HELP!! 3rd/4th gear busted...

[adidalax]

I have a 97 GST and need a little bit of guidance about my tranny. I was driving home the other night and my tranny just broke on me. Its almost like my 3/4 gears just dropped out of my tranny. I can put it in 3rd w/ the clutch out and in and it just goes in like butter, almost like theres nothing at all there. When I let the clutch out when it seems to be in neutral, the car boggs a little, so I know its in a gear, but Im not sure which one (maybe 3rd?). I cant get it into 4th at all, and it is hard to move the shifter otherwise. 1st, 2nd, 5th, and R work (that is when I can get the thing to shift into them). Could this be my shifter fork? Or maybe the linkages? My dad thinks it could just be the linkage, but since I can get it into 1,2, and 5 Im kinda thinking its not. I dont know too much about manual trannys, so I suppose I'll check the linkages first. If its not the linkage, and I have to take the tranny apart, does anyone know where I can find a How-to for a tranny rebuild? All I have is a Chiltons, and they suck ass.

Has anyone else had a problem similar to this? Any help / ideas would be appreciated.

 

[eclipse90gsxt]

If its stuck in a gear its probaby your 3/4 shifter fork broke. Requires to rip it open and change it. Get the steel evo shift forks, while your at it.

 

[adidalax]

Do you know where I can get a howto sorta thing on rebuilding the tranny? Chiltons sux...

 

[eclipse90gsxt]

I believe the www.vfaq.com has a shift fork change guide, it can be kinda tricky if you have never opened a tranny ever.

Conecelli(sp?) Mitsubishi has steel shift forks, that are a lot better than the stock alum ones.

 

[adidalax]

Yeah, I was checking around on VFAQ today, and there is a 2G 5spd rebuild FAQ on there, but it is for a GSX. Are the trannys the same internally?

Also, would a 1G tranny bolt up to my 2G? or are they different transmissions all together? If so, are they better (like, stronger, that is) ?

 

[adidalax]

Okay, so someone brought it to my attention that I never posted the outcome of this whole thing back in the day, so here it goes. Luckily, since then, I've rebuilt a few DSM trannies myself. Basically, there are 2 different pieces that tend to break:

There are 3 shift rails which go up through the trans. 1/2, 3/4, and 5/R. On one end of these, there's this piece that is pushed on by the rod that is connected to the shift linkages....

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Notice the cast iron piece at the end of the far shift rail (that's the 1/2 rail). This piece is what broke on mine. There's a rod connected to your shift linkages on the outside which has a piece on it that rides on the inside of these little guys & pushes them up or down to select the gear. The other is the physical shift fork itself (The two C-shaped suckers at the top of the rails). The middle one is the 3/4 fork, far one is 1/2.

Both of these are held onto the shift rails by pins and are fairly easy to replace once you have it apart.

So, really what you need is to pull out & open up the trans and fix what's broken. Of course, this is the hard part

Wes - thanks for the PM. Hope this helps. What exactly are your symptoms? If it was the same symptoms as me, its probably either. Breaking a fork can tend to have a little more impact on the transmission though, depending on where the break is, so if you hear something coming from the trans now, it could very well be a fork.

 

[wdjordan]

My problems began a while back when I was having to double clutch to get into 2nd-4th so I tried the bearing end linkage swap. It was like night and day till I really got into it the next day and when shoving into 3rd... nothing.... 4th.. nothing. I could only get it into 2nd. So coasting and reving 2nd got me home and it's been stuck ever since. It seems jamed in gear and won't pull in 1st or reverse- only dies. I talked to Jon at TRE transmissons today and have decided to ship it off to them for rebuilding and LSD upgrade. Thanks for your posts and if I hadn't just moved here, I'd prob give fixing it myself a shot.