Car wont go in reverse

[jkimes]

My car shifts smoothly through all gears but it won't even try to go into reverse.

 

[oddrob]

Will it go into reverse with the car not running?

 

[karbon]

^ Yes you could start it in reverse, but have you tried pushing the clutch in and shifting it into first, then reverse? Works every time for me.

 

[jkimes]

It doesn't matter if the car is started or not. reverse is completely locked out. Any suggestions?

 

[jkimes]

Does this mean I need a new transmission, or is this a common problem?

 

[mrtalon40]

Mines is doing the same thing, just started last night, I dont know what it is, can anybody help with this?

 

[Black99gst]

well IIRC reverse doesnt have a syncro... so, flush the fluid and fill it with golden nice new stuff, see how that works... i know my 99 can be pickie, i have to have the clutch lightly at friction point to enter reverse... running redling gear oil, but changing it back to mobil-1 when i get time for it. the 97 has no such problems... its running BG syncromesh

 

[Bud92gsx]

Try going into 1st then reverse. How long have you owned the car? How much have you grinded reverse? Because someone (not saying you) must have grided the freakin teeth off of it.. If all of the gears are adjoined to the shaft it's probly better to get new trans. A new shaft would be too costly. If the gears are removable you could most likely get it rebuilt.. Question does reverse have a wind to it? Just wondering what kind of gear reverse is...If it has a wind to it. the gear is a spurr cut gear, not like your helical cut forward gears, which shouldn't have any kind of noise coming from it...

well IIRC reverse doesnt have a syncro... so, flush the fluid and fill it with golden nice new stuff, see how that works... i know my 99 can be pickie, i have to have the clutch lightly at friction point to enter reverse... running redling gear oil, but changing it back to mobil-1 when i get time for it. the 97 has no such problems... its running BG syncromesh

I second that Definatly flush...and see if that helps..It's the cheapest way to find out if you need R&R...Or not...

 

[mrtalon40]

Mines only grinded sometimes into 1st cause my clutch needed bleeding, I never ever had a problem into reverse, never grinded nothing!

 

[andy4g63]

Adjust the shifter cables, bleed the clutch and even if you didn't touch it before, try and loose reverse light switch on top of tranny. If does not go again, then your problem is internal/ most likely /.

 

[rodent]

Adjust the shifter cables, bleed the clutch and even if you didn't touch it before, try and loose reverse light switch on top of tranny. If does not go again, then your problem is internal/ most likely /.

+1
What he said. Sounds like maybe a broken shift fork. There's also tons of threads about this same problem so you might want to do a search and read related threads.

 

[dustkrock]

did anyone figure a solution to this my car just recently started doing this same problem with no reverse even if car isnt running...

 

[chadnum1]

Just a thought but on one of my build the weight on the shift linkage was hitting my j pipeand completely loccking out reverse and third.

 

[Revvolution22]

If it wont stay in reverse its most likely a bad shift fork. Easy/cheap to fix

If it was a bad synchro you would hear/feel a bad grinding noise but it would still stay in gear OR not get in the gear at all (Reverse would be completely blocked. if this is the case it would require dropping the tranny out to install the new synchro. the synchro is itself about $50 but if you don't want to drop the tranny and open it up yourself it can get pretty expensive.

 

[DeNoZZo]

I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago right after I reconnected my intake/intercooler piping. Turns out, one of the c-clamps was hitting on the shifter arm on transmission not giving it enough clearance to move into reverse.

 

[Lofty]

Not to scare anyone, but this could mean you need a new tranny.

Mine would pop out of reverse unless I rode the clutch, it had a tough time getting into it too.

New tranny did the trick, .

 

[jrohner]

Mine did what you were describing and it was a broken shift rail. You could pull the side cover off and check it out.

 

[ian_maham]

if all else fails... "flinstone it"

 

[dustkrock]

what bolts do i take out to take a peek at the shift rails and when the ?cover? is off what would i be looking ?at? ?for?