Shifter Acts like its locked out of 1sr and 2nd

[jagwired]

I tried searching but couldnt find myexact issue. The car hasnt been driven much in the past year since i bought my 350z but everytime it has been it has shifted just fine worked fine. Today when i went to pick it up from my buddys house i reversed out of the driveway with no issue went right into gear. get on the street and try to shift to 1st and it acts like theres something blocking the shifter from moving. Same goes for 2nd gear. all the other gears work just fine. Transmission and clutch are only 30k old. Gears will not go into 1st or second regardless of the car being on or not. No grinding, it simply will not budge towards either one of the gears. I installed a b&m short shifter about 2 years ago on the car but this is the first issue ive had. Could this just be a shifter issue or a trany issue?

 

[yokotabrat]

Check and make sure you cables are securely attached to the mount on the tranny and that there are no obstructions to the tranny shift lever when you are trying to get into 1st and 2nd.

After that, your best bet would probably be to try to isolate whether the problem is with the shifter/cables or the tranny. Easiest way to do that is disconnect the shift cables from the tranny and try to engage all the gears by hand by pulling on the shift lever on the tranny. Then, let us know what you find. Good luck! Hopefully it's something easy.

 

[femmeDSM]

^^^ Exactly the advice I would have given you.

I just recently dealt with a very similar problem (almost exactly your problem, except mine was "locked" out of 5th and reverse)...Turned out to be a bent shift bracket on the transmission. Still not sure how that happened, as mine had been shifting just fine prior to a 3-month stay in the garage, but I replaced the bracket and everything's now back to normal. Something to look into if the cable adjustment checks out okay

I seriously doubt this is a tranny issue. Something has got to be up with your linkage (cables, bracket, adjustment, etc)....Good luck

 

[jagwired]

**update**

ok guys I played with it a little bit yesterday and without doing anything 1st gear now works normally again but i still can not get it into second. Why would it just lock me out of one gear like that? there doesnt seem to be anything blocking the cables. Any ideas?

 

[femmeDSM]

Where in Dallas are you? I may be able to take a look at it for you.

 

[jagwired]

the car is in carrollton right now. it is driveable now since only 2nd gear is locked out so i could probably drive a short distance if needed.

 

[femmeDSM]

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