1G Help with trans?

[ryan99639]

I just took the transmission out of my newly purchased FWD TSi and I'm wondering what to check on it to see if I need to rebuild anything.

My main concern is where the shift cables connect. Horizontally I can shift by hand with no problems, but moving vertically up and down is very hard and doesn't move easily. (It causes the stick shift inside of the car to have a lot of friction and not move freely.)

If this makes any sense I'm trying my best to explain, any comments? I'm including pics. Thanks

Picture number three shows the part that is having difficulty moving in and out of the transmission when I push down and pull up

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[jcastello214]

Best way to know if the transmission was having problems is to see how it shifts while running and paying attention to noises from the gearbox or taking the case apart and looking at the components inside the transmission. These manuals are fairly easy to take apart and there's plenty of info on this topic on google. I'm better with autos and have only taken one manual apart from these cars so I don't remember exactly every detail involved but if you want I can dig it up for you.

 

[ryan99639]

i found a place close by to me that will do an inspection for free for me so I'm going to just drop it off and see what they say. if i do rebuild it for whatever reason i might need some info thanks

 

[ThunderChild]

Be careful with "free inspections", last time I had one done, they disassembled my sisters trans, told me it'd be 3500 to rebuild. I laughed, told them no and I'd like the trans back with the car asap. They refused to reassemble the trans and tried to get me to pay 300 for the inspection, plus lost half the bolts and pieces. Got the trans remains back in a box and had to haul the car off on a trailer.

Yours is just the trans, but last thing you want is someone to take it apart, expecting to sell you a rebuild, then they lose half the parts and don't want to give you your stuff back.

 

[Bo0sTeD 4G63]

Be careful with "free inspections", last time I had one done, they disassembled my sisters trans, told me it'd be 3500 to rebuild. I laughed, told them no and I'd like the trans back with the car asap. They refused to reassemble the trans and tried to get me to pay 300 for the inspection, plus lost half the bolts and pieces. Got the trans remains back in a box and had to haul the car off on a trailer.

Yours is just the trans, but last thing you want is someone to take it apart, expecting to sell you a rebuild, then they lose half the parts and don't want to give you your stuff back.

I agree with you I had something like this happen to me also they lost some parts and didn't want to put it back together unless I paid them. I had to take back my transmission in pieces and ended up going to another transmission shop to get it put back together. Luckily they didn't charge me extra for the missing pieces but they did mention it to me.

 

[ryan99639]

geez now I'm worried about getting it checked out i would have thrown a fit

 

[pauleyman]

The lever you are moving in the pic, take it off and see that it moves freely. The actual shift lever you can also just push up and down by hand. There is nothing in the way inside the transmission. Its just a shaft with a spring on it. The shift dog attached to the shaft just slips between the rail ends while in nuetral. The lever that bolts to the trans could be your problem. Looks rusty, dirty and gummed up. Clean and lube it.

 

[d1prospect]

Why'd they hackoff the counter weight?

 

[ryan99639]

what counterweight ?

 

[Kuzi]

On the transmission, the little levers are supposed to have a large counterweight on it. Yours has been cut off.

 

[luv2rallye]

Do what Pauleyman says.

It called the select lever. Probably gummed up rusted onto it's shaft. Also check the select lever shoe.
[A source of side to side shifter play is the select lever shoe (MD712919) which rides in the ring of the control shaft (the shift levers on the outside of the tranny where the shifter cables attach to). It wears down causing excessive shifter play.

To give you something to compare your old one to, a new one is 0.468" thick (the ring slot is 0.475").]
Here's pics.

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[Tony818]

Since you already have the tranny out i would recomend opening it up and replacing the intermidiate shaft bearing. Those wear out pretty fast and make going into gear a pain because it wont hook up. I did that to mines and got the bearing for 25$ from jacks transmission. Also put some good quality fluid like redline

 

[ryan99639]

you guys were right they had my trans for like two weeks then decided to tell me they wanted over $200 just to look at the control shaft. i picked the trans up and I'm back at square one again ill figure it out myself for that price how would you recomend cleaning the control shaft to free up the heavy sticking ?

 

[luv2rallye]

Is this is the place "close by to me that will do an inspection for free"?

With the shift cables disconnected from the tranny, do you have the up/down control shaft sticking in all gear pairs or just one when you move it up/down by hand?

And does it feel more like it's sticking or just won't go all the way into a gear pair slot?

Also does it feel like there is excess play moving it in/out along with the sticking?

Or maybe rather than calling it sticking it just won't go in until it is "just right"?

 

[ryan99639]

Yes this was the place that told me they would look at it "for free" I shoulda known better.

No matter what way I put the selector the control shaft is very hard to move up and down. I have to use two hands to push it down or up and it moves the whole trans if I'm not careful. It doesn't seem right, I feel like it should move freely like the selector lever does.

And to answer your question it doesn't seem like there is any extra play, just very very hard to move control shaft. I'm considering taking it apart to inspect it myself, but I don't have much experience with this trans I'm new to DSMs.

 

[ThunderChild]

As much as it pains me, I told you so. But at least you have yours back.

Youll prolly have to disassemble it completely to see what's causing it to stick or bind. My thought is its rusty or something is galled inside.

 

[pauleyman]

Why dont you show us a video or something. Are you even sure this is a real problem?

 

[ryan99639]

I'm pretty sure it's a real problem. I'm not sure how to upload a video. I'll try to do it today so you guys can see what's going on.

And no I'm not completely sure this is a real problem but I noticed it and I would like to take care of it if it is a problem before I put the trans back in the car.

I did notice the stick inside the car was hard to move before I took the trans out.

 

[JG63]

Hello,

I noticed this thread was never resolved. I am having this same issue:

I just swapped my Galant GSX 5 Speed transmission to a '91 "Turbo" Transmission, Transfer Case, Differential and 4 Bolt rear !!!!

Before I put the transmission in I noticed that the UP/DOWN on the Select Lever is hard to move up and down. I installed the transmission, hooked up the cables and the Shifter in the car is hard to move Side to Side. Today I am going to clean and grease up the shaft I figure this should fix the issue.

I didn't have any trouble with the Previous shifter, Selector Shaft or cables. The Cables are actually from the '91 donor car.

Searching for this issue I haven't found many answers. Could be using the wrong terminology. It may just be the obvious answer to clean and grease it. Also, I was thinking maybe when I run the car and use the transmission, the fluid will reach the shaft and help with movement.

So just double checking has anyone had this issue?

 

[luv2rallye]

See post 11 and 7. Yes, clean up the ring area of the control shaft where the Select Lever Shoe rides and make sure that shoe isn't worn down. It's probably all gummed up, rusted, dirty.

 

[steve]

Did you swap the shifter inside too? IIRC that needs to be from a 91+ car also.

 

[JG63]

Ok cleaning it up and Lubing.

I will check with the Previous owner about the 90 to 91+ shifter base. I know he said he swapped the cables, not sure the base. And if I IIRC, I think the base affects 1st, 3rd, 5th gear. Side to side might be the same.

 

[JG63]

So that helped. Unbolting the arm also helped. I think the trans sat for awhile.

Now I just need to match all of the 91+ parts. The shifter and the trans cable bracket.