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Towards the end of the last race this weekend I started missing shifts, but chalked it up to getting tired so slowed my shifts down and paid more attention and all was fine.... until... I came in and tried to engage reverse..... its like reverse does not exist, all other gears work fine, but cannot move the shift left of first at all....
Was hoping it was something in the shifter (CAE shifter) or cables,, but they all seem to be fine.... it feels like something in the "left/right" portion if the mechanism slipped, and every gears is shifted left a little and reverse is no longer there...
So experts, is there anything I can look at externally or do I need to ship the trans somewhere?
Get under the rear of the car and try and shift it into reverse manually on the transmission itself. Once you're under the car you can run it through the gears pretty easily. (all the way left and then forward for reverse). If you can't do get the gears engaged from the transmission itself, then there might be something wrong internally. If you can do it manually, then something is off with the cables or shifter itself (my guess). Might just be an alignment issue.
Get under the rear of the car and try and shift it into reverse manually on the transmission itself. Once you're under the car you can run it through the gears pretty easily. (all the way left and then forward for reverse). If you can't do get the gears engaged from the transmission itself, then there might be something wrong internally. If you can do it manually, then something is off with the cables or shifter itself (my guess). Might just be an alignment issue.
Good place to start. Also check over all the external linkage bits, including the plate at the end of the shift rod which is secured to the rod with an M8 nut.
Thanks for chiming in... pretty sure I've eliminated the shifter and cables as culprits.... ill disconnect everything and try to manually shift next weekend. But even under the car, I can't shift it with everything connected.
Was really curious if there was anything accessible inside the box with it in the car,, or is next step dropping engine and trans.
it's easy enough (i've replaced my entire plastic (!) OEM shift lever box with an aftermarket one, so i know of what i speak) to inspect the entire shifting mechanism by removing a few plastic items and screws in the console area. i would do that before even thinking about removing the engine. see youtube...
I initiitially checked all the adustment at the shifter and everything looked OK... As suggested I tried shifting it at the transmission and could not get it into reverse with everything connected... disconnected the cables at the shifter and was able to shift it at the trans with some effort ....
Soooo, it must be the shifter, right???
took the shifter apart and found some minor galling in the bushing but nothing major. Polished all the journals and bushings, coated everything in Boshield, and fresh grease. Reassembled and now its working perfectly.
My concern now is I didn't find a smoking gun... concerned that i "shook something loose" in the trans and the problem will come back, or worse, have something floating around in the box waiting to be catastrophic...
I initiitially checked all the adustment at the shifter and everything looked OK... As suggested I tried shifting it at the transmission and could not get it into reverse with everything connected... disconnected the cables at the shifter and was able to shift it at the trans with some effort ....
Soooo, it must be the shifter, right???
took the shifter apart and found some minor galling in the bushing but nothing major. Polished all the journals and bushings, coated everything in Boshield, and fresh grease. Reassembled and now its working perfectly.
My concern now is I didn't find a smoking gun... concerned that i "shook something loose" in the trans and the problem will come back, or worse, have something floating around in the box waiting to be catastrophic...
Jeff, I don't have a definite answer for you. It is definitely the case that shifting at the transmission takes more effort simply because you don't have the mechanical advantage that the cabin shifter provides. That said, the effort will be consistent across all gears, including reverse. They all have the same synchronizers and sleeves, more or less. So if reverse is a lot harder to shift into, there may be an issue inside the transmission.
My experience has been that set-up of the Numeric cables is pretty fussy. I could not get my own car into second after initial install and adjustment, despite having followed the instructions and common sense as best I could. A second pass at adjusting both cables and the problem went away. This isn't an issue with Numeric; it's just the nature of the way the two cables and the rest of the external mechanism are designed.
From your photo, the prep in your car looks excellent -- kudos!
Do you think the reverse cable somehow got twisted causing it to bind? When I first installed mine, I accidentally let it twist (1/4 turn) while tightening the locking nut on the reverse cable. It was damn near impossible to shift in/out of it.
Jeff, I don't have a definite answer for you. It is definitely the case that shifting at the transmission takes more effort simply because you don't have the mechanical advantage that the cabin shifter provides. That said, the effort will be consistent across all gears, including reverse. They all have the same synchronizers and sleeves, more or less. So if reverse is a lot harder to shift into, there may be an issue inside the transmission.
My experience has been that set-up of the Numeric cables is pretty fussy. I could not get my own car into second after initial install and adjustment, despite having followed the instructions and common sense as best I could. A second pass at adjusting both cables and the problem went away. This isn't an issue with Numeric; it's just the nature of the way the two cables and the rest of the external mechanism are designed.
From your photo, the prep in your car looks excellent -- kudos!
Thanks Kevin ...
I bought the shifter used from a defunct pro team 5 years ago. It came pre configured... I just dropped it in the car and its worked perfectly for all these years. Never really had to do any setup/adjustment.
I check it at least once a year to ensure everything stays in alignment and never had to adjust it,, its been bulletproof until now.
05-30-2022, 03:36 PM
Any transmission experts here?
