose, to let go altogether
• The 1st / reverse gate spring which has been a problem broke and is now preventing movement of the mechanism.
• The Federal Police mistakenly identified me as a global terrorist and sent a drone to disable my transmission with a high energy laser. I haven't found any other evidence, like large unexplained holes in my car, to support this theory so I am not ruling it out just yet.

Any ideas or suggestions of how to properly diagnose the issue would be massively appreciated!

GlenL

Be more careful with what you tweet.

"Frozen in neutral" makes no sense to me. There are no adjustments from the outside of these transmissions. I think it'll be coming out.

Gianni Barbados

Yeah maybe bragging about the car being a weapon of mass destruction was not the best plan after all.

So, out with the trans to have a look. Good times ahead then.

mark kibort

so, between 3rd to 4th it got stuck in neutral? and you are sure its not stuck in 3rd, half way on the way to 4th?

Gianni Barbados

Yep. Wheels are spinning freely so no gears are engaged. I went to change gears, couldn't find 4th, let the clutch out and then depressed in again as I had been having trouble with 1st and that normally did the trick. Coasted to somewhere I could pull over and could not find any gears.

mark kibort

Its usually, more common to have the gear box stuck in a gear while the slector (slider) doesnt fullly let go of 3rd and starts to engage 4th, there for, stuck in 4th and no way you can get it out , unless you are able to get the top cover of and wiggle things around... its maladjustment of the sliders on the actuation rails. the reason you had to go through other gears to get your car into 1st, is a intermediate plate adjsutment problem, which doesnt let the driveline spin down, and exceeds the forces that the synchros can make to slow the driveline down to get it into 1st. (or reverse)

now, not going into any gear from "stuck in neutral" is odd... it could be the INT plate, but is this happening while you are sitting still, or driving. if its sitting still, then it still could be your INT plate adjustment.
quick test, is turn the engine off.. can you engage any gears at all? (that removes the INT problem as a possibility)
can you engage a gear by pushing or pulling the rear coupling into the transmission (or pulling)?
Ill go check to see if the sliders can be between gears , so the windows are off and there is no way to engage a gear. seems kind of odd, but it might be possible.

either way, the gear box needs to come out. might only need minor adjustments to work again.
(or you can cut a big hole in your center console, but is probably easier to just drop the transmission and suspension as a unit. torque tube attached

mark kibort

check 5th... if you spun a gear (broken teeth), it would go in to gear, but wouldnt go anywhere, but in 5th gear.. it would be the only gear with drive power.

if it is truly in neutral and you cant engage a gear, a slider might have become loose and is out of adjustment.

so no grinding or any noises coming out of the transmission??
if a slider was off, im wondering if you can move anything without opening the transmission?
maybe through the detent hole, you could lever the shifter actuator rail, forward or back with a thin screwdriver. is the 1st and R spring lockout still working?... is the lever stilll slightly preloaded to the 2nd 3rd position?

Gianni Barbados

Thanks for your thoughts so far! I cannot engage any gear at all with the engine running or not, in fact I cannot move the gear stick at all. It is stuck almost in the middle in it's normal neutral position. Have also tried pushing and pulling the rear coupling and no movement. Have also tried applying moderate leverage and cannot get the thing to move at all.

I have not tried to lever it through the detent hole, mostly because I don't know what that is, but I will look it up and have a crack before dropping the trans.

There were no grinding or unusual noises at the time or pushing the car around since.

Thanks again for your help, any ideas are awesome at this stage. Cheers

mark kibort

sorry you are going through this. it sounds like the transmission is jammed and it just happens to be in neutral. so, its not that it can move around, but not engage a gear, its not moving around at all.
something is definitely jammed . i dont know how that can happen.

Gianni Barbados

I have so far dropped the trans, discovered the problem, and started a new thread which will hopefully make it easier on any one with similar issues:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...l#post13028244

With any luck someone will have an idea as to why the transmission jammed in the first place. If not, I will post updates on the new thread as the solution becomes clearer

mark kibort

As "some " had mentioned.... this is impossible , but i found it possible as well.
The question is what is really out of adjustment. sounds like it might be similar to the problem i had that caused me greif for 2 years of racing. took 5 min to fix by adjusting the slider selectors to the their proper position. Not only did it not get jammed up on occasion , but it solved the "popping out of 2nd gear" issue too.
Ill go to the pics on the other thread and see what you found.