3rd gear missing after clutch fork replacement

[gonzalaga1]

Ok, so just got done replacing a broken clutch fork, with new one, new pivot ball, throwout bearing, etc. Got everything put back together, and the clutch bled and took it for a test drive only to find out that 3rd gear is missing.

Could this be a cable adjustment issue? (or an incorrectly installed cable?)

It shifts fine into every other gear including 4th, so I don't think it's a fork about to go. When I shift into where 3rd is supposed to be, the car behaves like it's still in neutral.

Any ideas?

 

[TSi Kid]

check your linkage
it could be that you didn't put it back on right

 

[BlackMount]

Agreed On the linkage. Check them, make sure they are adjusted correctly.

Also inspect your linkage bushings. if they are out of round or just too old they will cause shifting problems.

common ghetto replacement for the bushing is skateboard bearings since the real shifting bushings seem to be hard to get ahold of...at least they were last time I tried buying some.... its a tight squeeze to get them in there so it is best to take a Dremel tool or something similar and grind the inside out a little bit to increase the diameter, but be very careful not to do too much, and not to make it out of round.

It also could just be a internal tranny issue.

Had a friend not that long ago 2nd gear just was non existent.

 

[gonzalaga1]

Skateboard bearings already installed, along with a new mitsu set of shift cables. I have also removed all rubber bushings from the entire shift linkage system, so there is no slop at all.

Everything was working fine before the clutch fork snapped (with the exception of occasional hard shifting). I suspect it might be the 1-3-5 cable, as I had to rotate it about 45 degrees to get it to line up with the shift lever (did not remember having to do that the last time the trans was out).

 

[BlackMount]

Skateboard bearings already installed, along with a new mitsu set of shift cables. I have also removed all rubber bushings from the entire shift linkage system, so there is no slop at all.

Everything was working fine before the clutch fork snapped (with the exception of occasional hard shifting). I suspect it might be the 1-3-5 cable, as I had to rotate it about 45 degrees to get it to line up with the shift lever (did not remember having to do that the last time the trans was out).

look into these tthings

1: Wrong year shift linkages (90 is different from 91-94)
2: Shift Linkage Mount bracket backwords (It's happend plenty of times)
3: Bent Shifter on tranny. (the 2 little things that the linkages hook up to on the tranny side I cant think of there names)
4: Linkage cables swapped around

 

[gonzalaga1]

1. The linkage is of the type where there is an adjustment sleeve on the side-to-side cable, and none on the back-and-forth cable, which indicates a 91+ factory replacement.

2. When I removed the cables from the trans, I left the bracket intact, so there's really no way it could have gone on backwards.

3. Could be, the shifters get in the way plenty while trying to re-install. Not sure how I would check this...

4. Also could be, but would the trans shift into every other gear just fine if this were the case?

As a side note, the clutch grabs low, but each gear engages fine, and there is no grinding. I'm sure I have more bleeding to do, but that would probably affect all gears equally, not just third.

 

[gonzalaga1]

Ok, update time...

I can get the car into 3rd one of two ways:

1. shift it on the transmission using the gear selector when the car is off, start the car and engage the clutch - it starts to bog, so it's in gear

2. Shift from 2nd to 4th, then i can shift into 3rd. It will not shift into 3rd upshifting though, just downshifting.

Also (and this happened twice on my short drive), when downshifting into 3rd, the shifter would basically get stuck in the 3rd/4th shift path, I eventually found i could double clutch and get back to the rest of the gears. Now that I think about it I wondering if that was due to pumping the clutch, not just double clutching.

Could this entire issue be because there is still a ton of air in my new stainless full length line? It grabs low, and I noticed it grinds from first to second now (never did that before). Next step is obviously bleeding the clutch more...