Stuck in neutral?!?

[Terrh]

About .... maybe a week ago? I was playing around in the rain in my '92 TSI AWD... afterwords I stopped at a stoplight, went to put the car in 1st and it didn't quite go in all the way and the car wouldn't move, it wouldn't come out either.. I PUSHED really hard on the shifter to get it into 1st and then it worked fine again, shifted in and out of 1-2 easily.

A few days later I noticed some stiffness/chunkiness to the 1-2 shift but no grinds, this went away also.


Last night I'm driving home from work and I missed a turn... I pulled over onto the side of the road to turn around, I go to put it into 1st and it doesn't go in more than maybe 1/8 of the way, gear doesn't engage or grind, and it STICKS there.. the shifter won't move.

I pull it, smack it about etc to try and get it out (violence seems to be the trick with transmissions) and I can't get it to move, I thump it a few times and it goes into what "looks" like neutral but that's it, and the shifter is LOCKED there.. I had to bring it home on a flatbed.

I just had the tranny out like 3 weeks ago and installed a new (ACT 2600 sprung 6 puck) clutch... the car makes somewhere in the region of ~325whp. (just further info).


Anyways, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to drop the tranny but does anyone have any idea what has failed inside?

I've ripped apart a DSM transmission before (with a friend, on his car, swapped gearsets) - but I want to know what to look for in there before I do it.

Could this be a bent shift fork maybe?


Thanks for reading all of this and I appreciate your input!

 

[Dream On]

Why don't you check the slave and master cylinders first? Usually when replacing the clutch with an aftermarket one, it can wear out and old slave or master pretty fast. If they seem ok, then I would try adjusting your clutch pedal and checking freeplay.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed part of the post...Maybe should look into the shift cables instead.

 

[Terrh]

the transmission won't shift even "manually" bypassing the cables, it's stuck hardcore.

 

[Dream On]

I would guess something with the clutch then, hopefully the trans. isn't done for.

 

[siceclipse]

did you replace the release fork and pivot ball when doing the clutch?

 

[Terrh]

no, but the problem is not with the clutch, the clutch works fine.

The pivot ball and release fork are in good condition.

I will have the tranny out tomorrow and I'll tear into it to find out what's wrong.

 

[Terrh]

Well, I got the transmission apart but it left me with more questions than answers.

I'm hoping someone here can help me out!

First... The problem.

the shift actuator (not sure what exactly it's called but it's the part that slides over the syncro and onto the gear) has little teeth cut into it that mesh with the teeth in the syncro... well anyways, instead of teeth going into valleys, somehow they mashed onto the other teeth of the syncro and won't come off OR go into the gear, it's totaly uberstuck. Syncro looked worn out but I've never seen a totally trash one before so I'm not sure how bad. Not even sure how this can happen, but it did. And it's stuck really really good.

Second: The syncros.

Are weird in this transmission compared to the other (FWD) dsm transmission I saw... there's one on both sides of every gear, I'm assuming this is normal but I don't remember it in the FWD one... second, they only have teeth on about half the syncro...... about 1/6 has teeth, then 1/6 doesn't, then 1/6 does, etc..... so there's 3 "groups" of teeth on each syncro and then none in the middle. They aren't worn or filed off, though the tranny has been apart before. They were clearly machined that way when they were made.

I'm going to assume that's normal but I figured I'd ask here... so, is that normal?


Everything else inside looked nice except for the wear on the syncros. Fluid was clean and pretty but also only 2 weeks old.